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Friends Like Us


A Podcast featuring women of color with different views on hot topics. 

Jan 4, 2023

Favorite Episode of 2022! Lessons from a Mutha, Auntie, and Bestie with Bevy Smith! Bevy Smith, Joyelle Johnson, and Zainab Johnson visit Friends Like Us and discuss how it gets greater later and other Bevelations with host Marina Franklin!  

Bevy Smith Quintessential Harlem girl, life-long New Yorker and Gracie Award Winner Bevy Smith is the host of Sirius XM’s “Bevelations” on Radio Andy.  Once a wildly successful luxury fashion publishing exec, Bevy shifted her professional goals over a decade ago to pursue a life in front of the camera. A pop culture aficionado and fashion expert, Bevy served as moderator of Bravo TV’s revolutionary “Fashion Queens," and was a former co-host on the nationally syndicated “Page Six TV.”  Bevy continues to be part of “The Wendy Williams Show’s Style Squad.” Her memoir Bevelations: Lessons from a Mutha, Auntie, Bestie is available where books are sold.

Joyelle Nicole Johnson is a Brooklyn-based stand-up comedian, writer, and actress. She made her network TV debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers and most recently performed as the warm-up act for Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act. She wrote for the final season of Broad City, and has performed on Comedy Central’s digital series Comics to Watch, Wyatt Cenac’s Night Train for Seeso, Laff Tracks for TruTV as well as being a panelist for Refinery 29/Facebook Watch’s After After Party and MTV News. And while transitioning to the headliner that she is today she regularly features for Hannibal Buress and has opened for Dave Chappelle, Maria Bamford & Russell Peters. She also combines her dream of comedy and activism by touring with Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead’s Lady Parts Justice League. Her comedy special Love Joy on Peacock has been nominated for the Critic’s Choice Award Best Comedy Special.

Zainab Johnson , a stand-up comedian, actress, and writer is quickly being propelled as one of the most unique and engaging performers on stage and screen. In 2019, Zainab was named one of Variety’s Top 10 Comics To Watch. Recently, she was one of the hosts for Netflix's new show "100 Humans". You can also catch her as Aleesha on the Amazon Prime comedy series "Upload". Zainab made her first late night stand up appearance on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, and has also had appearances on HBO’s All Def Comedy (2017), NBC’s Last Comic Standing (2014), Arsenio (2014), BET’s Comic View (2014), AXSTV’s Gotham Comedy Live! She also just recently starred in a new web series titled Avant-Guardians. Zainab is a regular at the Improv Comedy Club in LA and the Comedy Cellar in NY, and has performed in the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival as one of the 2014 New Faces of Comedy and returned numerous times since. 

Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf