Phoebe Robinson was born on September 28, 1984, in Bedford Heights, Ohio, and grew up there and in nearby Solon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Her brother, Phil Robinson, is a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.

She attended Gilmour Academy for high school before studying screenwriting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After working an office job and doing freelance writing, she moved into stand-up comedy in her twenties and became a fixture of the New York comedy scene.

Robinson rose to wider fame in 2016 when she and Jessica Williams launched 2 Dope Queens, a WNYC Studios podcast (later adapted into HBO specials in 2018 and 2019) spotlighting comedians of color and LGBT comedians. The show is currently available on Sky Comedy in the UK.

She went on to host other podcasts, including Sooo Many White Guys and Black Frasier, and created, wrote, and starred in Freeform’s Everything’s Trash (2022) as well as Comedy Central’s Doing the Most with Phoebe Robinson (2021).

She is also a New York Times bestselling author of essay collections including You Can’t Touch My Hair and Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay, and founded the publishing imprint Tiny Reparations Books. She is based in New York City.