Christopher Julius Rock III (born February 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director.
After working as a standup comic and appearing in small film roles, Rock came to wider prominence as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. He went on to more prominent film appearances, with starring roles in Down to Earth (2001), Head of State (2003), the Madagascar film series (2005–2012), Grown Ups (2010), its sequel Grown Ups 2 (2013), Top Five (2014), and a series of acclaimed comedy specials for HBO. He developed, wrote, and narrated the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris (2005–2009), which was based on his early life.
Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards in 2005 and the 88th in 2016. He has won four Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards. He was voted the fifth-greatest stand-up comedian in a poll conducted by Comedy Central. He was also voted in the United Kingdom as the ninth-greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007, and again in the updated 2010 list as the eighth-greatest stand-up comic.
Christopher Julius Rock III was born in Andrews, South Carolina on February 7, 1965. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they relocated and settled in the working-class area of Bedford–Stuyvesant. His mother, Rosalie (née Tingman), was a teacher and social worker for the mentally handicapped; his father, Christopher Julius Rock II, was a truck driver and newspaper deliveryman. Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery. Rock’s younger brothers Tony, Kenny, and Jordan are also in the entertainment business. His older half-brother, Charles, died in 2006 after a long struggle with alcoholism. Rock has said that he was influenced by the performing style of his paternal grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher. At eighteen while performing at New York’s Comedy Strip, he met Eddie Murphy, who was so impressed with the scathing young comedian that he cast him in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). From there Rock went on to play a small supporting role with the Not Ready for Primetime Players on the NBC sketch comedy series and Saturday Night Live (SNL), both in 1990.
He remained with SNL for three years, periodically drifting over to In Living Color as a guest performer. Rock also found time to make more film appearances, with his character a crack head/informant in New Jack City (1991) attracting a favorable attention. Rock made his screenwriting debut in 1993 with CB4. In 1996 he married Malaak Compton who is a publicist. On television, he found particular success with the 1997 HBO comedy special Bring the Pain! During that time he earned two Emmy awards. That same year, he also received an Emmy nomination for his work as a writer and correspondent on Comedy Central’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Rock went on to entertain with The Chris Rock Show.
In 1997 Rock recorded and received a Grammy nomination for his comedy album Roll With The New. Two years later he did it again with his album Bigger and Blacker. In 1998 and 1999 he won both Emmy, Cable/ACE and NAACP Image Award nominations for the Chris Rock Show. Other films include Lethal Weapon 4 and Kevin Smith’s Dogma, in 1998. Also that year, Rock published a book Rock This! In 2002 Rock starred in the film Bad Company.
In early 2005, Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards ceremony. The decision to have Rock host the awards was seen by some as a chance to bring an “edge” to the ceremony, and to make it more relevant or appealing to younger audiences. Jokingly, Rock opened by saying “Welcome to the 77th and LAST Academy Awards!” During one segment Rock asked, “Who is this guy?” in reference to actor Jude Law seemingly appearing in every movie Rock had seen that year and implied Law was a low-rent Tom Cruise (he made a joke about filmmakers rushing production when unable to get the actors they want: “If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait [to make the film]!”). Subsequently, a defensive Sean Penn took the stage to present and said, “In answer to our host’s question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors.” (At the time, Penn and Law were shooting All the King’s Men.) Law was not the only actor that Rock poked fun at that evening, however—he turned the joke on himself at one point, saying, “If you want Denzel [Washington] and all you can get is me, wait!” Older Oscar officials were reportedly displeased with Rock’s performance, which did not elevate ratings for the ceremony. Rock was also criticized for referring to the Oscars as “idiotic”, and asserting that heterosexual men do not watch them, in an interview prior to Oscar night.
Rock’s family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2 in 2008. A DNA test showed that he is of Cameroonian descent, specifically from the Udeme people of northern Cameroon. Rock’s great-great-grandfather, Julius Caesar Tingman, was a slave for 21 years before serving in the American Civil War as part of the United States Colored Troops. During the 1940s, Rock’s paternal grandfather moved from South Carolina to New York City to become a taxicab driver and preacher.
On October 21, 2015 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Rock would host the 88th Academy Awards. When the subsequent acting nominations turned out to include no racial minorities, Rock was called upon to join a boycott of the ceremony. Rock declined however, stating at the ceremony that it would have accomplished little since the show would have proceeded anyway, with him simply replaced. Instead, Rock spoke of his concerns about the lack of diversity in AMPAS at various times during the show, closing by saying “Black Lives Matter.”