The Circle season 7: Meet the host

Michelle Buteau, the host of The Circle, is coming back for season 7 on September 11, 2024 on Netflix. She provides voiceover commentary for the show and explains contestants' activities through her witty one-liners and humor. She also appeared as herself in the second season of The Circle.

Michelle, over her career, has added a long list of feats to her resume. She is a stand-up comic and has appeared in multiple movies and TV shows.

Michelle Buteau is a 47-year-old American stand-up comedian from New Jersey, United States. She completed her graduation from Florida International University and later completed a course from the American Comedy Institute before starting her stand-up career. The Circle host is happily married to Gijs van der Most, and the pair share a son, Otis, and a daughter, Hazel.

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The Circle host Michelle Buteau's career

Before Michelle started her career as a standup comedian she was considering being a TV reporter. She ended up getting the role of video footage editor for WNBC.

In an interview with Variety on September 29, 2020, Michelle explained the reason why she left her video footage editor job. She and her team were told to edit countless hours of 9/11 footage, that they were working 16-hour shifts "to edit a real-life horror movie". Michelle ventured into comedy instead of accepting the free therapy offered by her job.

Michelle started her journey as a standup on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. in 2005. By 2007 she was in the finals of the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

After competing in the comedy shows she started to perform her acts in various shows such as Late Late Show, Last Comic Standing, and Lopez Tonight. She also used to perform at different comedy festivals in America. In 2020, she got to release her one-hour stand-up special Welcome to Buteauopia on Netflix.

Michelle's movie career includes playing the roles of Martina in Isn’t It Romantic, Cammy in Almost Love, Cynthia in Someone Great, Veronica in Always Be My Maybe, and Veronica Ramirez in Work It.

Michelle has also appeared in multiple TV shows. She got to star in the sitcom Whitney in 2011 and later got to work on shows like Key and Peele, China, IL, and Enlisted. In 2019, she appeared in First Wives Club and Netflix’s miniseries Tales of the City and is currently the host of Netflix's reality series The Circle.

The Circle host has also published a memoir called Survival of the Thickest in 2020. While talking in an interview with NPR on January 22, 2021, she talked about how difficult it was for her to find time to write her memoir.

"I thought 'I'm gonna bring the twins home and write while they're sleeping.' WHAT?! And then I was like, 'I'll take the twins to Majorca with a nanny and then I'll write in the cool, Mediterranean breeze while eating a paella in between.' WHAT?! Cut to me on the subway with one finger trying to type... girl it was a mess," she said.

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Michelle Buteau on The Circle

Michelle Buteau was skeptical of Netflix's The Circle when she was first approached for her role. In the same interview with NPR, she said that she didn't like the idea of a show where people can catfish each other.

Michelle told People on January 1, 2020, that the show was like Big Brother with the flavor of catfish added to it. She talked about how the show was important and how they were able to safely film during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Michelle Buteau will return for The Circle season 7 on September 11, 2024, on Netflix.