Keegan-Michael Key Biography

Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He starred in the Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele and co-stars in the USA Network comedy series Playing House. He spent six seasons as a cast member on MADtv. In 2014, he also starred in the first season of the FX series Fargo and the final season of the NBC series Parks and Recreation. He has had supporting roles in several films, including Let's Be Cops, Tomorrowland and Pitch Perfect 2. In 2015, Key appeared at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as the character Luther, President Barack Obama's anger translator. Since 2013, he has made several guest appearances on Whose Line is it Anyway?

Early life

Key was born in Southfield, Michigan, and raised in Detroit. He is biracial and was adopted as a child by a black father and a white mother. Being biracial has been a source of comedic material for Key, who told Terri Gross in an interview for NPR, "I think the reason Jordan and I became actors is because we did a fair amount of code-switching growing up and still do." In 1989, he graduated from Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, Michigan. Key attended the University of Detroit Mercy as an undergraduate and earned his Master of Fine Arts in Theater at Pennsylvania State University. While at The University of Detroit Mercy, he was a brother of Phi Kappa Theta. He later discovered the identity of his birth mother, and that he had two half-brothers who were both already deceased, one of them comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie.

Career

MADtv

Key joined the cast of MADtv midway into the ninth season. He and Jordan Peele were cast against each other so that FOX could pick one black cast member, but both ended up being picked after demonstrating great comedic chemistry.

Key played many characters on the show. One of his most famous characters is "Coach Hines", a high school sports coach who frequently disrupts and threatens students and faculty members. On the penultimate episode of MADtv, Hines revealed that he is the long-lost heir to the Heinz Ketchup company and only became a Catholic school coach to help delinquent teenagers like Yamanashi (Bobby Lee). During seasons 9 and 10, Key appeared as "Dr. Funkenstein" in blaxploitation parodies, with Jordan Peele playing the monster.

Key also portrayed various guests on Real **********ing Talk like the strong African Rollo Johnson and blind victim Stevie Wonder Washington. He often goes "backstage" as Eugene Struthers, an always-ecstatic water- or flower-delivery man who accosts celebrities. There is also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a jheri curl and a shower cap. He interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by Ike Barinholtz), annoying him with rapid fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!"

Celebrities that Key impersonated on the show include Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Roscoe Orman (as his character Gordon from Sesame Street), Matthew Lillard, Bill Cosby, Al Roker, Terrell Owens, Tyler Perry, Robin Antin, Keith Richards, Eddie Murphy (as his character James "Thunder" Early from the movie Dreamgirls), Sherman Hemsley (as his character George Jefferson on The Jeffersons), Charles Barkley, Sendhil Ramamurthy (as Mohinder Suresh), Tyson Beckford, Seal (originally played by Jordan Peele until Peele left the show at the end of season 13), Sidney Poitier, Lionel Richie, Barack Obama, and Kobe Bryant.

He also played female celebrities, including Phylicia Rash?d, and Eva Longoria (as Gabrielle Solis on a "Desperate Housewives" parody).

Key & Peele

Key and his former MADtv castmate Jordan Peele starred in their own Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele, which began airing on January 31, 2012, and has run for five seasons until September 9, 2015. Key and his comedy partner Jordan Peele starred in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, with Key playing Mahatma Gandhi and Peele playing Martin Luther King Jr. The pair then returned to Epic Rap Battles of History for the second time in the "Muhammad Ali versus Michael Jordan" battle, with Key portraying Jordan.

In March 2015, it was announced that Key would reprise his role as Mr. Garvey in a feature-length film based on the character portrayed in sketches on the show, while Peele will portray a rival teacher. The film titled Substitute Teacher will be written by Rich Talarico and Alex Rubens who are co-producers on the show.

Key was introduced by President Barack Obama at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner as Luther, Obama's Anger Translator, one of Key's characters from the show.

Other work

Key was one of the founders of Hamtramck, Michigan's Planet Ant Theatre, and was a member of the Second City Detroit's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago. Key co-founded the Detroit Creativity Project along with Beth Hagenlocker, Marc Evan Jackson, Margaret Edwartowski, and Larry Joe Campbell. The Detroit Creativity Project teaches students in Detroit improvisation as a way to improve their communication skills. Key performed with The 313, an improv group formed with other members of Second City Hollywood that appears around the country. The 313 is made up primarily of former Detroit residents and named for Detroit's area code. Key also hosted Animal Planet's The Planet's Funniest Animals.

He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "White & Nerdy" with fellow MADtv co-star Jordan Peele. In 2009, Key hosted GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has co-starred in Gary Unmarried on CBS. Key was a panelist on the NPR comedy quiz show Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me... on March 27 and July 24, 2010. Key has been in several episodes of Reno 911! as the "Theoretical Criminal".

Key and Peele were featured on the cover and in a series of full-page comic photos illustrating The New York Times Magazine article "Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?" on March 31, 2013. A live-action video version was also featured on the Times' website. Key co-stars in the upcoming horror-comedy Hell Baby. Key is one of the rotating "fourth chair" performers in the 2013 revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

In addition to Key & Peele, he also is currently co-starring in the USA Network comedy series Playing House, which began airing its first season in April 2014.

