Jessica Renee Williams was born on July 31, 1989, in Los Angeles County, California. She attended Nathaniel Narbonne High School, where she studied drama, before going on to California State University, Long Beach.

Williams began performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles while still a student, which led to her breakout role in 2012 as the youngest-ever correspondent on Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show, joining at age 22 under Jon Stewart and later working with Trevor Noah until leaving in 2016.

In 2015–2016, she and fellow comedian Phoebe Robinson launched 2 Dope Queens, a comedy podcast produced by WNYC Studios that later became a series of HBO specials (2018–2019), tackling race, gender, and sexuality through stand-up and storytelling. The show is currently available on Sky Comedy in the UK.

Since then, Williams has built a substantial acting career, including Booksmart, the Fantastic Beasts film series as Lally Hicks, and a main role as Dr. Gaby Evans in Apple TV+’s Shrinking since 2023, which earned her Emmy nominations in 2023 and 2025.

She currently resides between Brooklyn, New York, and Los Angeles, California.