Franchesca Ramsey

Franchesca Leigh Ramsey (born November 29, 1983), also known as Chescaleigh, is an American comedian, activist, television and YouTube personality, and actress, who has appeared on MTV and MSNBC. She gained media fame quickly after her YouTube commentary on racial issues went viral, and she built a career as a writer, producer, and performer based on her unintended activism, being thrust into a role as an advisor or coach on social issues. Ramsey's YouTube channel contains topical and socially conscious comedy sketches and song parodies among other videos. Her chescalocs channel is about natural hair. In 2015, Ramsey became the host of the MTV News web series Decoded where she discusses racism and cultural issues. Several of Ramsey's videos have appeared on MTV, The Huffington Post, CollegeHumor, Jezebel, and Glamour. In 2017, the show won a Webby Award in the Public Service and Activism category.

Online harassment Ramsey has been a target of online harassment, trolling and doxing. According to writer Ijeoma Oluo, Ramsey is one of a group of African-American women who "face regular, coordinated campaigns of abuse aimed at forcing them off of the internet".

After winning the People/YouTube Red Carpet Reporter contest in 2008, Ramsey became the target of racist harassment, beginning with a comment thread stalker posting racial epithets. That person started sending harassing emails to Ramsey's work email address, and then making malware attacks on her employer's email server. The stalker then began posting personal details meant to imply that he was physically tracking and watching her.

Ramsey was one of five YouTubers to receive a grant from John Green's Creators for Change project, to "amplify the voices of people who are not traditionally heard". Green's goal is to help those in a position to speak out and build online communities opposed to hate speech, xenophobia and harassment. She said that she has not hesitated to speak on issues, but has learned to avoid mention of YouTubers by name, speaking in "generalities" instead, knowing that angering a fan base will bring "100,000 twitter messages from children" calling her racial epithets or targeting her husband, or harassing her at work.

Ramsey has also appeared in television series such as Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, Broad City, and Superstore.

In April 2017, Comedy Central announced that they were developing a late-night comedy pilot to star and be executive produced by Ramsey.

Podcast Ramsey hosted a podcast with her husband Patrick called Last Name Basis where the couple talked about their lives and the world around them. The podcast began in January 2015 and ended as a result of their divorce in March 2019 with a total of 112 episodes.

Book Ramsey's 2018 book Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist is a collection of essays that describes her unintended role as an activist on racism and online harassment after the sudden media attention to her YouTube commentary.

Works

Filmography

Music videos Year Title Artist(s) Role 2018 "Girls Like You" Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B Herself