By MIA MCCARTHY Politico
Roy Wood Jr., the stand-up comedian known for his work on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” will be the featured entertainer at the 2023 annual White House Correspondents’ dinner, the Correspondents’ Association announced on Thursday.
“It will be a great night that will go down in the history books, or not, depending on which state you live in,” Wood said in the announcement.
The dinner, set for April 29, is typically attended by numerous Washington VIPs, including the president and first lady. The annual event, attended for decades by presidents from both parties, became a political flash point during the Trump administration when then-President Donald Trump refused to attend the event amid his frequent tirades against the Washington press corps. The dinner was canceled amid the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021 but returned last year with President Joe Biden in attendance.
Wood, who studied journalism at Florida A&M University in 1998 before shifting to stand-up comedy, is the son of a pioneer radio and television journalist. Roy Wood Sr. covered topics like the Civil Rights movement and the South African Soweto race riots — work that helped him earn a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
“It’s an honor to be a part of a long-running tradition of celebrating those members of the media, who work so hard to uncover the truth, and hold our government accountable,” Wood said in a press release.
