Duke’s comedic style is unapologetically scathing -- whether she is roasting herself, her husband, or the diet industrial complex. As a feminist comic, Duke’s jokes are socially relevant, trying first and foremost to make people laugh, and then to make people think a little bit more critically about the world around them. In a cesspool of straight, white male comedians who genuinely think apolitical humor is the only form of “pure” comedy, Duke is incredibly refreshing - and gloriously funny. - Bust Magazine

Emily Duke is a writer, stand-up comedian, fat activist and born and raised, holier-than-thou New Yorker. A queer woman married to a straight white southern dude, Emily’s spaghetti brain has been in therapy since the tender age of five. 

Being raised by a single mother who spent ninety hours a week on Wall Street (and subsequently, a slew of fabulous babysitters), she writes about the expectations placed on women. She loves carbohydrates and feels cosmically connected to Bette Midler.

In the 2023-2024 season, her original pilot Dean’s List is a quarterfinalist in the FinalDraft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, the Script Lab Free Screenplay Contest, the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Script Competition, the Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition, and a Second Round selection in Launchpad’s Pilot Competition. Her Yellowjackets spec script is a Second Round selection for the Austin Film Festival, and her feature, a farce inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, is a Quarterfinalist in the ScreenCraft True Story & Public Domain Competition.

In previous years, her original pilot Middle Gentry was in the top 25 of Launchpad’s Pilot Competition and selected as a Quarterfinalist in both the Stage 32 TV Comedy Screenwriting Contest and the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Script Competition. Her comedy feature Friends and Lovers was a Quarterfinalist in the Stage 32 Romantic Comedy Screenwriting Contest, and she was selected as a participant for the 2022 Orchard Project Episodic Lab.

Emily has consulted with the development team at Embassy Row (Sony) on comedy projects for Disney+, Amazon, and NBCU, including as a writer for an original pilot presentation for Peacock. She also wrote for a VR Variety Show pilot for Double Eye Productions, and was an official script reader for the Austin Film Festival in both TV and Feature categories. Her satirical writing has been published by Points in Case, Slackjaw and others. She also co-created, co-writes and costars in the WebFest selection Garbage People with Season Two premiering on Bust, as well as Cooking with Messy Bitches produced by Rizzle Studios.

Emily’s personal essay regarding obesity and vaccine eligibility was one of the “most read” in Slate, and she has been featured in The NYTimes, NewNowNext and Bust Magazine. She has appeared on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith and Game Breakers on Amazon Prime. She writes and hosts the podcast Melodramatic Teen Universe with Embassy Row (Sony), and has been a featured guest on podcasts produced by ForeverDog, WhoHaha, MaximumFun and others. She is also a nationally touring stand-up comic, seen at Comedy Cellar,  NY Comedy Club, The Stand, Caroline’s, Gotham Comedy Club, The Comedy Store, Ice House, Flappers and UCB.

Emily holds a BA in Religion from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Writing for Screen & Television from USC School of Cinematic Arts. She is passionate about queer representation and fat acceptance.