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Friends Like Us


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

Feb 15, 2023

Yamaneika Saunders and Kyle Grooms visit Friends to talk about Florida's problem with everything but Ron Desantis, Healthy Vegan eating and more with host Marina Franklin!

Yamaneika Saunders is stand-up comedian, writer, and actor known for her work as a panelist on "The Meredith Vierira Show" and lead roles on Oxygen’s "Funny Girls" and Comedy Central’s "In Security." Yam has appeared on HBO’s "Crashing," truTV’s "Comedy Knockout" and "Laff Mobb's Laff Tracks," Comedy Central’s "Broad City," The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore," and "This is Not Happening." Yam has also been featured on TV Land’s "The Jim Gaffigan Show," A&E’s "Black and White," NBC’s "Last Comic Standing," and as a recurring correspondent on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." Yamaneika has performed stand-up at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, "The Half Hour" on Comedy Central, and filmed a half-hour special as part of the comedy showcase "The Degenerates" for Netflix. She currently stars on Comedy Central’s "This Week at the Comedy Cellar," VH1’s "Talk 30 to Me," Bravo’s "Kandi Koated Nights," and most recently as a writer and performer in the Jeff Ross Netflix original series "Historical Rants," which premiered in May. You can listen to her weekly on her hit podcast Rantin and Ravin. Yamaneika also voices the therapist character on "Flatbush Misdemeanors" and was cast in Amy Schumer’s "Life with Bet." Saunders is currently a staff writer for "That Damn Michael Che."

Kyle Grooms is a veteran comedian with multiple appearances on VH1, NBC, BET, CBS, HBO,  the famed Chappelle Show,  the film, ”I Feel Pretty” with Amy Schumer, and his own, half-hour special on Comedy Central. In 2019, Kyle suffered a seizure, which led to emergency brain surgery. However, he did not let that detour him. In 2020 he released a standup special that documented his ordeal. “Kyle Grooms: Brain Humor” is receiving stellar reviews Amazon Prime.  His first album, “The Legend of the Jersey Devil,” was named one of iTunes “Top 100 Comedy albums of 2009”. He was also voted “Best Comedian of 2018” by Miami News-Times. Kyle delivers an honest and intelligent view of the world while giving an intimate look into his own life experiences growing up in the American melting pot. With his many accomplishments as Comedian, Actor, and writer, he continues to perform at some of the top comedy clubs in the world including, Gotham, The Comedy Cellar, the Comic strip, and Carolineʼs in New York. Laugh Factory, Improv, Comedy Store, Los Angeles. Borgata Casino, Atlantic City. The Stand, Scotland. Kung Fu Komedy, China. Comedy Masala, Singapore and Pakistan. 

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