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Don Reed | |
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| Born | November 23, 1959, Oakland, California, United States, |
| Occupation | comedian, television actor and writer |
| Years active | 1980–present |
Donald Gene Reed (born November 23, 1959) [1] is an American actor, writer, producer, director and comedian. [2]
Reed grew up in Oakland, California, and attended Fremont High School. Additionally he attended Chabot Junior College in Hayward, California, before being recruited to UCLA for intercollegiate speech and debate competition, where he became a national champion in competitive events: Speech to Entertain, Poetry and Dramatic readings. [3]
In the fall of 1988, Don Reed was performing stand-up comedy at NACA and impressed comedian Sinbad so much he helped Reed get signed for two episodes of a television spin-off of The Cosby Show , titled A Different World , on which he played "Chip St. Charles", whom Denise Huxtable had a crush on. This was Reed's television debut; he left the show in 1989. [4] [5] [6]
After A Different World, Reed was cast as "Fingers" in a film called Dance to Win, which was released on December 1, 1989, in the United States. Reed also appeared on the HBO television program Dream On in 1990, then he appeared on Robert Townsend's ventures: an HBO television special Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime (1991) and The Meteor Man (1993) as a drug worker.
Reed was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards: one for Dream On, The Cosby Show and Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime in 1989.
Reed was an advertising & promotion executive at NBC, for two years, and then he did voice-work for cartoons such as Disney's Gargoyles , Spider-Man and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest .
Reed's movie credits include: Unleashed Fear of a Black Hat and Once Upon a Forest . Reed also joined the cast of NBC's The Rerun Show His showcase of impressions included Mike Tyson, Sherman Hemsley, Todd Bridges, Chris Rock, among others.
In 2008, he debuted a solo autobiographical show titled East 14th: True Tales of a Reluctant Player and has presented a total of 5 solo shows altogether. In fall 2009, he became the warm-up comic for The Jay Leno Show . [1] He is the first African American warm-up comedian for a major late night show – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – and performed stand-up to warm up the studio audience for over 1,000 episodes.
In 2016 he won an award from Snap Judgment for NPR/WNYC Performance of the Year. [7] Later that year Theater Bay Area gave his show East 14th the 2016 TBA award for Outstanding Solo Show. [8] In the same year, Reed co-starred in Amazon Prime streaming comedy series, Bartlett , co-starring Broadway phenom Lin Manuel Miranda, creator of Hamilton. In 2019 Don Reed was approached by writer/director/filmmaker Robert Townsend to co-produce his one man, theatrical hit "Living the Shuffle."
James Douglas Muir Leno is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009, he started a primetime talk show, The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET, also on NBC. Prior to the premiere of Leno's prime time show, O'Brien's ratings as the new Tonight Show host had already suffered a decline, however. When O'Brien turned down NBC's offer to have Leno host a half hour monologue show before The Tonight Show to boost ratings amid reported viewership diminishing, Leno returned to hosting the show on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of this second tenure on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Since 2014, he has hosted Jay Leno's Garage, and the 2021 revival of You Bet Your Life.
William Henry Cosby Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric image, and gained a reputation as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show (1984–1992). He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career.
Scott Thompson, known professionally as Carrot Top, is an American actor and stand-up comedian.
Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans first came to prominence as the host and the creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color. He has produced, directed and/or written several films, starting with Hollywood Shuffle, which he cowrote, in 1987.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner is an American actor. He rose to prominence for his role as Theodore Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, which earned him a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 38th Primetime Emmy Awards. He is also known for his roles as Malcolm McGee on the UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, and Dr. Alex Reed in the sitcom Reed Between the Lines.
Robert Martin Culp was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965–1968), the espionage television series in which co-star Bill Cosby and he played secret agents. Before this, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series Trackdown as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman in 71 episodes from 1957 to 1959. The 1980s brought him back to television as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero. Later, he had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.
The Bill Cosby Show is an American sitcom television series, that aired for two seasons on NBC's Sunday night schedule from 1969 until 1971, under the sponsorship of Procter & Gamble. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked Bill Cosby's first solo foray in television, after his co-starring role with Robert Culp in I Spy.
John Weatherspoon, better known as John Witherspoon, was an American actor and comedian who performed in various television shows and films.
The Television Academy Hall of Fame honors individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to U.S. television. The hall of fame was founded by former Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) president John H. Mitchell (1921–1988). Inductions are not held every year.
