Damon Kyle Wayans
(; [1] born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor, known as one of the popular Wayans brothers.
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Biography
Early life
Wayans was born in
New York City,
New York, the son of Elvira, a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Wayans, a
supermarket manager.
[2] His family was involved in the
Jehovah's Witnesses religion. Although he served as a baptized Jehovah's Witness He was disfellowshiped in 2006.
[3] [4] He has five sisters, Elvira, Vonnie,
Nadia,
Kim, Diedre, and four brothers, actors
Marlon Wayans,
Keenen Ivory Wayans,
Shawn Wayans, and
Dwayne Wayans. He had a
clubbed foot as a child. This attribute would also be given to his character in
My Wife & Kids
and his character on the cartoon series
Waynehead
. Wayans attended
Murry Bergtraum High School. !
[5]
Career
Damon started doing stand-up comedy in 1982. His earliest film appearance was a brief cameo as an effeminate hotel employee in the 1984
Eddie Murphy film
Beverly Hills Cop
. He was briefly on
Saturday Night Live
as a featured performer, before getting fired for playing his character as a flamboyant
gay cop instead of a straight cop. In the
SNL
book
Live From New York
, it was stated that Wayans did this largely due to growing frustrations that his sketches were not being considered for the show and increasing stress. He also appeared in the syndicated TV series
Solid Gold
during the 1980s as a
stand-up comedian. After that, he went on to do the TV-show
In Living Color
from 1990 to 1992, part of a team that was nominated for
Emmy Awards all three years.
After
In Living Color
, he starred in films such as
The Last Boy Scout
,
Major Payne
and
The Great White Hype
and wrote and starred in the film
Blankman
. In 1996, he produced
Waynehead
, a cartoon for the
WB, loosely based on his own childhood growing up in a large family, starring a poor boy with a club foot. The show only lasted a season due to poor ratings. From 1997 to 1998, he was the executive producer of
413 Hope St.
, a short-lived drama on the
FOX network starring
Richard Roundtree and
Jesse L. Martin.
In 1998, he starred in a short-lived comedy titled
Damon
, in which he played a
Chicago detective. It aired on
FOX. In 1999, his
New York Times
bestselling book
Bootleg
with co-author David Asbery was published; it is a humorous compilation of his observations about family.
[6]
In 2005, Damon Wayans was in a celebrity ad campaign for
Hanes.
In 2006, he began starring in
The Underground
, a
sketch comedy series on
Showtime. His son,
Damon, Jr. also stars on the show.
Wayans appears in
Janet Jackson's video "
The Best Things in Life Are Free" and was considered for the role of
The Riddler in
Batman Forever
(the role went to
Jim Carrey, his co-star from
In Living Color
and
Earth Girls Are Easy
). He hosted the 2006
BET Awards which was held at the
Shrine Auditorium in
Los Angeles, California on
June 27,
2006.
In May 2008, Wayans was highlighted by the media for the production of a controversial video titled, "Abortion Man". This viral video portrays a young man in need of killing the unborn child of his pregnant girlfriend and thus calls upon Abortion Man for aid. Abortion Man (portrayed as a super hero) then finds the pregnant girl and proceeds to knee, punch and stomp the girls stomach until the fetus flies out. Some sources hold that this video is satire and is an attempt to show the violence and cruelty of abortion while other sources think the video is simply a product of Wayans' distorted sense of humor.
For his outstanding role in the ABC comedy series
My Wife and Kids, Wayans earned 4 International Press Academy "Golden Satellite Award" nominations and 4
Emmy awards nominations for his acting and directing in the 90's series "In Living Color"
Personal life
Wayans was married to Lisa Thorner, however they divorced in 2000. He is the father of
Damon Wayans, Jr.,
Michael Wayans,
Cara Mia Wayans, and
Kyla Wayans. He is also the uncle of
Damien Dante Wayans and
Craig Wayans.
Wayans is a close friend of
NBA legend
Michael Jordan.
He won the People's Choice Awards for Favorite Male Performer.
In Living Color
Characters
- Anton Jackson, a gross, drunken homeless man who hosts his own home-repair show and pops up in places where he shouldn't be (It should be noted that his Anton Jackson character sounds like his character, Ned Jones, from the SNL recurring sketch, The Jones Brothers).
- Blaine Edwards, one of the flamboyantly gay film critics in the Men On...
series (this character and Anton Jackson were the only In Living Color recurring characters Wayans played when he hosted Saturday Night Live on an episode from the 1994-1995 season)
- Handi Man, a mentally and physically disabled superhero
- Head Detective, a police detective who was rebuilt to look like Mr. Potato Head after an accident
- Homey D. Clown, a surly ex-con who performs as a kids' party clown as part of his parole agreement (written by Paul Mooney)
- Les (Les and Wes
)
- Oswald Bates, a hyperliterate convict prone to malapropisms
- The Wiz, a thief who runs the Homeboy Shopping Network, an operation for fencing stolen goods, with Iceman (played by Keenen Ivory Wayans)
- Tom Brothers (The Brothers Brothers
)
- Reverend Ed Cash (partnered with Dr. Reverend Carl Pethos, played by Jim Carrey. Both were con artist preachers)
- Blankman (1994 comedy film Blankman)
Impressions
- Don King
- Louis Farrakhan
- Redd Foxx
- Richard Pryor
- Vanilli (Fab Morvan)
Filmography
Year
| Title
| Role
|
1984
| Beverly Hills Cop
| Banana Man
|
1985-1986
| Saturday Night Live (TV Series)
| Various. Only featured never offered contract for permanent cast member
|
1986
| Triplecross (TV)
| Ornery Character #1
|
1987
| Hollywood Shuffle
| Body Guard #2/Willie
|
1987
| Roxanne
| Jerry
|
1987
| A Different World (TV Series)
| Marvin Haven
|
1988
| Colors
| T-Bone
|
1988
| Earth Girls Are Easy
| Zeebo
|
1988
| Punchline
| Percy
|
1988
| I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
| Leonard
|
1990
| Look Who's Talking Too
| Eddie (voice)
|
1990-1992
| In Living Color (TV Series)
| Various
|
1991
| The Last Boy Scout
| James Alexander 'Jimmy/Jim' Dix
|
1992
| Mo' Money
| Johnny Stewart
|
1993
| Last Action Hero
| Himself
|
1994
| Blankman
| Darryl Walker
|
1995
| Major Payne
| Maj. Benson Payne (main character)
|
1996
| Celtic Pride
| Lewis Scott
|
1996
| The Great White Hype
| James 'The Grim Reaper' Roper
|
1996
| Bulletproof
| Rock Keats/Jack Carter
|
1998
| Damon (TV Series)
| Damon Thomas
|
1999
| Harlem Aria
| Wes
|
1999
| Goosed
| Dr. Steven Hemel
|
2000
| Bamboozled
| Pierre Delacroix
|
2001-2005
| My Wife and Kids (TV Series)
| Michael Kyle
|
2003
| Marci X
| Dr. S
|
2004
| Behind the Smile
| Charlie Richman
|
2006
| Farce of the Penguins (V)
| Hey, that's my ass! Penguin (voice)
|
2006
| The Underground (TV Series)
| Various
|
2008
| Never Better (TV Series)
| Keith
|
2009
| Untitled Damon Wayans Project (TV Series)
| TBA
|
References
- You say it how?
- Shawn Wayans Biography (1971-)
- Marlon Wayans - TIME
- The Movie Chicks - Interview - Marlon Wayans
- Damon Wayans Biography - Yahoo! Movies
- CNN Interview with Damon Wayans