Wanda Sykes Set For WGA East’s Herb Sargent Award

The WGA East has penciled in Emmy winner Wanda Sykes for its 2024 Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence. She’ll be presented with the honor during the East Coast presentation of the strike-delayed Writers Guild Awards on April 14 at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.

Sykes, a 17-time Emmy nominee who co-created, writes for and stars on Netflix’s The Upshaws, has nearly 90 films and credits stretching from The Chris Rock Show and The Drew Carey Show and her Wanda at Large to The New Adventures of Old Christine, Black-ish and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Her most recent work includes The Other Two and History of the World: Part II, also writing for the latter.

Her writing credits also include Wanda at Large, The Wanda Sykes Show, Premium Blend, several stand-up specials and the 2002 Oscars.

“Wanda Sykes is a master storyteller with a heart of gold,” Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, President of WGA East, said in a statement. “Her singular voice as a writer, performer, producer and mentor has given us decades worth of laughter and joy. Even while wearing all of these hats, Wanda has prioritized scouting and mentoring the next generation of comedy writers. She’s a true champion of diversity, and also of labor — as anyone who saw her leading the picket lines in New York City last summer would attest.”

Pre WGAE, the Sargent Award is awarded to a writer who embodies the spirit, commitment and comic genius of its namesake — a six-time Emmy winner for Saturday Night Live and other programs — as well as his dedication to mentoring new writers.

In a flipping of the script, the WGA said in November that its 2024 Writers Guild Awards, which usually are presented just before the Oscars, would be pushed until April 14 because of the writers strike. Nominations were revealed February 21 for the dual ceremonies in Los Angeles and Manhattan.