Dave Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian, screenwriter, producer, and actor.
Let’s find out some intriguing facts about him!
1. David Khari “Dave” Webber Chappelle was born August 24, 1973 in Washington, D.C..
2. He is the youngest of three children.
3. His father, William David Chappelle III, worked as a statistician before becoming a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
4. His mother, Yvonne, is biracial, and was a professor at Howard University, Prince George’s Community College, and the University of Maryland, and is also a Unitarian Universalist minister.
5. Chappelle also has a stepmother and a stepbrother.
6. He has stated his grandparents are multiracial from rape.
7. Chappelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and attended Woodlin Elementary School.
8. His parents were politically active, and the family house was visited by notable individuals including Pete Seeger and Johnny Hartman. The latter predicted he would be a comedian and, around this time, Chappelle’s comic inspiration came from Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor.
9. After his parents separated, Chappelle stayed in Washington with his mother while spending summers with his father in Ohio.
10. In 1991, he graduated from Washington’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where he studied theater arts.
11. Chappelle moved to New York City to pursue a career as a comedian. He gathered the courage to perform at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater in front of the infamous “Amateur Night” audience, but he was booed off stage.
12. He quickly made a name for himself on the New York comedy circuit, even performing in the city’s parks. Whoopi Goldberg nicknamed him “The Kid”.
13. At 19, he made his film debut as “Ahchoo” in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
14. After beginning his film career in 1993 as Ahchoo in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights, he landed supporting roles in box office hits including The Nutty Professor, Con Air, You’ve Got Mail, Blue Streak and Undercover Brother.
15. His first lead role was in the 1998 comedy film Half Baked, which he co-wrote with Neal Brennan.
Chappelle also starred in the ABC TV series Buddies.
16. In 2003, Chappelle became more widely known for his sketch comedy television series, Chappelle’s Show, also co-written with Brennan, which ran until his retirement from the show two years later. The show continues to run in late-night syndication and on television networks around the world.
17. By 2006, Chappelle was called the “comic genius of America” by Esquire and, in 2013, “the best” by a Billboard writer.
18. Chappelle lives with his wife, Elaine Mendoza Erfe, sons Sulayman and Ibrahim, and daughter Sanaa on a 65-acre (260,000 m2) farm near Yellow Springs, Ohio.
19. He also owned several houses in Xenia, Ohio.
20. Chappelle told Yellow Springs’ residents in September 2006, “Turns out you don’t need $50 million to live around these parts, just a nice smile and a kind way about you. You guys are the best neighbors ever. That’s why I came back and that’s why I’m staying.”
21. Chappelle converted to Islam in 1998. He told Time in May 2005, “I don’t normally talk about my religion publicly because I don’t want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way.”
22. In 2009 Comedy Central ranked him No. 43 in the “100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time”.
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