Ariel Dumas and Asher Perlman have made the short move from the Ed Sullivan Theater to 30 Rock.
The two former Late Show with Stephen Colbert writers—both of whom may be familiar to longtime viewers of the show—recently joined the writers’ room at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Dumas spent more than a decade working with Colbert, beginning on The Colbert Report before following him to CBS in 2015. She worked as a writer and digital producer before being promoted to head writer alongside Jay Katsir in 2019, a title she held through The Late Show’s May finale.
She also made several memorable appearances on camera, including a 2018 trip to New York Fashion Week in search of “inspiration” for the show’s outdated merch line and a segment with fellow writer Gabe Gronli that saw the two Minnesota natives explain “Minnesota nice” to Colbert.
Dumas came to Tonight fresh off leading the writing staff of September’s Emmy Awards telecast. In an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday, she said she was still getting acclimated to her new workplace.
“I’m only on day three, so at this point, I’m just still trying to remember which floor the cafeteria is on,” Dumas said.
Dumas is serving as the show’s sketch writing supervisor, LateNighter has learned.
Perlman joined The Late Show after working as a staff writer on Comedy Central’s The Opposition with Jordan Klepper. He was first Emmy-nominated with Colbert’s writing staff in 2019 and went on to earn seven nominations, winning for the show’s final season.
He became a familiar face to viewers through “Prove It!,” the recurring 2025 segment that chronicled Perlman’s ill-fated six-month quest to prove he could learn to pull off an NBA-caliber dunk.
Outside late night, Perlman is a regular New Yorker cartoonist. He began drawing daily and pitching the magazine at the start of the pandemic and has since published two collections with Andrews McMeel, Well, This Is Me and Hi, It’s Me Again.
He has also continued working with several of his other former Late Show colleagues, co-hosting two podcasts: But Also with Michael and Asher alongside Michael Cruz Kayne, and Jokes on News with Cruz Kayne, Steve Waltien, and Eliana Kwartler.
