She reviews television for Vulture and is a staff writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
She received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 2010, where she was the co-president of the improv group Dead Serious.
[5] Along with her two brothers and two friends, Barthwell organized the inaugural WakandaCon in Chicago in August 2018, inspired by the release of Black Panther.
[6] Barthwell connected the event to afrofuturism and described WakandaCon as "a space for Black people to look past the present and into our future.
[2] Barthwell won successive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 2021 and 2022 for her work.