Actress and comedian Aidy Bryant will host the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. This 2024 Spirit Awards will mark the 39th edition of the annual awards show honoring the best of independent cinema and television, while also celebrating the 30th anniversary of Film Independent’s influential Artist Development program.
The awards nominees will be announced on December 5th at 7 a.m. PST. Winners will be revealed at the awards show on February 25th in Santa Monica and will be streamed live on the IMDb and Film Independent’s YouTube channels, and across other social platforms, beginning at 2 p.m. PST.
“We’re thrilled to have the incandescently talented Aidy Bryant joining us to host the 39th annual Spirit Awards” said Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent. “Through her humor, skill and seemingly endless supply of energy she has been entertaining audiences for years, and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for us as we celebrate independent artists on February 25th.”
An acclaimed comedian and actress, Bryant got her start as a writer and performer with The Second City in Chicago before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2012, where she starred for 10 seasons. During her time on SNL, Bryant was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. While still performing on the show, Bryant split her time to star in, co-create and showrun the Hulu series Shrill for three seasons. She was nominated for her third Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in Shrill, this one for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Bryant recently signed an overall deal with Universal Television, where she is currently in development on multiple projects including her new television vehicle, Lonely Hearts Club, which Ari Aster is producing for Peacock. Bryant also currently lends her voice as the lead character, “Emmy the Lovebug,” in Netflix’s animated series, Human Resources.
Past Spirit Awards hosts have included Hasan Minhaj, Megan Mullaly and Nick Offerman, Melissa Villaseรฑor, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, Kate McKinnon and Kumail Nanjiani, Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell, Patton Oswalt, Andy Samberg, Rainn Wilson, Joel McHale, Sarah Silverman, Samuel L. Jackson, Queen Latifah and John Waters.
The Spirit Awards is the nonprofit arts organization’s primary fundraiser for its year-round slate of programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity and inclusion across the film industry. The upcoming show will mark Film Independent’s second collaboration with Emmy Award-winning producer Eddie Delbridge of Live Digital Entertainment. Shawn Davis is returning for his 22nd year with the Spirit Awards, as executive producer. Also returning are producers Danielle Federico and Andrew Schaff.
A$AP Rocky’s friend testifies that the rapper fired a prop gun, not a real firearm, in 2021 shooting
A$AP Rocky's longtime friend and collaborator testified at his Los Angeles trial Friday that the hip-hop star fired a starter pistol that he carried as a prop during a scuffle with a former friend on a Hollywood street in 2021.
The testimony from the man who goes by A$AP Twelvyy is essential to Rocky's defense against two felony charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and a potential sentence of up to 24 years in prison with a conviction.
"He walked around with a prop, like a starter pistol," Twelvyy said, looking at the jury. "I seen it on several occasions."
And his testimony suggested the accuser, their mutual friend who goes by A$AP Relli, knew the pistol wasn't real when Rocky first pulled it out.
"He told him to shoot that fake-ass gun," Twelvyy said under questioning from the defense.
All three men and a fourth who was at the scene, A$AP Illz, were members of the A$AP Mob, a crew of musicians and other creators that formed at a New York high school nearly 20 years ago.
But just one of them, Rocky, became a major mainstream success starting in the early 2010s with a pair of No. 1 albums. He has since been nominated for three Grammys, but has become known as much for his dealings in fashion as his music, and for his relationship with singing superstar Rihanna, with whom he has two toddler sons.
She was not in court Friday. She made an appearance in the audience Thursday afternoon after an absence of several days.
Twelvyy, a rapper whose legal name is Jamel Phillips, has acted as an on-stage hype man for Rocky and has appeared in his music videos. He testified that Rocky had reason to fear for his life in the 2021 fight, since both of them were stabbed in a brawl at a New York club in... Read More