Ned Arnel "Carlos" Mencía is a Honduran-American comedian, writer, and actor. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race relations, Latin American culture, criminal justice, and social class. He is best known as the host of the Comedy Central show Mind of Mencia (2005–2008). Around the time of the show's cancellation, several comedians accused Mencía of plagiarism and stealing jokes.
Faizon Andre Love is a Cuban-born American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles in the comedy films The Meteor Man, Don't Be a Menace, Friday, B*A*P*S, Elf, The Replacements, Made, and Couples Retreat, as well as the voice of Sean "Sweet" Johnson in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and his role as Wendell Wilcox on The Parent 'Hood.
Godfrey C. Danchimah, Jr., professionally known as Godfrey, is an American comedian and actor who has appeared on BET, VH1, Comedy Central, and feature films, such as Soul Plane, Original Gangstas, Zoolander, and Johnson Family Vacation. He was also a spokesperson for 7 Up during the popular '7up yours' advertising campaign and a cast member on the first season of The It Factor, a reality television show. Currently, he is a regular performer at the comedy club Comedy Cellar in New York City. He is also known for doing the voices of Mr. Stubborn and Mr. Tall in The Mr. Men Show and hosting the FOX game show Bullseye. Godfrey also hosted his own radio show on SiriusXM until he parted ways with the show on July 1, 2019. He now owns and hosts a podcast called ‘In Godfrey We Trust’ on the Gas Digital Network. He is also known for collaborating with other social media stars such as King Bach, Destorm Power, etc. He was once a regular guest on VladTV.
The Meteor Man is a 1993 American superhero comedy film written, directed, co-produced and starring Robert Townsend with supporting roles by Marla Gibbs, Eddie Griffin, Robert Guillaume, James Earl Jones, Bill Cosby, and Another Bad Creation. The film also features special appearances by Luther Vandross, Sinbad, Naughty by Nature, Cypress Hill, and Big Daddy Kane. Townsend stars as a mild-mannered schoolteacher, who becomes a superhero after his neighborhood in Washington, D.C. is terrorized by street gangs.
David Adkins, better known by his stage name Sinbad, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became known in the 1990s from being featured on his own HBO specials, appearing on several television series such as Coach Walter Oakes in A Different World (1987–1991) and as David Bryan on The Sinbad Show (1993–1994), and starring in the films Necessary Roughness, Houseguest, First Kid, Jingle All the Way, Good Burger, and Planes.
Alessandro Liborio Madrigal is an American comedian, writer, actor and producer. He is a co-founder of the All Things Comedy podcast network, alongside Bill Burr. He rose to fame on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a regular correspondent for five seasons. Outside of the standup world, he is known for his co-starring roles in the film Night School, Showtime's dark comedy I'm Dying Up Here, NBC's About A Boy, as well as CBS sitcoms Gary Unmarried and Welcome to The Captain. He has also performed on Conan and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Neema Barnette is an American film director and producer, and the first African-American woman to direct a primetime sitcom. Barnette was the first African-American woman to get a three-picture deal with Sony. Since then, she accumulated a number of awards, including a Peabody, an Emmy and NAACP Image Award.
Hannibal Amir Buress is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper and writer. He started performing comedy in 2002 while attending Southern Illinois University. He starred on Adult Swim's The Eric Andre Show from 2012 to 2020, and was featured on Comedy Central's Broad City from 2014 to 2019. He is also known for bringing Bill Cosby’s sexual abuse of women back into the public spotlight during a stand-up routine.
Bill Cosby 77 is an unreleased 2014 stand-up comedy film featuring Bill Cosby, filmed before a live audience at the San Francisco Jazz Center in California. Cosby chose the venue in honor of his friend Enrico Banducci and his establishment the hungry i. The comedian said his wife Camille Cosby helped with the editing process of the film.
Rothaniel Jerrod Carmichael is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and filmmaker. He has released three stand-up comedy specials on HBO: Love at the Store (2014), 8 (2017), and Rothaniel (2022). He also co-created, co-wrote, produced, and starred in the semi autobiographical NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show (2015–2017). Carmichael directed, produced, and starred in On the Count of Three (2021). In 2022, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for writing Rothaniel and was nominated for guest hosting Saturday Night Live that same year.
Dwayne Perkins is an American stand-up comedian from Brooklyn, New York, currently residing in Los Angeles. He has made appearances on Conan, Comedy Central, and as a regular correspondent on The Jay Leno Show. In August 2012, he was selected by Rolling Stone magazine as one of their "Five Comics to Watch". In October 2015, he was the artist-in-residence at the Rotterdam International Comedy Festival.
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