Cedric the Entertainer (born Cedric Kyles, April 24, 1964) is an African-American actor and comedian. The self-dubbed title "The Entertainer" comes from his early days as a comedian when he also sang and danced.

Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, he spent his younger years as a comedian as well, voted "most popular" and "most humorous" by his high school classmates. He began his career doing stand-up comedy, winning several comedy contests and performing at various comedy clubs nationwide. In 1992, he made his first television appearance on It's Showtime at the Apollo. Soon after, he would appear on HBO's Def Comedy Jam and BET's ComicView , which he would later host for the 1994-95 season. In 1994, Cedric the Entertainer also won the Richard Pryor Comic of the Year Award from BET.

In 1996, Cedric moved into acting, playing Steve Harvey's friend, Cedric Jackie Robinson, on his popular sitcom, The Steve Harvey Show. His acting career grew and he began appearing in several movies, including Big Momma's House, Dr. Dolittle 2, Barbershop, Barbershop 2 , Serving Sara, Johnson's Family Vacation , Intolerable Cruelty and Man of the House.

However, while his acting career grew, Cedric stuck with his stand-up comedy, travelling the country as one of the Kings of Comedy headliners, with Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac. The comedy act would later be put into a film by Spike Lee called The Original Kings of Comedy .

Cedric the Entertainer briefly had his own sketch comedy show called Cedric the Entertainer Presents , but it never caught on and was cancelled after two seasons.

External links

• Cedric the Entertainer Official Site