actor; comedian
Personal Information
Born on June 2, 1972, in Orlando, FL; married Mandie Taketa, 1999.
Career
Actor: On Promised Land, 1994; Kwik Witz, 1996; Vinyl Justice, 1998; Hollywood Squares, 1998; Whose Line Is It Anyway?, 1998-01; Geppetto, 2000; The Wayne Brady Show, 2001. TV guest appearances: Superboy, 1990; I'll Fly Away, 1991; Clarissa Explains It All, 1993; In the Heat of the Night, 1993; The Home Court, 1995; The Magic Hour, 1998; The Drew Carey Show, 1999; Batman Beyond, 2000; The Drew Carey Show, 2000; The Cindy Margolis Show, 2000; Strassman, 2000. Writer: The Wayne Brady Show, 2001. Producer: The Wayne Brady Show, 2001.
Life's Work
Called an "improvisational guru" by People magazine, Wayne Brady has become a familiar face in homes across America. A regular on ABC's improvisational comedy show Who's Line Is It Anyway?, Brady's charm, humor, and vocal talent have earned him both admiration and recognition. "Right now I'm starting to get recognized," Brady told the San Francisco Chronicle, "Some people actually say, 'Hey, are you Wayne Brady?' rather than, 'Hey, aren't you the black guy on Whose Line Is It Anyway?'."
Brady was born on June 2, 1972, in Orlando, Florida. With his father, an army serviceman, posted overseas and his 17-year-old mother unable to take care of him, Brady was raised by his grandmother, Valerie Petersen. A shy boy, Brady, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "stuttered, had acne, was stick thin, couldn't get a girlfriend, and got beat up 'for breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner' because he was in gifted classes and ROTC."
It was when he was 16 that Brady discovered his gift for entertaining. Thinking that there was really nothing else for him to do, Brady had intended on going into the military after he completed high school. But then a friend of his pulled out of the school play, asking Brady to take over the one-line part. "As soon as I stepped onstage," Brady told Jet, "my stutter went away, my self-confidence went up, and with that first bit of applause, [I was] hooked." He graduated from Dr. Phillips High School in 1990 and began to focus on a career in entertainment. Brady started taking lessons for dancing, singing, and acting. He got jobs at a variety of places, including Disney World, Universal Studios, and Great America. One of the parts he played at Walt Disney World was that of the bouncy trouncy Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh parade. At this time Brady was also involved in community theater, appearing in such productions as A Chorus Line and Jesus Christ: Superstar.
In 1991, while still in Florida, Brady met and befriended Jonathan Magnum. The duo soon formed an improv group called the Houseful of Honkeys. Around this same time the two moved to Los Angeles. Things did not take off right away for Brady, though, and while in Los Angeles, to pay the rent, he took a multitude of parts in dinner theater companies and on cruise ships, as well as a number of walk-on roles on television shows like Superboy, I'll Fly Away, In the Heat of the Night, Clarissa Explains It All, and The Home Court. In 1996, while doing a musical revue in Hawaii, Brady met Mandie Taketa, and the couple were married three years later. It was also in 1996, after the six-month musical revue was finished and he had returned to California, that Brady was chosen to take part in an improvisational group called Kwik Witz. Although the show wasn't entirely improvisational--there was a disclaimer at the end of each performance that stated that the actors knew their topics beforehand--it still put Brady into the spotlight. It was there that he was noticed by the producers of the British television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
When the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? aired in 1998, Brady appeared as a rotating replacement, but soon was switched to being one of the regular members of the cast. He became known for his musical improvisations and was even nominated in 2001 for an Emmy Award for an Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program. Drew Carey, Brady's coworker on Whose Line Is It Anyway? was quoted by the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service as having said of Brady, "He's great, he's really super talented, really charismatic, and he's a thrill to work with. When he's onstage, he's something to see. I remember the first time I worked with him, I couldn't believe the stuff he was doing. It was like watching magic tricks."
The show brought Brady widespread fame. Jet noted, "While the show's other improvisers are talented, Brady is arguably the single reason Whose Line has remained one of ABC's most popular shows since its 1998 premiere." However, there was one thing that bothered Brady--often people did not believe that the improvisational scenes staged on the show really were improvised. "That kind of ticks me off when people ask that," Brady told The Denver Post. Yet Brady realized it was also a compliment to the quick wit and talent of the actors that viewers did not believe anyone could think up such humorous skits on the spot.
Of course, Brady had sold out comedy improvisational shows across the country for years, which was, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Pretty good for a [man] who bucks the notion that to sell out big venues, you've got to have R- or X-rated material." Not only has Brady become a synonym for good improvisational acting, but he has done so on his own, family-rated terms. This good, family humor won him the star spot for Church's Chicken television commercials and even for a string of Bud Light commercials.
In 2001, Brady was given his own show, aptly named The Wayne Brady Show, which he hosted and starred in, along with Brooke Dillman, Jonathan Mangum, J.P. Manoux, and Missi Pyle. Brady described the show to People Weekly: "The template is Flip Wilson and Carol Burnett scrunched together, then laid on top of a human Muppet show. It's family TV." The show, a risky one by today's standards, raised ABC's summer ratings in its Wednesday time slot by 4 million viewers. According to a reporter for the New York Post, "I haven't laughed at a sketch show this much since my all-time favorite sketch show In Living Color, bit the dust, lo these many years ago... . Wayne Brady and co. are as funny a show as the old Carol Burnett Show ensemble company and the Wayans brothers combined." A critic for the Los Angeles Times wrote that Brady was "devastatingly funny" but also mentioned that some of the improvisational pieces could have been better. ABC signed up The Wayne Brady Show for 6 more episodes and also signed Brady to do a Christmas Special.
Wanting to avoid being pigeon-holed as the comedic song and dance man on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Brady next set the goal of winning a movie role. He received many offers, but Brady wanted to be sure he chose only roles that were right for him. "I just have to be careful and handle it right," Brady told the San Francisco Chronicle, "so that in five years I don't become an episode of the E! True Hollywood Story!"
Awards
Emmy Award nomination, Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program, 2001.
Further Reading
Periodicals
- Advertising Age, March 1, 1999, p. 8.
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 8, 2001, p. C10.
- The Denver Post, March 1, 2001, p. F5.
- Entertainment Weekly, August 10, 2001, p. 57.
- Interview, September, 2001, p. 132.
- Jet, August 27, 2001, p. 62; September 24, 2001.
- Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, July 26, 2001, p. K6196; August 7, 2001, p. K2667.
- Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1999, p.6; April 27, 2000, p. F7; August 8, 2001, p. F4; August 15, 2001, p. F11.
- Mediaweek, August 27, 2001, p. 8.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 14, 2001, p. 6.
- New York Post, August 8, 2001, p. 70.
- People, June, 2000, p. 70.
- People Weekly, September 3, 2001, p. 95.
- San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 2001, p. B1.
- The Washington Post, September 4, 2001, p. C1.
- www.imdb.com.
- www.tvtome.com.
— Catherine Victoria Donaldson
