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Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American comic actor best known for his roles as a cast member on MADtv for six seasons. He has also had recurring roles on Reno 911! and Gary Unmarried.

Biography

Early years

Key was born in Southfield, Michigan and raised in Detroit. His father is African-American and his mother is Caucasian. He is a graduate from Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, Michigan (class of 1989). He attended the University of Detroit as an undergraduate and a member of Phi Kappa Theta, and earned his Master of Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania State University School of Theatre.

Career

MADtv

Keegan joined the cast of MADtv midway into the ninth season. He was groomed to be the next only black male cast member to be chosen over Jordan Peele. 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 (who, on the penultimate episode of MADtv, 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 - 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 'nutha levo." There is also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a jheri curl and a shower cap who interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by Ike Barinholtz), annoying him with rapid fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!" Like Saturday Night Live castmembers, Darrell Hammond, Maya Rudolph, and Fred Armisen, Key plays many different races (mostly Hispanic and Arab) and can play both male and female characters (cf. Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis on a "Desperate Housewives" parody). Key has also done well with celebrity impersonations, including Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Phylicia Rashād, Matthew Lillard, Bill Cosby, Al Roker, Terrell Owens, Tyler Perry, Robin Antin, Chris Brown, Eddie Murphy (as his character James "Early" Thunder from the movie Dreamgirls), Sherman Hemsley (as his character George Jefferson on The Jeffersons), Charles Barkley, Sendhil Ramamurthy (as Mohinder Suresh), Tyson Beckford, Seal, Sidney Poitier, Lionel Richie, Barack Obama, Usain Bolt, and Kobe Bryant.

MADtv characters

Other work

Keegan was one of the founders of Hamtramck, Michigan's Planet Ant Theatre, and was a member of the Second City Detroit's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago.

Keegan is also the current host of Animal Planet's The Planet's Funniest Animals. He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic's video - "White & Nerdy" with fellow MADtv co-star Jordan Peele.^[1]

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

Keegan is currently host of GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has been tapped to co-star in Gary Unmarried on CBS for the fall 2009 season.

Keegan has been in several episodes of Reno 911! as the "Theoretical Criminal".^[2]

Filmography

See also

• MADtv recurring characters

References

1. ^ School of Theatre (2005). "Penn State Alum, Keegan-Michael Key, Lands Starring Role as Host of Planet's Funniest Animals". Penn State. Archived from the original on 2007-11-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20071120135528/http://www.theatre.psu.edu/ourstory/news/111105_key.html. Retrieved 2008-01-17.  
2. ^ "Theoretical criminal (Character) from "Reno 911!"". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0062381. Retrieved 2009-01-18.  

External links

• MADtv Biography
• Keegan-Michael Key at the Internet Movie Database
• Keegan-Michael Key at TV.com