Early life and education

Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they relocated and settled in the working-class area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His mother, Rosalie (née Tingman), was a teacher and social worker for the mentally handicapped; his father, Christopher Julius Rock II, was a truck driver and newspaper deliveryman. Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery. Chris's younger brothers, Tony, Kenny, and Jordan, are also in the entertainment business. His older half-brother, Charles, died in 2006 after a long struggle with alcoholism. Rock has said that he was influenced by the performing style of his paternal grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher.

Rock was bused to schools in predominately white neighborhoods of Brooklyn, where he endured bullying and beatings from white students. As he got older, the bullying became worse and Rock’s parents pulled him out of James Madison High School. He decided to drop out of high school altogether, but he later earned a GED. Rock then worked menial jobs at various fast-food restaurants.

Career

Rock began doing stand-up comedy in 1984 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star. He slowly 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. Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II.

Saturday Night Live

Rock became a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1990. 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.

Standup success

A frustrated Rock left Saturday Night Live in 1993, appearing instead as a special guest star on the predominantly African-American sketch show In Living Color. The show, however, was cancelled months later. Rock then decided to concentrate on a film career. He wrote and starred in the mockumentary CB4 but the film was not a success. Acting jobs became scarce, and Rock abandoned Hollywood to concentrate on stand-up comedy.

Rock starred in his first HBO comedy special in 1994 titled Big Ass Jokes. But it was his second stand-up special, 1996’s Bring the Pain, that reinvented Rock as one of the most acclaimed comedians in the industry. For it Rock won two Emmy Awards and gained large critical acclaim. The segment on race in America, in which Rock used the “N word” extensively, was most talked about. Adding to his popularity was his much-publicized role as a commentator for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect during the 1996 Presidential elections which earned him 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 1994-1998, and hosted the '97 MTV Video Music Awards.

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.

Film star

It was not until the success of his stand-up act in the late 1990s that Rock began receiving major parts in films. Though he started off with supporting roles in films such as Dogma, Beverly Hills Ninja, Lethal Weapon 4, and Nurse Betty, he went on to star in films like The Longest Yard, Bad Company, and Down to Earth. Some of his 2010s film appearances include Death at a Funeral, Grown Ups, and 2 Days in New York.

Rock has also increasingly worked behind the camera, both as a writer and director of Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife (both in which he played the lead role). Additionally, he has done voice work for the popular Madagascar animated film franchise.

Following the release of his first documentary, 2009's Good Hair, Rock is working on a documentary about debt called Credit Is the Devil.

Television producer

In the fall of 2005, the UPN television network premiered a comedy series called Everybody Hates Chris, loosely based on Rock's school days, of which he is the executive producer and narrator. The show has garnered both critical and ratings success. The series was nominated for a 2006 Golden Globe for Best TV Series (Musical or Comedy), a 2006 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Comedy, and two 2006 Emmy Awards for costuming and cinematography. He produced the series Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, which premiered in August 2012.

Academy Awards

In early 2005, Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards ceremony. The decision to have Rock host the awards was seen by some as a chance to bring an "edge" to the ceremony, and to make it more relevant or appealing to younger audiences. Jokingly, Rock opened by saying "Welcome to the 77th and LAST Academy Awards!" During one segment Rock asked, "Who is this guy?" in reference to actor Jude Law seemingly appearing in every movie Rock had seen that year and implied Law was a low-rent Tom Cruise (he made a joke about filmmakers rushing production when unable to get the actors they want: "If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait !"). Subsequently, a defensive Sean Penn took the stage to present and said, "In answer to our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors." (At the time, Penn and Law were shooting All the King's Men.) Law was not the only actor that Rock poked fun at that evening, however—he turned the joke on himself at one point, saying, "If you want Denzel and all you can get is me, wait!" Older Oscar officials were reportedly displeased with Rock's performance, which did not elevate ratings for the ceremony. Rock was also criticized for referring to the Oscars as "idiotic", and asserting that heterosexual men do not watch them, in an interview prior to Oscar night.

On October 21, 2015 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Rock would host the 88th Academy Awards. When the subsequent acting nominations turned out to be white people at the expense of any minority, Rock was called upon to join a boycott of the ceremony. However, Rock decided to decline stating at the ceremony that it would have accomplished little since the show would have proceeded anyway with himself simply replaced. Instead, Rock decide to make his concerns about the lack of diversity in AMPAS a source of material for the show, with pointed ridicule at AMPAS throughout the ceremony and its apparent racial bias beginning with his opening monologue and subsequent recorded sketches until he closed with the ceremony with "Black Lives Matter."

Music videos

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 (In the Champagne Room)" from Bigger & Blacker. Chris Rock also directed and appeared in the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Hump de Bump".

Rock appeared in the Big Daddy Kane music video "Smooth Operator" as a guy getting his hair cut.

He also appeared in Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down," one of the many celebrities seen lip-synching the song.

Stage plays

In 2011, Rock appeared on Broadway in Stephen Adly Guirgis' play The Motherfucker with the Hat with Bobby Cannavale and Annabella Sciorra. Rock was nominated for a Drama League Award.

