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Though he was born in South Carolina, Chris Rock grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Rock discovered comedy early in life, and was performing in the New York standup comedy circuit by his late teens. It wasn't until a performance at the New York Comedy Strip that Rock's dream became tangible. That night, a then 18-year-old, Rock was introduced to veteran comedian Eddie Murphy, who was impressed enough to cast him in 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II. While it was no breakout performance, the role and newfound connection with Eddie Murphy helped Rock land a couple of small supporting roles, and eventually a spot on NBC's long-running Saturday Night Live. Rock stayed with SNL for the better part of three years, and periodically guest-starred in fellow comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans' In Living Color. In 1991, he took a break from comedy in favor of a more dramatic role — indeed, Rock's performance as a surprisingly innocent crack addict-cum-informant in Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City attracted no small amount of favorable attention. Perhaps the role in New Jack City is indicative of Rock's driving force (i.e., the politics of modern society and issues within African-American communities throughout the United States). Though his delivery is certainly of a comedic nature, many of his favorite topics are quite serious, and it was Rock's ability to confront these issues so accurately that launched his career during the late '90s. While his 1993 screenwriting debut received only lukewarm reviews, Rock became a household name after his scathing HBO comedy special Bring the Pain (1996), earning him two Emmy awards and a significantly larger fan base. The same year, he received a third Emmy for his work as a writer and correspondent for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Before long, Rock received a fourth Emmy as well as the NAACP Image Award for his work on HBO's The Chris Rock Show, which aired throughout 1998 and 1999. Rock's film career would continue to grow throughout the late '90s, and the young comic won particular notice for his role as a hot-headed law enforcement agent in 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 opposite Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, and later for Kevin Smith's Dogma(1999), in which he played a rather bitter apostle of Jesus. He also published a book titled Rock This! with much success. Though Dogma received mixed reviews, 1999 was no lukewarm year for Rock — HBO came through once again, and Chris hit it big with Bigger & Blacker, his second televised comedy special, which took on topics ranging from gun-control to Bill Clinton and proper parenting techniques. In 2000, he played a fantasy hitman alongside Ren |
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