Chris Rock: Encyclopedia - Chris Rock

Chris Rock

Chris Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian and actor born in Andrews, South Carolina. He grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Stuyvesant High School where he was president of the chess club and Black Students League.

He was a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1990–1993. His tenure on the show gave Rock national exposure, but problems with drugs led him to rarely being used on the show save for his reaccuring "Nat X" character. Rock, along with several other cast members (most notably Chris Farley) were fired from SNL in the spring of 1993, as part of a regular cast turnover. Chris took the firing as a sign to stop using drugs and to concentrate on a film career. Unfortunately acting jobs were few, so Rock abandoned Hollywood to concentrate on stand-up comedy.

His 1996 stand-up special Bring the Pain reinvented Chris Rock as one of the hottest comedians in Hollywood. His routine, which featured commentaries on race in America stirred up much controversy especially in light of his routine "Niggas vs Black People", which featured Rock saying "Nigga" repeatedly and claiming that it was socially acceptable for black people to refer to segments of the black population that degraded the black community through sloth and stupidity as "Niggas".

In addition to acting, Rock has had three HBO comedy specials: Bring the Pain in 1996, Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker in 1999, and most recently, Never Scared in 2004. HBO also aired his talk show, The Chris Rock Show, which gained critical acclaim for Chris Rock's interviews with famous celebrities.

While Rock has acted in movies since 1986, it was only until the success of his stand-up act in the mid-90s that Rock began receiving major parts in films. These include roles in "Lethal Weapon 4", "Dogma", "Madagascar", and the 2005 remake of "The Longest Yard".

His comedy typically involves race relations in the United States, although he devotes a large portion of his material to women too. Though not directly based on it, a lot of his comedic views are rooted in his teen years; his very strict parents, concerned about the neighborhood schools, had him bused to an almost all-white high school in Bensonhurst (a white-ethnic neighborhood of Brooklyn that was known at the time for poor race relations). Rock claims to have been arrested four times, once for vehicular assault on a youth who had robbed him, and three times for traffic violations, including driving without a license and "driving too slow". In the fall of 2005, the UPN television network premiered a comedy series called Everybody Hates Chris that is based on Rock's school days.

In early 2005, Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards ceremony. The decision to have Rock host the awards was seen by some to bring an "edge" to the ceremony and to make it more relevant or appealing to younger audiences. Some were worried that Rock's outspoken and often crude humor would tarnish the staid image of the awards, but, aside from a tense moment involving Sean Penn, his comedy ruffled few feathers. Rock had been making jokes about actor Jude Law's seeming to appear in every movie he has seen this year; Penn later stated on stage that Law is "one of our finest young actors".

Rock has been married to Malaak Compton-Rock since November 23, 1996. Malaak is the founder and executive director of StyleWorks, a non-profit, full-service salon that provides free services for women leaving welfare and entering the work force. The couple have two children together, Lola Simone (born June 28, 2002) and Zahra Savannah (born May 22, 2004).

On September 9, 2005, Chris Rock said "George Bush hates midgets" before saying his original script during a telethon similar to the Kanye West situation. The tone was one of parody and not actual opinion.

Chris Rock - Filmography

• Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
• Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen (1988)
• I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
• Who Is Chris Rock? (1989) (short subject)
• New Jack City (1991)
• Boomerang (1992)
• CB4 (1993) (also co-producer)
• The Immortals (1995)
• Sgt. Bilko (1996)
• Beverly Hills Ninja (1997)
• Doctor Dolittle (1998) (voice)
• Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
• King of the Hill (1998) (Voice of Roger Sack)
• Torrance Rices (1999) (short subject)
• Dogma (1999)
• Nurse Betty (2000)
• Down to Earth (2001)
• AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001) (voice only)
• Pootie Tang (2001) (also producer)
• Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice)
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
• Bad Company (2002)
• Comedian (2002) (documentary)
• Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)
• Head of State (2003) (also director and producer)
• Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party (2004) (documentary)
• The N-Word (2004) (documentary)
• Paparazzi (2004) (Cameo)
• The Aristocrats (2005) (documentary)
• Madagascar (2005) (voice)
• The Longest Yard (2005)
• Everybody Hates Chris (Voice) (2005)
• Sick Day (2005) (currently announced start of production)
• The Gilmores of Beverly Hills (2006) (pre-production)

Chris Rock - Discography

• Born Suspect 1991 Atlantic
• Roll With the New 1997 DreamWorks
• Bigger & Blacker 1999 DreamWorks
• Never Scared 2005 Geffen
• Pierce Cunningham 2005 Geffen

See also

• Chris Tucker, another entertainer with a similar comedic sense
• Bad Boys of SNL
• Tony Rock, brother of Chris

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chris Rock", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki