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Keenen Ivory Wayans

American actor, comedian, and filmmaker

Summary

American actor, comedian, and filmmaker

Field	Value
image	Keenen Ivory Wayans (33906703098) (cropped).jpg
caption	Wayans in 2019
birth_name	Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, U.S.
occupation
years_active	1979–present
family	Wayans family
spouse
partner	Brittany Daniel (2007–2014)
children	5
education
awards	1990–Emmy Award Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
In Living Color (as executive producer)
relatives	{{plainlist

In Living Color (as executive producer)

Dwayne Wayans (brother)
Damon Wayans (brother)
Kim Wayans (sister)
Shawn Wayans (brother)
Marlon Wayans (brother)
Damon Wayans Jr. (nephew) Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans ( ; born June 8, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans first came to prominence as the host and creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color. He has produced, directed or written several films, starting with Hollywood Shuffle, which he cowrote, in 1987. Most of his films have included him and one or more of his siblings in the cast.

One of these films, Scary Movie (2000), which Wayans directed, was the highest-grossing movie directed by an African American until it was surpassed by Tim Story's Fantastic Four in 2005. From 1997 to 1998, he hosted the talk show The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show. In 2014, he was a judge for the eighth season of Last Comic Standing.

Life and career

Wayans was born in Harlem, New York City, the second child of ten for Elvira Alethia (née Green; July 23, 1938–July 10, 2020), a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Stouten Wayans (August 26, 1936–April 1, 2023) a supermarket manager. Genealogical TV show Finding Your Roots revealed that his paternal line traced back to Madagascar. His father was a devout Jehovah's Witness. The family later moved to Manhattan's Fulton housing projects, where he primarily grew up. He attended Seward Park High School during his teenage years, and attended Tuskegee University on an engineering scholarship where he was initiated as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity's Gamma Phi chapter. One semester before graduation, he dropped out of school to focus on comedy.

During his first set performing at The Improv in New York, Wayans met Robert Townsend, who helped him learn about the comedy business. Townsend and Wayans drove to Los Angeles together when Wayans moved to Los Angeles in 1980. Wayans worked there as an actor. He had a regular role as a soldier on the television series For Love and Honor and appeared on Hill Street Blues as an NFL wide receiver.

Townsend wrote, directed, and starred in the movie Hollywood Shuffle; Wayans was costar and cowriter. Wayans wanted to produce a variety show similar to Saturday Night Live, with a cast of people of color that took chances with its content.

Fox gave Wayans a lot of freedom with the show, although Fox executives were a bit concerned about the show's content before its debut. Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the show, In Living Color, a sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from 1990 to 1994.

Personal life

Wayans married Daphne Polk in 2001, but the couple filed for divorce in 2004, and their divorce was finalized in December 2006. He dated actress Brittany Daniel from 2007 to 2014.

''In Living Color''

Characters

Death Row Comic (Prison Cable Access)
Frenchie
Ice Man (Homeboy Shopping Network)
Tom Brothers (The Brothers Brothers)
Wes (Wes & Les)

Impressions

Arsenio Hall
Billy Dee Williams
Don Cornelius
Jesse Jackson
Little Richard
Mike Tyson
Marsha Warfield
Milli (Rob Pilatus) of Milli Vanilli
Morgan Freeman (Damon Wayans was Hoke Coburn from Driving Miss Daisy/Riding Miss Daisy, Principal Joe Louis Clark from Lean on Me)
Rick James
Steve Harvey
Carl Weathers (as Apollo Creed)

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1987	Hollywood Shuffle
Eddie Murphy Raw
1988	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
1991	The Five Heartbeats
1994	A Low Down Dirty Shame
1996	Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
1997	Most Wanted
2000	Scary Movie
2001	Scary Movie 2
2004	White Chicks
2006	Little Man
2009	Dance Flick
2026	Scary Movie 6

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role
1983	Star 80	Comic
1987	Hollywood Shuffle	Donald / Jheri Curl
1988	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	Jack Spade
1994	A Low Down Dirty Shame	Andre Shame
1996	Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood	Mailman
The Glimmer Man	Lieutenant Jim Campbell
1997	Most Wanted	Gunnery Sergeant James Anthony Dunn
2000	Scary Movie	Slave
2009	Dance Flick	Mr. Stache

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1990–1992	In Living Color
1997	The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show
2017	The Boo Crew
2020	The Last O.G.	8 episodes

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	An Evening at the Improv	Himself	Episode: "Episode #2.16"
1982	Cheers	Customer #1	Episode: "Sam's Women"
CHiPs	Roberts	Episode: "Meet the New Guy"
1983	The Renegades	Lloyd Wayne	Episode: "Back to School"
For Love and Honor	Pvt. Duke Johnson	Television film
1983–1984	For Love and Honor	Main cast
1986	Benson	Clete Hawkins	Episode: "Summer of Discontent"
1987	Hill Street Blues	Raymond Jackson	Episode: "The Runner Falls on His Kisser"
A Different World	Professor Lawrence	Episode: "War of the Words"
1990–1993	In Living Color	Himself	Main host (season 1–4)
1991	American Music Awards	Himself	Main host
1997–1998	The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show
1998	Viva Variety	Episode: "Episode #3.7"
2001	My Wife and Kids	Ken	Episode: "A Little Romance"
2013	Happily Divorced	Tony	Episode: "The Biggest Chill"
Real Husbands of Hollywood	Himself	Episode: "Tisha & Duane"
2014–2015	Last Comic Standing	Main judge (season 8–9)
2018	The History of Comedy	Recurring guest (season 2)
2020	This Is Stand-Up	Episode: "Episode #1.2"

References

"Keenen Ivory Wayans". PBS.
Braxton, Greg. (August 3, 1997). "Will 'Hip' Equal 'Hit'?". [[Los Angeles Times]].
Stated on ''[[Finding Your Roots]]'', January 19, 2016, PBS
(January 18, 2016). "Finding Your Roots: Shonda Rhimes, Maya Rudolph and Keenen Ivory Wayans Learn Shocking Facts About Their Families". G/O Media Inc..
Stein, Joel. (September 11, 2000). "Marlon Wayans".
[http://www.themoviechicks.com/mid2004/mctladykillers.html The Movie Chicks – Interview – Marlon Wayans]
Laurence, Robert P.. (April 13, 1990). "Is prime time ready for rudeness? Fox's new comedy 'In Living Color' will offend some, tickle others". The San Diego Union.
Hughes, Mike. (April 13, 1990). "Laughing with 'Living Color'". USA Today.
McIntyre, Mike. (February 16, 1989). "Keenen Wayans gambles and wins on an offbeat 'Sucka'". The San Diego Union.
(April 12, 1990). "New Fox Show Pokes Fun at Black Stereotypes". Greensboro News & Record.
(May 7, 2004). "Keenen Ivory Wayans files for divorce". NBC.
"Brittany Daniel SPEAKS On Cancer Battle & Dating Keenan Ivory Wayans".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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