Keegan-Michael Key
Encyclopedia
Keegan-Michael Key is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comic actor best known for his roles as a cast member on MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...

for six seasons. He has also had recurring roles on Reno 911!
Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...

and Gary Unmarried
Gary Unmarried
Gary Unmarried was an American sitcom created by Ed Yeager, which ran on CBS from September 24, 2008 to March 17, 2010. The series focuses on a recently divorced couple sharing custody of their kids while starting new relationships...

. He used to be the host of The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals is a United States television program featured on the Animal Planet cable channel.-Background:Following a similar format as America's Funniest Home Videos and others, the program shows a series of home movies on video submitted by viewers featuring humorous and odd...

. Key will star in his own Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 sketch series Key & Peele in January 2012.

Early life

Key was born in Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...

 and raised in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. His father is African-American and his mother is Caucasian
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...

. He is a graduate of Shrine Catholic High School
Shrine Catholic High School
Shrine Catholic High School is a private, co-educational, Roman Catholic secondary high school located in Royal Oak, Michigan, affiliated with National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. It has an attached middle school called the "Academy"...

 in Royal Oak, Michigan
Royal Oak, Michigan
Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 57,236. It should not be confused with Royal Oak Charter Township, a separate community located nearby....

 (class of 1989). Key attended the University of Detroit as an undergraduate and
earned his Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 at the Pennsylvania State University School of Theatre
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

.

MADtv

Keegan joined the cast of MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...

midway into the ninth season. He was groomed to be the next only black male cast member to be chosen over Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele is an American actor and comedian known as a cast member on MADtv from 2003–2008 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Brian on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital...

. But the latter created memorable characters, and had the most chemistry with Key in sketches, including one where both played jinx-breaking radicals called "The Superstitious Knights". Both were promoted to repertory player status during season 10.

Keegan's characters include the semi-psychotic Coach Hines, who threatens students and others at school assemblies. On the penultimate episode of MADtv, Hines revealed that he is the long-lost heir to the Heinz Ketchup company and only became a Catholic school coach to help delinquent teenagers like Yamanashi [Bobby Lee]). During seasons 9 and 10, Key appeared as "Dr. Funkenstein" in blaxploitation parodies, with Jordan Peele playing the monster.

Key also portrayed various guests on Real **********ing Talk like the strong African Rollo Johnson and blind victim Stevie Wonder Washington. He often goes "backstage" as Eugene Struthers, an always-ecstatic water- or flower-delivery man who accosts celebrities. Struthers' catch-phrase is "takin it to a 'ho 'nuva level."

There is also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a jheri curl and a shower cap. He interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by Ike Barinholtz
Ike Barinholtz
Isaac "Ike" Barinholtz is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. Barinholtz is most notable for his membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv from 2002-2007.-Early life:...

), annoying him with rapid fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!"

Like Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

castmembers, Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...

, Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph
Maya Khabira Rudolph is an American actress, comedienne and singer known for her comedic roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007, and for appearing in films such as Away We Go, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups, A Prairie Home Companion and MacGruber...

, Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and portraying off-color foreigners in various comedy films such as EuroTrip, Anchorman and Cop Out...

, and Nasim Pedrad
Nasim Pedrad
Nasim Pedrad is an Iranian-American comic actress currently appearing as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.-Early life:...

, Key plays many different races (mostly Hispanic and Arab) and can play both male and female characters. Examples include Eva Longoria
Eva Longoria
Eva Jacqueline Longoria is an American actress, best known for portraying Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives...

 as Gabrielle Solis
Gabrielle Solis
Gabrielle Solís is one of four main characters on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. She is portrayed by Eva Longoria...

 on a "Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...

" parody) and Phylicia Rashād
Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashād is an American Tony Award winning actress and singer, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show....

.

Key has also done well with celebrity impersonations, including Ludacris
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges , better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings...

, Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...

, Matthew Lillard
Matthew Lillard
Matthew Lyn Lillard is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his roles as Stu Macher in Scream, Stevo in SLC Punk , and Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film series and the Animated reboot series.-Early life:Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Tustin, California...

, Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...

, Al Roker
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...

, Terrell Owens
Terrell Owens
Terrell Owens is an American football wide receiver who is currently a free agent. A six-time Pro Bowl selection, Owens has been one of the dominant receivers of his era...

, Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...

, Robin Antin
Robin Antin
Robin Antin is an American dancer, choreographer, music video director, actress, showgirl, clothing designer and entrepreneur. In 1995 in Los Angeles Antin, Christina Applegate and Carla Kama founded the modern burlesque troupe The Pussycat Dolls...

, Chris Brown, Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....

 (as his character James "Early" Thunder from the movie Dreamgirls), Sherman Hemsley
Sherman Hemsley
Sherman Alexander Hemsley is an American actor, most famous for his role as George Jefferson on the CBS television series All in the Family and The Jeffersons, and as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P...

 (as his character George Jefferson on The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show was produced by the T.A.T. Communications Company from 1975–1982 and by Embassy Television from 1982-1985...

), Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley is a former American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's most dominating power forwards...

, Sendhil Ramamurthy
Sendhil Ramamurthy
Sendhil Ramamurthy is an American actor. He is best known for the role as geneticist Mohinder Suresh in the NBC drama Heroes.-Personal life:...

 (as Mohinder Suresh
Mohinder Suresh
Mohinder Suresh is a fictional character on the NBC drama Heroes, portrayed by Sendhil Ramamurthy. He is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is a genetics professor at the University of Madras who holds a PhD in parapsychology...

), Tyson Beckford
Tyson Beckford
Tyson Craig Beckford is an American male model and actor, best known as a Ralph Lauren model. He was also the host of both seasons of the Bravo program Make Me a Supermodel.-Biography:...

, Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...

, Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...

, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...

, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt
The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. , is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4×100 metres relay...

, and Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school...

.

MADtv characters

  • Coach Sandoval "Sandy" Heinz / Hines (Coach Hines)
  • Carlton "Carl" Hall (Superstitious Knights)
  • Chad Bascar (Holly Meadow Estates)
  • Caress
  • Dr. Funkenstein
  • Vacuum Salesman (Stuart: Vacuum Salesman)
  • Poker Player #1 (Stuart: Poker Game)
  • Eugene Struthers
  • Gordon Robinson (Sesame Street
    Sesame Street
    Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

    )
  • Jorge (Taco Hell), a melodramatic fast food worker who protests against the gross Americanization of Mexican food
  • Businessman (Bae Sung)
  • Bon Qui Qui's Boyfriend (King Burger)
  • Jovan Muskatelle
  • Knee High (Condi Comes to Harlem)
  • Mandigo Babafume (Real **********ing Talk)
  • Rollo Johnson (Real **********ing Talk)
  • Gangster #1 (Gangster Fight)
  • Midnight (Abercrombie & Fitch Employees)
  • Galvadahl (The Blind Kung Fu Master)
  • Rudolph Poozer (The Lillian Verner Game Show)
  • Steven Wonder "Stevie" Washington (Real **********ing Talk)
  • Edward "Eddie" Thundercloud, a Native American trying to speak out against the media stereotypes of American Indians, but isn't taken seriously by anyone else
  • Razzle Dazzle, a homeless man with tips and solutions on how to live in a recessionary America


Other work

Keegan was one of the founders of Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck is a city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 22,423. Hamtramck is surrounded by the city of Detroit except for a small portion of the western border that touches the similarly surrounded city of Highland Park...

's Planet Ant Theatre
Planet Ant
Planet Ant is a non-profit artist community housed in a three-story tenement in Hamtramck, Michigan. The community has several branches, including a record label, a theatre company, an improv colony and a film production company....

, and was a member of the Second City Detroit
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...

's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Keegan is also the current host of Animal Planet
Animal Planet
Animal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...

's The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals is a United States television program featured on the Animal Planet cable channel.-Background:Following a similar format as America's Funniest Home Videos and others, the program shows a series of home movies on video submitted by viewers featuring humorous and odd...

. He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...

's video - "White & Nerdy" with fellow MADtv co-star Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele is an American actor and comedian known as a cast member on MADtv from 2003–2008 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Brian on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital...

.

During the 2008 NBA finals, Keegan was featured in a series of GMC Denali commercials playing an overzealous attendant in a parking garage.

In 2009, Keegan hosted GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has co-starred in Gary Unmarried
Gary Unmarried
Gary Unmarried was an American sitcom created by Ed Yeager, which ran on CBS from September 24, 2008 to March 17, 2010. The series focuses on a recently divorced couple sharing custody of their kids while starting new relationships...

on CBS.

Keegan was a panelist on the NPR comedy quiz show Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me... on March 27 and July 24, 2010.

Keegan has been in several episodes of Reno 911!
Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...

as the "Theoretical Criminal".

Key and his former MADtv castmate Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele is an American actor and comedian known as a cast member on MADtv from 2003–2008 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Brian on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital...

 will create and star in their own sketch series Key & Peele, which begins airing on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 in January 2012.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2011 Just Go with It
Just Go With It
Just Go with It is a 2011 romantic comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The film was released on , 2011...

Ernesto cameo
2010 Due Date
Due Date
Due Date is a 2010 American comedy road film directed by Todd Phillips, co-written by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, and Adam Sztykiel, and starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. The film was released on November 5, 2010...

New Father cameo
The Wild Bunch Grape Vine In Production
2008 MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...

Himself-Various 2004–2009
Chocolate News
Chocolate News
Chocolate News is a satirical news show hosted and head written by David Alan Grier with an emphasis on African American culture. The show aired on Wednesday nights at 10:30 PM on Comedy Central as a lead-in to their other news satire programs, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert...

Woodsy guest
Role Models
Role Models
Role Models is a 2008 American comedy film directed by David Wain about two energy drink salesmen who are ordered to perform 150 hours of community service as punishment for various offenses. For their service, the two men work at a program designed to pair kids with adult role models. The film...

Duane
Reno 911!
Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...

Theoretical Criminal
Talkshow with Spike Feresten
Talkshow with Spike Feresten
Talkshow with Spike Feresten is an American late-night talk show television program on Fox starring Spike Feresten that aired from September 16, 2006 to May 16, 2009. It was the longest-running late night talk show in Fox's history, with three seasons...

Himself Guest-starred
2007 Sucker For Shelley Michael
Frangela
Frangela
Frangela is a Los Angeles-based comedy duo composed of comedians, Frances Callier and Angela V. Shelton, both of The Second City. Callier and Shelton regularly appeared on the VH1 weekly comedy news review, Best Week Ever, the NPR radio show, Day to Day and the Fox News late night show, "Red Eye w/...

Deshawn
2006 Al TV
Al TV
Al TV is a series of comedy/music video specials created by and starring singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic.-Overview:The premise of the show is that Yankovic uses his private satellite transmitter to commandeer the airwaves of a music video station in order to show the videos that he wants to...

segment 'White & Nerdy'
Grounds Zero Arch
Alleyball Curt Braunschweib
2005 The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals is a United States television program featured on the Animal Planet cable channel.-Background:Following a similar format as America's Funniest Home Videos and others, the program shows a series of home movies on video submitted by viewers featuring humorous and odd...

Himself-Host Host 2005–Present
2004 I'm With Her
I'm with Her
I'm with Her is an American sitcom which aired for one season on ABC.-Synopsis:The series, loosely based on creator Chris Henchy's relationship with wife Brooke Shields, begins on that chance meeting...

Orderly
2003 Uncle Nino
Uncle Nino
Uncle Nino is a 2003 American movie directed by Robert Shallcross and produced by David James. The film deals with a dysfunctional family, who have lost their way, and a distant relative played by Pierrino Mascarino intends to bring them closer together....

Airport Stranger
2001 ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

Witkowski
2000 Garage: A Rock Saga TV Studio Manager
1999 Get the Hell Out of Hamtown J

External links

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