Profile of Dave Chappelle on Famous Like Me

For the director and photographer, see David LaChapelle.

David Chappelle (born August 24, 1973 in Washington, D.C.) is an American comedian and actor.

Biography

Chappelle attended elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland and went to middle school in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his father William was a professor and taught voice and music at Antioch College. After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to Washington, D.C., with his mother Yvonne Seon (a Unitarian Religious minister). He attended high school in Washington D.C., but spent his summers with his father in Yellow Springs.

Chappelle began playing comedy clubs in Washington when he was 14 years old, while studying acting and literary media at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Within a year, he had a chance to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. He was promptly booed off stage. Undeterred, Chappelle became a hit at clubs along the East Coast, refining sets which were laid-back and socially conscious. By 1992, he had appeared on HBO's Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam. Catching the eye of Whoopi Goldberg, he became the youngest comic to have a featured spot on Comic Relief VI, at age 20.

His first major role was in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Chappelle turned down the role of Bubba in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, in various stand-up appearances he has defended refusing the role, because of the stereotypical racial overtones of a black sidekick less intelligent than the white main character. He later appeared as the abrasive comedian in the remake of The Nutty Professor, had a minor role in Con Air, had a supporting role in Martin Lawrence's Blue Streak, and then wrote and starred in Half Baked, a cult film about a group of pot-smoking best friends trying to get their friend out of jail. Chappelle appeared as himself in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show. In that performance, Chappelle and the executives of the show's nameless television network satirized the treatment that scriptwriters and show creators are subject to, as well as the executives' knee-jerk stereotyping when it comes to race.

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly television show on Comedy Central, Chappelle's Show. His sketch comedy heavily skewers racial stereotypes and slurs, including Chappelle's African-American heritage. This, with pointed social and political commentary, quickly achieved great popularity. By the end of the second season, it was one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable, and second only to South Park on Comedy Central. Additionally, the DVD set of the first season became the best-selling DVD of a TV show ever. Due to the popularity of his show, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $50 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of "Chappelle's Show" for two more years while allowing him to do side projects.

Chappelle's Show has a large hip-hop following and has featured such progessive rappers as: Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Kanye West. The Chappelle Show has also spotlighted musical guests such as Wu-Tang Clan, Outkast, Fat Joe and Erykah Badu.

One of Chappelle's most well-known skits has him portraying the late funk/rock bassist,poducer and band leader Rick James during his drug years, and the phrase "I'm Rick James, bitch!" (a phrase James acknowledged he actually used) has now become a part of popular culture as have many of his other characters and skits. Chappelle also has done two music videos, "Piss On You" and its remix, which parody R&B singer R. Kelly's "Feeling on your Booty", and "Ignition Remix".

Chappelle lives with his wife Elaine and two sons (one known to be named Sulayman) on a farm just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio. When he is not touring or engaged in filming for television or the big screen, he can be seen in the shops and markets of the small college town. He converted to Islam around 1998. He told TIME Magazine in a May 2005 interview that he does not often discuss his religion publicly because he does not feel qualified to represent the Islamic faith before the public.

Chappelle's Show is on hiatus as of July 2005 while he sorts out unspecified personal issues. On May 11, news sources (most notably Entertainment Weekly) reported that Chappelle had checked himself into a psychiatric facility in South Africa. Chappelle denies this. On May 14, Time Magazine announced that one of their reporters, Christopher John Farley, had interviewed Chappelle in South Africa, and the comedian said no psychiatric treatments were occurring or necessary. Chappelle has said that he was on a "spiritual retreat". In an interview, Chappelle said, "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 a beautiful religion if you learn it the right way. It's a lifelong effort. Your religion is your standard. Coming here I don't have the distractions of fame. It quiets the ego down. I'm interested in the kind of person I've got to become. I want to be well rounded and the industry is a place of extremes. I want to be well balanced. I've got to check my intentions, man." Chappelle reportedly went to South Africa to purify himself and to do some soul searching. The comedian stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of his Comedy Central series, "Chappelle's Show." He spent two weeks in South Africa before returning home to his 65-acre farm near Yellow Springs, about 75 miles northeast of Cincinnati, and then returned to standup comedy. "I like that particular kind of attention. People don't know what it's like standing up there onstage, when you have a wall of people smiling at you," Chappelle told CNN. Chappelle has said he was unhappy with the direction of his show. His decision triggered reports that he had mental or drug problems, which he denied. "It was a little weird," he said. "It felt like some of the stuff was real tabloid, like raw speculation."

Chappelle is a big fan of computer and video games such as World of Warcraft, Street Fighter and Grand Theft Auto. On Chappelle's Show, he even created his own Grand Theft Auto skit as a homage.

More recent news has located Chappelle back in the United States, at his house in Ohio, as well as performing impromptu shows in Los Angeles and the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Newport, Kentucky.

On August 3rd, co-star Charlie Murphy gave an interview to TV Guide stating that he believes that Dave Chappelle is finished with Chappelle's Show and would not be returning.

Television

• Chappelle's Show, 2003 TV Show as Host/Star
• Crank Yankers Shavin, 2002 Voice
• The Dana Carvey Show, 2000 Writer

...

Filmography

• Undercover Brother, 2002 as Conspiracy Brother
• Screwed, 2000 as Rusty P. Hayes
• Blue Streak, 1999 as Tulley
• Half Baked, 1998 as Thurgood Jenkins/Sir Smoke-a-lot
• 200 Cigarettes, 1998 as Disco Cabbie
• You've Got Mail, 1998 as Kevin Jackson
• Woo, 1998 as Lenny
• The Real Blonde, 1997 as Zee
• Con Air, 1997 as Joe 'Pinball' Parker
• The Nutty Professor, 1996 as Reggie Warrington
• Getting In, 1994 as Ron
• Undercover Blues, 1993 as Ozzie
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights, 1993 as Ahchoo

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Dave Chappelle