In 2017, the number of comedies starring writers has grown too high for any mortal, no matter how ambitious or slothlike, to keep up with. The following portraits feature some of today’s boldest writer-performers. Two of them began as playwrights. Phoebe Waller-Bridge based the thrillingly caustic “Fleabag,” about a depressed, sexually adventurous Londoner, on her one-woman show of the same name. (An unforgettable scene involves a laptop and a video of the forty-fourth U.S. President.) Michaela Coel adapted the exuberant “Chewing Gum,” set in a London council estate, from her play “Chewing Gum Dreams.” She stars as Tracey, a lusty Pentecostal virgin with bumbling verve. If “House of Cards” diminished our tolerance for archly clever protagonists who break the fourth wall, “Fleabag” and “Chewing Gum” redeem the trope, with jokes so sharp and exacting that they register as a shock.

Web series are ideal vehicles for writers who want to prove that they can bring their own stories to life. Issa Rae’s excellent “Insecure” evolved from “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” Rae’s Web series about life and love in Los Angeles. The show blends vulnerable realism with rapid-fire jokes between Rae’s character, Issa, and her best friend, Molly (Yvonne Orji). “Broad City,” created by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, also celebrates the fizzy chemistry between best friends. The show’s smart-stoner vibe was honed on YouTube.

Pete Holmes’s series “Crashing” is a semi-autobiographical portrait of a standup comic whose marriage has ended. That sounds a bit like “Louie,” but, as with the other shows in this portfolio, voice makes all the difference. Holmes’s alter ego is earnest and religious, and “Crashing” explores why other people can find those qualities unnerving.