Skip to main content Currently Reading W. Kamau Bell on why it was so hard to film the Bay Area episode of CNN's 'United Shades of America' W. Kamau Bell FacebookTwitterEmail W. Kamau Bell is the host of CNN's "United Shades of America," which filmed an episode in the Bay Area to explore what defunding the police really means.CNN People often ask me if I grew up here. Sometimes they outright assume that I did. The “city” that they “know” that I’m a “native” of changes. Could be San Francisco, Oakland or Berkeley. And even though I was born in Stanford Hospital and lived as a baby in East Palo Alto, I grew up back east. I lived in Chicago, Boston, Alabama and Indianapolis, like one does.