Early life

Crews was born in Flint, Michigan, the son of Patricia and Terry Crews Sr. He grew up in a strict Christian household, where he was raised mainly by his mother. After earning his high school diploma from Flint Southwestern Academy, he received a Chrysler-sponsored art scholarship at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. This achievement was soon followed by an Art Excellence scholarship and a full-ride athletic scholarship for football at Western Michigan University. As a defensive end for the WMU Broncos, Crews earned All-Conference honors and helped his team win the Mid-American Conference Championship in 1988.

In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Crews stated that his first job in the entertainment industry was working as an artist for WJRT in Flint, Michigan. Crews later became the courtroom sketch artist for the station.

NFL career

Crews was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 11th round of the 1991 NFL Draft. His career included stints with the Rams, the San Diego Chargers, the Washington Redskins, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Crews revealed in an interview with Adam Carolla that he painted portraits of his teammates in order to supplement his income.

Acting career

After retiring from the NFL in 1997, Crews pursued an acting career and got a role as T-Money on Battle Dome. He later had roles in films such as White Chicks, Friday After Next, Training Day, Soul Plane, The Longest Yard, The Benchwarmers, and Street Kings. He has made many cameo appearances; he was in Blink-182's music video for "Down" as a police officer and in Jamie Kennedy's "Rollin' with Saget" as a security guard. Crews appears in Click as the singing driver Adam Sandler's character Michael Newman encounters while stuck in traffic, and Crews also portrays a singing host at a resort in Blended with Adam Sandler.

His stint as the father on Everybody Hates Chris gained him further fame.

He has been featured in several Old Spice TV commercials for their "Odor Blocker Body Wash", their body sprays, deodorant, shaving lotion, and most recently ads for "Bearglove" scented products that feature him dueling against Isaiah Mustafa, who does The Man Your Man Could Smell Like commercials. The ads are directed by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. He has also done commercials for Nike. He starred in his own reality series on BET, The Family Crews, about his everyday life with his family. The show premiered on February 21, 2010. Since 2013, he has starred on the two-time Golden Globe award winning television show Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He has been nominated for a 2015 Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, and a 2015 Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on the show.

Personal life

Crews married Rebecca King, a former beauty queen and gospel recording artist, in 1990. They have three daughters, Azriel (b. 1990), Tera (b. 1999), and Wynfrey (b. 2004), and one son, Isaiah (b. 2007). He has one step-grandchild through a stepdaughter from his wife's previous relationship, Naomi (b. 1989). He is a Christian.

Crews is also a hobby painter and sketch artist.

In 2014 he released his autobiography, Manhood: How To Be A Better Man Or Just Live With One. The book included details about his marriage, along with his wife's response to his pornography addiction. In the summer of 2015, Crews posted a picture on his social media outlets wearing a "Porn Kills Love" t-shirt and promoting the popular anti-pornography organization Fight the New Drug. In 2016, Crews made national headlines with his anti-pornography activism by releasing a series of love videos on his Facebook page discussing his past pornography addiction and how he overcame it.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	The 6th Day	Vincent Bansworth
2001	Training Day	Bloods Member	Uncredited
2002	Serving Sara	Vernon
2002	Friday After Next	Damon Pearly
2003	Deliver Us from Eva	Big Bartender
2003	Malibu's Most Wanted	8 Ball
2003	BAADASSSSS!	Big T
2004	Soul Plane	Bouncer
2004	Starsky & Hutch	Porter
2004	White Chicks	Latrell Spencer
2005	The Longest Yard	Cheeseburger Eddy "89"
2006	The Alibi	Crazy Eight
2006	Harsh Times	Darrell
2006	The Benchwarmers	Steven
2006	Puff, Puff, Pass	Cool Crush Ice Killa
2006	Click	Singing Guy in Car	Uncredited
2006	Idiocracy	Pres. Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho
2006	Inland Empire	Street Person
2007	Norbit	Big Black Jack Latimore
2007	How to Rob a Bank	Officer Degepse
2007	Who's Your Caddy?	Tank
2007	Balls of Fury	Freddy "Fingers" Wilson
2008	Street Kings	Detective II Terrence Washington
2008	Get Smart	Agent 91
2008	Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control	Agent 91	Direct-to-DVD
2009	Terminator Salvation	Captain Jericho
2009	Gamer	Hackman
2010	The Expendables	Hale Caesar
2010	Lottery Ticket	Jimmy
2010	Middle Men	James
2011	Bridesmaids	Boot Camp Instructor	Cameo
2012	The Expendables 2	Hale Caesar
2013	Scary Movie 5	Martin
2013	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Earl Devereaux (voice)
2014	The Single Moms Club	Branson
2014	Draft Day	Earl Jennings
2014	Blended	Nickens
2014	The Expendables 3	Hale Caesar
2014	VeggieTales: Celery Night Fever	Bruce Onion (voice)	Direct-to-DVD
2014	Reach Me	Wilson
2015	Aztec Warrior	Juan Claudio
2015	The Ridiculous 6	Chico

