Wayne Brady

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Wayne Brady

Born:	June 2, 1972 (age 34) Orlando, Florida
Occupation:	Actor, comedian and singer
Spouse:	Mandie Taketa

Wayne Brady (born June 2, 1972 in Orlando, Florida) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, singer and television personality, best known for his role on ABC's television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and for his daytime talk show, The Wayne Brady Show.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Public image and Chappelle's Show satire 3 Partial filmography 4 Singles 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

Brady was born in Orlando, Florida, and graduated from Dr. Phillips High School at the age of 16 ^[1]. His first job as an entertainer was playing Tigger at Walt Disney World. He began to perform at a central Florida comedy club called SAK Comedy Lab. He moved from Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada and then eventually on to Los Angeles, California in 1996, where he developed his acting skills. Brady is married to Mandie Taketa of Kaneohe, Hawaii, USA, and their daughter, Maile Masako Brady, was born on February 3, 2003.

In Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which featured Drew Carey, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, and Colin Mochrie, Brady astounded viewers with his amazing singing, acting abilities, his dead-on impressions of various singers and his sense of humor. In 2003, Brady won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Series for his work on the show. He went on to star in his own ABC variety show in 2001 called The Wayne Brady Show, which failed, and a daytime talk show of the same name in 2002, which lasted two seasons and won four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which went to Brady for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Wayne Brady also guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1999 and 2000 to take part in Drew Live and Drew Live II. On the show, Brady played several games taken from Whose Line Is It Anyway? for the two episodes with other characters.

In 2004, Brady joined the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago, playing the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. He also appeared briefly in the final episode of the 2004 season of the comedy Reno 911!. He also guest starred on the Sci Fi Channel's hit series show Stargate SG-1 as the first-prime of the Goa'uld system lord Ares.

Brady wrote and sang the theme song for Disney's popular animated series The Weekenders. In 2005, he sang and recorded Jim Brickman's original Disney song "Beautiful" and its Christmas version.^[2]

In 2006, Brady became the host of TV Land's That's What I'm Talking About, a talk show discussing the role of African-Americans in the entertainment industry.

From August 29 to September 29, 2006, Brady hosted the FOX show Celebrity Duets.

On November 27, 2006, Brady made a guest appearance on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing James, the homosexual brother of Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney. His character conflicts with Barney due to his choice to marry and adopt a baby.

He had also appeared as a guest star for the MTV show Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out.

Wayne also appeared on the episode "You Don't Know Jack" on the television show Dirt and also guest stared on the show 30 Rock, where he played the role of Steven Black, Liz Lemon's date for the The Source Awards. Steven and Liz's relationship quickly ended when they discovered they had nothing in common and Liz accidentally shot him in the butt.

[edit] Public image and Chappelle's Show satire

Wayne Brady has successfully carved out a career and public image through his various family-friendly projects and roles. The actor has also been the subject of mocking satire due to his squeaky clean persona.

Most notable was an episode of the Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show, when cast member Paul Mooney mocked Brady in his "Negrodamus" sketch. In the sketch, Mooney's character "prophesied" that "White people love Wayne Brady, because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X"; a reference to the fact that many of Brady's fans are white Americans who enjoy the actor's family-friendly projects.

Show creator and star Dave Chappelle later called to apologize to Brady and offered him a guest spot on the show. In the episode, Brady is hired to host the series after Chappelle "quits" the series and later co-stars in a flashback sequence (which parodied the 2001 film Training Day), in which Wayne Brady reveals himself to be a violent, sociopathic pimp who torments Chappelle when the two spend the night together hanging out. One of the most memorable lines from the sketch is Wayne Brady telling a prostitute who worked for him, "Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?"

While the guest appearance helped garner newfound respect for Brady in terms of him being willing to mock his own clean-cut persona, behind the scenes footage included on Chappelle's Show season two DVD indicated that Brady had a hard time filming the sketch, especially in its use of foul language and violence because he felt it would damage his image.

[edit] Partial filmography

• Foodfight! (2007)
• The List (2006)
• Crossover (2006)
• Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild (2005)
• Roll Bounce (2005)
• Going to the Mat (2004) - Mason Wyatt
• Clifford's Really Big Movie (2004) - Shackelford
• Geppetto (2000)
• Batman Beyond (2000) - Micron

[edit] Singles

• "Don't Stop" (2005) - Jamie Jones featuring Wayne Brady and William Carthright

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.hnlnews.com/features0702/wayne.html
2. ^ "Beautiful" from The Disney Songbook album by Jim Brickman and Disney's Cinderella [Special Edition] soundtrack. "Beautiful" (Christmas version) from Disney's Princess Christmas Album

[edit] External links

• Wayne Brady at the Internet Movie Database
• Wayne Brady's official website
• Training Day Parody sketch from Chappelle's Show