Aries Spears
Nairobi Aries Spears is an American stand-up comedian, impressionist, and actor from New Jersey. Spears was a regular on Fox's sketch comedy series Mad TV, appearing in eight seasons. In 2011, he released a special called Aries Spears: Hollywood, Look I'm Smiling. and in 2018 and 2020, he co-hosted the AVN Awards. In 2025, Spears participated in the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival.
Early life
Spears was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to New York when he was two years old. His mother, Doris Spears, is a jazz singer. Spears moved to New Jersey at age eleven and attended Arthur M. Judd Elementary School. He was expelled for fighting during his sophomore year in North Brunswick Township High School in North Brunswick.Spears said in a 2016 interview that his first experience performing stand-up comedy was doing impressions of James Brown and Jack Nicholson at the "Uptown Comedy Cafe" in Harlem at about fourteen years old.
Career
Early film and TV roles
Spears cites the Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam as his first big break in comedy. He featured in episode nine of the second season of the program in 1992, when he was sixteen years old, and returned in 1997 for episode twelve of the seventh season. He also performed on It's Showtime at the Apollo.He moved to Los Angeles in 1992, landed a recurring role on A Different World and became a regular at The Comedy Store, The Improv and The Laugh Factory. Other television credits include Crosstown Traffic, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and Soul Train.
Spears was cast in a starring role opposite Glenn Frey in South of Sunset. Spears's other film appearances include Home of Angels, The Pest, Jerry Maguire in which he played Teepee, brother of Rod Tidwell, Out-of-Sync, and The Proud Family.
''MADtv''
Spears joined the cast of MADtv during its third season in 1997 and he left at the end of its tenth season in 2005. During his tenure, Spears created characters such as comedian Belma Buttons, Walter, Reggie, Dollar Bill Montgomery, The Klumps, Sisqo, Evander Holyfield, and El Diablo Negro. He also performed impressions of celebrities including Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Shaquille O'Neal, James Brown, Al Pacino, Eddie Murphy, Jay-Z, Kanye West, LL Cool J, DMX, Snoop Dogg, R Kelly, Gerald Levert, Denzel Washington, Martin Lawrence, and Paul Mooney.After ''MADtv''
Spears appeared in a second-season episode of Mind of Mencia, which parodied Jamie Foxx's role in Kanye West's music video for "Gold Digger." He appeared in the 2006 film Hood of Horror. Spears performed in the TV series The Underground and voiced the character Wizard Kelly in the animated television series The Proud Family.Spears appeared in two episodes of Frank Caliendo's sketch comedy show Frank TV as Shaquille O'Neal.
He appeared alongside Cedric the Entertainer and other comedians in the All Star Comedy Jam in 2009.
In 2011, Spears released a comedy special titled Aries Spears: Hollywood, Look I'm Smiling.
According to Deadline Hollywood, Spears was expected to appear alongside Franco Nero, Sherilyn Fenn, Paul Rodriguez, and Jeff DuJardin in a dark comedy feature film directed by Vlad Kozlov, titled The Immortalist, in 2020.
Spears co-hosted the AVN awards in 2018 and again in 2020.
In 2025, Spears participated in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Comedy Festival, an event characterized by Human Rights Watch as an effort by the Saudi government to whitewash its human rights abuses.