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999-2001	Battle Dome	T-Money	Game show
2004	CSI: Miami	Craig Waters	Episode: "Rap Sheet"
2005	My Wife and Kids	Daryl	Episode: "Michael Joins a Gym"
2005	All of Us	Parker	Episode: "He-Male Trouble"
2005-2009	Everybody Hates Chris	Julius Rock	Main role (88 episodes)
2005-2007	The Boondocks	Various voices	3 episodes
2010-2011	The Family Crews	Himself	Reality series
2010-2012	Are We There Yet?	Nick Kingston-Persons	Main role (100 episodes)
2012	The Newsroom	Lonny Church	5 episodes
2012	Stars Earn Stripes	Himself	Reality series
2013	Real Husbands of Hollywood	Himself	2 episodes
2013	Second Generation Wayans	Mike Williams	Episode: "The Beginning of the End of the Beginning"
2013	Arrested Development	Herbert Love	5 episodes
2013-2014	Drunk History	Donald DeFreeze / Joe Louis	2 episodes
2013	Ultimate Spider-Man	Blade (voice)	2 episodes
2013	Regular Show	Brock Stettman (voice)	Episode: "The Thanksgiving Special"
2013-present	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Terry Jeffords	Main role
2014	American Dad!	Heinrich Brown (voice)	Episode: "Rubberneckers"
2014-2015	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire	Himself/host
2014	Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.	Blade (voice)	Episode: "Hulking Commandos"
2015	World's Funniest	Himself/host
2015	Lip Sync Battle	Himself/contestant
2016	$100,000 Pyramid	Himself/celebrity guest

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song	Role
2004	Blink-182	"Down"	Police Officer
2005	Jamie Kennedy & Stu Stone	"Rollin With Saget"	Bouncer
2005	Bizarre	"Rockstar"	Dancing Guy Next To The Pool
2013	Major Lazer	"Scare Me"	Major Lazer
2015	Kendrick Lamar	"These Walls"	Talent Show Dancer

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2012	The Expendables 2	Hale Caesar
2013	Saints Row IV	Benjamin King

Accolades

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
2006	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Parental Unit	Everybody Hates Chris (Shared with: Tichina Arnold)	Nominated
2006	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Everybody Hates Chris	Nominated
2007			Everybody Hates Chris	Nominated
2008			Everybody Hates Chris	Nominated
2009		Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series	Everybody Hates Chris	Nominated
2011			Are We There Yet?	Nominated
2011	NAMIC Vision Awards	Best Performance - Comedy	Are We There Yet?	Nominated
2012	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series	Are We There Yet?	Nominated
2013	Annie Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Nominated
2013	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Nominated
2014	Behind the Voice Actors Awards	Breakthrough Voice Actor of the Year	N/A	Nominated
		Best Male Vocal Performance in a Feature Film in a Supporting Role	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Nominated
		Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Nominated
		Best Vocal Ensemble in a Video Game	Saints Row IV	Nominated
2015	Online Film & Television Association Award	Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Nominated
2015	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Nominated
2016			Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]