Comedic style and views

Rock's subject matter typically involves family, politics, romance, music, class relationships, and race relations in the United States. Though not strictly autobiographical, much of his comic standpoint seem rooted in his teenage experience; his strict parents, concerned about the inadequacies of the local school system, arranged to have the adolescent Rock bused to a nearly all-white high school in Bensonhurst (an Italian-ethnic neighborhood of Brooklyn known at the time for poor race relations). In his memoir Rock This, the comedian recalls, "My parents assumed I'd get a better education in a better neighborhood. What I actually got was a worse education in a worse neighborhood. And a whole bunch of ass-whippings."

The comedian has also expressed discomfort with the notion that success in standup comedy—or, indeed, in any aspect of the entertainment industry—should oblige him to serve as a role model. In this position, he finds himself directly at odds with one of his comic idols, Bill Cosby. Cosby has reprimanded Rock both explicitly—for his famous/notorious Niggas vs. Black People track—and implicitly, for heavy use of the word "nigger." Rock has not wavered from a position explored in his 1996 Roll With The New show, and reiterated in his 1997 memoir: "Why does the public expect entertainers to behave better than everybody else? It's ridiculous...Of course, this is just for black entertainers. You don't see anyone telling Jerry Seinfeld he's a good role model. Because everyone expects whites to behave themselves...Nowadays, you've got to be an entertainer and a leader. It's too much." Often the subject of tabloids, when asked about paparazzi and the other negative aspects of fame, Rock says he accepts the bad with the good: "You can't be happy that fire cooks your food and be mad it burns your fingertips."

At the London Live Earth concert on July 7, 2007, which was broadcast live on the BBC, before introducing the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rock called the crowd "motherfuckers" and "shit" after a brief sigh when he said he was joking. Due to the broadcast being at 5:45 pm Rock was immediately cut off, and the BBC made several apologies for his use of the word "motherfucker."

Chris Rock has been an avid fan of the New York Mets baseball team since childhood. He famously complained that his team "had no money" in a comedic rant during a 2011 interview with David Letterman.

Personal life

Rock married Malaak Compton-Rock on November 23, 1996. Compton-Rock 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 workforce. The couple lived in Alpine, New Jersey with their two daughters, Lola Simone (born 2002) and Zahra Savannah (born 2004). In December 2014, Rock announced that he had filed for divorce from Compton-Rock.

In 2008, Rock's family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2. A DNA test showed that he is descended from the Udeme people (Ouldémé) of northern Cameroon. Rock's great-great-grandfather, Julius Caesar Tingman, was a slave for 21 years before serving as part of the United States Colored Troops until 1866; Tingman fought in the American Civil War. During the 1940s, Rock's paternal grandfather moved from South Carolina to New York City to become a taxicab driver and preacher.

Rock is a vocal critic of racial profiling and often speaks of the "everyday racism" he feels he experiences, despite being famous. In a 2013 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, Rock and Seinfeld are pulled over by the police for speeding. In the episode Rock admits to Seinfeld that "If you weren't here, I'd be scared. Yeah, I'm famous - still black." In 2015, Rock was pulled over three times in the first three months of the year. Each time Rock posted a selfie of the incident, so far without further comment as to the reason for the stops.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Krush Groove	Person Standing Next to Phone During Fight in Club	uncredited
1987	Beverly Hills Cop II	Playboy Mansion Valet
1988	Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen	Himself	Direct-to-video Concert film
1988	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	Rib Joint Customer
1989	Who Is Chris Rock?	Himself	Documentary Short
1991	New Jack City	Pookie
1992	Boomerang	Bony T
1993	CB4	Albert Brown/M.C. Gusto	Also writer and co-producer
1995	The Immortals	Deke Anthony
1995	Panther	Yuck Mouth
1996	Sgt. Bilko	1st Lt. Oster
1997	Beverly Hills Ninja	Joey Washington
1998	Dr. Dolittle	Rodney (voice)
1998	Lethal Weapon 4	Detective Lee Butters	Supporting Role
1999	Torrance Rises	Himself	Documentary short
1999	Dogma	Rufus
2000	Nurse Betty	Wesley
2001	Down to Earth	Lance Barton	Also writer and executive producer
2001	AI: Artificial Intelligence	Mecha Comedian (voice)	Cameo
2001	Pootie Tang	JB/Radio DJ/Pootie's Father	Also producer
2001	Osmosis Jones	Osmosis Jones (voice)
2001	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	Chaka Luther King	Cameo
2002	Bad Company	Jake Hayes/Kevin Pope/Michael Turner
2002	Comedian	Himself	Documentary
2003	Pauly Shore Is Dead	Himself	Cameo
2003	Head of State	Mays Gilliam	Also director, producer, writer
2004	The N-Word	Himself	Documentary
2004	Paparazzi	Pizza Delivery Guy	Cameo
2005	The Aristocrats	Himself	Documentary
2005	Madagascar	Marty (voice)
2005	The Longest Yard	Farrell Caretaker
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Richard Marcus Cooper	Also director, producer, writer
2007	Bee Movie	Mooseblood the Mosquito (voice)
2008	You Don't Mess with the Zohan	Taxi Driver	Cameo
2008	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	Marty and other zebras (voice)
2009	Good Hair	Himself	Documentary (also producer)
2010	Death at a Funeral	Aaron	Also producer, remake of the 2007 film of the same name
2010	Grown Ups	Kurt McKenzie
2012	2 Days in New York	Mingus
2012	What to Expect When You're Expecting	Vic
2012	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	Marty (voice)	Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Voice
2013	Madly Madagascar	Marty (voice)
2013	Grown Ups 2	Kurt McKenzie
2014	Top Five	Andre Allen	Also director and writer Nominated—Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor in a Comedy
2015	A Very Murray Christmas	Himself

