Chris Rock
Christopher Julius Rock is an American comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He first gained prominence for his stand-up routines in the 1980s in which he tackled subjects including race relations, human sexuality, and observational comedy. His success branched off into productions in film, television, and on-stage, having received multiple accolades including three Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Rock was ranked No. 5 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. He also ranked No. 5 on Rolling Stones list of the 50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time.
After years working as a stand-up comedian and appearing in minor film roles including Beverly Hills Cop II, Rock gained prominence as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1993. While at SNL, he appeared in the films New Jack City and Boomerang. In 1993, he appeared in CB4, which he also wrote and produced. He reached mainstream stardom with Bring the Pain in 1996. Rock continued making specials which include Bigger & Blacker, Never Scared, Kill the Messenger, Tamborine, and Selective Outrage. He developed, wrote, produced and narrated the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, which was based on his early life. From 1997 to 2000 HBO aired his talk show The Chris Rock Show.
Rock was cast in starring film roles in Lethal Weapon 4, Dogma, The Longest Yard, the Madagascar franchise, I Think I Love My Wife, Grown Ups, Death at a Funeral, Top Five, The Week Of, Spiral, Amsterdam, and Rustin. He has taken roles on television including Empire, Kevin Can Wait, and Fargo. He made his Broadway theater debut in the 2011 Stephen Adly Guirgis play The Motherfucker with the Hat. He has hosted the Academy Awards twice, in 2005 and 2016, and was involved in a highly controversial incident in which he was physically assaulted by Will Smith at the 2022 Awards.
Early life
Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina, on February 7, 1965. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they relocated and settled in the working class area of Bedford–Stuyvesant. His mother, Rosalie, was a teacher and social worker for people with developmental disabilities; his father, Julius Rock, was a truck driver and newspaper deliveryman. Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery.Rock is the eldest of his parents' seven children, and he had an older paternal half-brother, Charles Ledell Rock, who died in 2006 after suffering from alcoholism. Rock's younger brothers Tony, Kenny, and Jordan are also in the entertainment business.
Rock's family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2 in 2008. A DNA test showed that he is of Cameroonian descent, specifically from the people of northern Cameroon. Rock's great-great-grandfather, Julius Caesar Tingman, was enslaved for 21 years before serving in the American Civil War as part of the United States Colored Troops, then later was elected to two terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives. During the 1940s, Rock's paternal grandfather moved from South Carolina to New York City to become a taxicab driver and preacher.
Rock was bused to schools in predominantly white neighborhoods of Brooklyn, where he endured bullying and beatings from white students. As he grew older, the bullying worsened and Rock's parents pulled him out of James Madison High School. He dropped out of high school altogether, but he later earned a General Educational Development. Rock then worked various jobs at fast-food restaurants including Red Lobster.
Career
1984–1999: ''Saturday Night Live'' and standup
Rock began working as a stand-up comic during 1984 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star. Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role and big break in Beverly Hills Cop II. Rock rose up the ranks of the comedy circuit in addition to earning bit roles in the film I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and the TV series Miami Vice.Rock was a cast member of the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1993. He and other new cast members Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade became known as the Bad Boys of SNL. In 1991, he released his first comedy album, Born Suspect and won acclaim for his role as a crack addict in the film New Jack City. His tenure on SNL gave Rock national exposure.
With plans to leave Saturday Night Live after the 1992–93 season, Rock was effectively "fired" from the show. Beginning that fall, he appeared in six episodes of the predominantly African American sketch show In Living Color as a special guest star. The show was canceled a month after he arrived. Rock then wrote and starred in the low-budget comedy CB4, which made $18 million against its budget of $6 million. He signed on as client of 3 Arts Entertainment.
Rock headlined his first HBO comedy special in 1994, titled Big Ass Jokes, as part of HBO Comedy Half-Hour. His second special, 1996's Bring the Pain, made Rock one of the most acclaimed and commercially successful comedians in the industry. Rock won two Emmy Awards for the special and gained large critical acclaim. A controversial part of the special was "Niggas vs. Black People".
For his much-publicized role as a commentator for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect during the 1996 Presidential elections, he earned another Emmy nomination. Rock also was the voice for the "Lil Penny" puppet who was the alter ego to basketball star Penny Hardaway in a series of Nike shoe commercials from 1994 to 1998, and hosted the '97 MTV Video Music Awards.Rock's first music video was for his song "Your Mother's Got a Big Head" from his album Born Suspect. Rock also made videos for his songs "Champagne" from Roll With the New and "No Sex " from Bigger & Blacker.
Rock later had two more HBO comedy specials: Bigger & Blacker in 1999, and Never Scared in 2004. Articles relating to both specials called Rock "the funniest man in America" in Time and Entertainment Weekly. HBO also aired his talk show, The Chris Rock Show, which gained critical acclaim for Rock's interviews with celebrities and politicians. The show won an Emmy for writing. His television work has won him a total of three Emmy Awards and 15 nominations. By the end of the decade, Rock was established as one of the preeminent stand-up comedians and comic minds of his generation. During this time, Rock also translated his comedy into print form in the book Rock This! and released the Grammy Award-winning comedy albums, Roll with the New, Bigger & Blacker and Never Scared. Rock's fifth HBO special, Kill the Messenger, premiered on September 27, 2008, and won him another Emmy for outstanding writing for a variety or music program.
It was not until the success of his stand-up act in the late 1990s that Rock began receiving leading man status in films. He began the decade with supporting roles in such films as New Jack City as crack addict Pookie, in the Eddie Murphy comedy Boomerang, the Steve Martin comedy Sgt. Bilko as well as Beverly Hills Ninja, and Lethal Weapon 4. He also appeared in the Kevin Smith fantasy comedy film Dogma. The film received positive reviews and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The film starred an ensemble cast with actors such as Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Alan Rickman, Salma Hayek, and George Carlin.
2000–2009: Sitcom and stardom
He then starred in the dark comedy Nurse Betty starring Renée Zellweger, Greg Kinnear and Morgan Freeman which also debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2000. The film was a critical success. In the later 2000s, Rock started to work increasingly behind the camera. He wrote the film Down to Earth along with friend and comedian Louis C.K. The film was based on the Warren Beatty film, Heaven Can Wait. That same year Rock also produced and starred in the C.K. directed film Pootie Tang. Rock also would work as a writer and director of the political comedy Head of State and marital comedy I Think I Love My Wife. He also played the lead in both films. He also went on to star in films like The Longest Yard opposite Adam Sandler, and the action comedy film Bad Company opposite Anthony Hopkins.Everybody Hates Chris
In September 2005, the UPN television network premiered a comedy series called Everybody Hates Chris, loosely based on Rock's school days, for which he was the executive producer and narrator. The show garnered both critical and ratings success. The series was nominated for a 2006 Golden Globe for Best TV Series, a 2006 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Comedy, and two 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards for costuming and cinematography.
Starting in 2005, Rock has also voiced the eccentric zebra Marty in DreamWorks' animated film franchise Madagascar. He starred in two of the film's sequels, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In 2007, Rock voiced Mooseblood the Mosquito in the Jerry Seinfeld animated film, Bee Movie.
In 2009, Rock released his first documentary, 2009's Good Hair. The film focuses on the issue of how African-American women have perceived their hair and historically styled it. The film explores the current styling industry for black women, images of what is considered acceptable and desirable for African American women's hair in the United States, and their relation to African American culture. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival where it earned critical acclaim and received a Special Jury Prize. The National Board of Review named it one of the five best documentaries of the year. Rock was also nominated for the Gotham Award for Best Documentary and for the Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. Rock has since stated working on a documentary about debt called Credit Is the Devil.