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Uptown Comedy Express	Himself	Stand-up special
1987	Miami Vice	Carson	Episode: "Missing Hours"
1990-1993	Saturday Night Live	Various	59 episodes
1993-1994	In Living Color	Various	6 episodes
1994	Big Ass Jokes	Himself	Stand-up special
1995	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Maurice/Jasmine	Episode: "Get a Job"
1996-1998	The Moxy Show	Flea	Uncredited voice role
1996	Martin	Valentino	Episode: "The Love Jones Connection"
1996	Homicide: Life on the Street	Carver	Episode: "Requiem for Adena""
1996	Bring the Pain	Himself	Stand-up special
1996	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Chris Rock/The Wallflowers"
1997	1997 MTV Video Music Awards	Host	TV special
1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Woody (voice)	Episode: "Pinocchio"
1997-2000	The Chris Rock Show	Himself	37 episodes; also creator, writer, executive producer
1998	King of the Hill	Roger "Booda" Sack (voice)	Episode: "Traffic Jam"
1998	Mr. Show with Bob and David	Himself	Episode: "Eat Rotten Fruit from a Shitty Tree"
1999	1999 MTV Video Music Awards	Host	TV special
2000	Bigger & Blacker	Himself	Stand-up special
2003	2003 MTV Video Music Awards	Host	TV special
2003	The Bernie Mac Show	Himself	Episode: "Pink gold"
2004	Never Scared	Himself	Stand-up special
2005	77th Academy Awards	Host	TV special
2005-2009	Everybody Hates Chris	Narrator/Mr. Abbott	88 episodes; also creator, writer, executive producer
2008	Kill the Messenger	Himself	Stand-up special
2011-2012	Louie	Himself	2 Episodes
2012	Tosh.0	Himself	Episode: "How to Draw Guy"
2013	A.N.T. Farm	Himself	Episode: "Animal HusbANTry"
2013	Real Husbands of Hollywood	Himself	Episode: "Rock, Paper, Stealers"
2014	BET Awards 2014	Host	TV special
2014	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Chris Rock/Prince"
2015	Empire	Frank Gathers	Episode: "The Devils Are Here"
2015	Amy Schumer: Live at The Apollo		Director
2016	88th Academy Awards	Host	TV special

As executive producer

Year	Title	Notes
1998-2002	The Hughleys	89 episodes
2012-2013	Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell	64 episodes

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	The Motherfucker with the Hat	Ralph D.

Discography

Year	Album	Peak positions		Certifications
		U.S.	U.S. R&B
1991	Born Suspect	-	-
1997	Roll with the New	93	41
1999	Bigger & Blacker	44	26
2005	Never Scared	-	-

Awards and nominations

Year	Awards	Category	Recipient	Outcome
1997	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special	Chris Rock: Bring the Pain	Won
1998	Grammy Awards	Best Comedy Album	Roll with the New	Won
1999	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series	The Chris Rock Show	Won
2000	Grammy Awards	Best Comedy Album	Bigger & Blacker	Won
	Black Reel Award	Best Supporting Actor	Nurse Betty	Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Variety Series	The Chris Rock Show	Nominated
2001				Nominated
2003	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Actor - Comedy	Head of State	Nominated
2006	Grammy Awards	Best Comedy Album	Never Scared	Won
	Kids Choice Awards	Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie	Madagascar	Won
		Wannabe	Chris Rock	Won
2010	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Actor - Comedy	Death at a Funeral	Nominated
2012	Black Reel Award	Best Actor	2 Days in New York	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Actor - Comedy	What to Expect When You're Expecting	Nominated
		Movie Voice	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	Nominated
2013	Kids Choice Awards	Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie		Nominated
2015	Black Reel Award	Best Actor	Top Five	Nominated
		Best Screenplay, Adapted or Original		Won
	Critics' Choice Awards	Best Actor in a Comedy		Nominated

Bibliography

• Rock This! (Hyperion Books, 1997) - ISBN 0-7868-6289-0

Charities

Chris Rock supports the following charitable causes: Health Education, Environment, Children, Human Rights, Domestic Violence, Poverty, Education, Cancer, Special Education, Homeless, Arts Education, Underprivileged Children, AIDS, Women's Issues, Disaster Relief, Adoption.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]