Together with his comedy partner Jordan Peele, Key played an FBI agent in a recurring role in the 2014 FX crime drama Fargo.

Key was involved in audio episodes for the marketing campaign, "Hunt the Truth" on the website for the video game Halo 5: Guardians, voicing a fictional journalist and war photographer named Benjamin Giraud, who investigates the Master Chief's background.

Key has had small supporting roles in numerous films, including 2014's Horrible Bosses 2, Let's Be Cops and the animated The Lego Movie, as well as Pitch Perfect 2 and Tomorrowland in 2015. Key and Peele are currently working with Judd Apatow on a feature-length film for Universal Pictures.

Personal life

Key married Cynthia Blaise in December 1998. Key filed for divorce from Blaise on January 1, 2016.

Key is allergic to cats.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Get the Hell Out of Hamtown	J
2000	Garage: A Rock Saga	TV Studio Manager
2003	Uncle Nino	Airport Stranger
2004	Mr. 3000	Reporter
2006	Alleyball	Curt Braunschweib
2006	Grounds Zero	Arch	Short film
2007	Sucker For Shelley	Michael	Short film
2008	Yoga Matt	Matt	Short film
2008	Role Models	Duane
2008	Land of Arabia	Dwayne	Short film
2010	Welcome to the Jungle Gym	Mike McKenzie	Short film
2010	Due Date	New Father
2011	Just Go with It	Ernesto
2011	Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star	Guinness Man
2012	Wanderlust	Marcys Flunkie
2013	Hell Baby	F'Resnel
2013	Afternoon Delight	Bo
2014	The Lego Movie	Frank the Foreman	Voice
2014	Teacher of the Year	Ronald Douche
2014	Let's Be Cops	Pupa
2014	Horrible Bosses 2	Mike
2015	Pitch Perfect 2	Beca's Boss
2015	Tomorrowland	Hugo Gernsback
2015	Vacation	Jack Peterson
2015	Hotel Transylvania 2	Murray the Mummy	Voice
2015	Freaks of Nature	Mr. Keller
2016	Keanu	Clarence	Post-production
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	The Judge	Voice
2016	Don't Think Twice		Filming
2016	Storks		Voice
2016	Why Him?		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	ER	Witkowski	Episode: "Quo Vadis?"
2004	I'm With Her	Orderly	Episode: "Poison Ivy"
2004-2009, 2016	MADtv	Various	107 episodes; also writer
2005-2008	The Planet's Funniest Animals	Host	30 episodes
2007	Frangela	DeShawn	TV movie
2008	Chocolate News	Woodsy	Episode: "1.5"
2008-2009	Reno 911!	Theoretical Criminal	8 episodes
2010	Sons of Tucson	Eric	Episode: "Pilot"
2009-2010	Gary Unmarried	Curtis	17 episodes
2010-2015	Childrens Hospital	Cop / Captain Tripper	3 episodes
2011	A Series of Unfortunate People	Ted	Episode: "Family Secret"
2011	Love Bites	Drew	2 episodes
2011	Wilfred	Dick Barbian	Episode: "Identity"
2011	The League	Steve/Carmenjello	Episode: "Carmenjello"
2012-2015	Key & Peele	Himself / Various	Also co-creator, writer, executive producer
2013-present	Whose Line is it Anyway?	Himself / Fourth Seater	7 episodes
2013	How I Met Your Mother	Calvin	Episode: "Something New"
2013	bermansion	Titanium Rex	Voice Episode: "Pilot"
2013	Super Fun Night	Slade	Episode: "Pilot"
2014	The Middle	Reverend Deveaux	Episode: "Hungry Games"
2014-2015	Parks and Recreation	Joe	5 episodes
2014	Bob's Burgers	Beefer Sutherland / Todd / Darnell	Voice 3 episodes
2014-present	Playing House	Mark Rodriguez	16 episodes
2014	Fargo	FBI Special Agent Bill Budge	4 episodes
2014	Robot Chicken	Jamal / Journalist	Voice Episode: "Stone Cold Steve Cold Stone"
2014-2015	BoJack Horseman	Sebastian St. Clair	Voice 4 episodes
2015	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Gameshow Host	Episode: "The Gang Goes on Family Fight"
2015	White House Correspondents' Dinner	Luther	TV special
2015	Rick and Morty	Fourth Dimensional Being	Voice Episode: "A Rickle in Time"
2015	SuperMansion	American Ranger	Voice
2015	W/ Bob & David	Traffic Cop	Episode: "Episode 3"
2016	Modern Family	Tom Delaney	Episode: "Playdates"
2016	Angie Tribeca	Helmut Frntbt	Episode: "Ferret Royale"
2016	Archer	Detective Rim Shot	2 Episodes

Music videos

Year	Title	Role	Artist
2006	"White & Nerdy"	Black gangster	"Weird Al" Yankovic

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2013	Writers Guild of America Award	Best Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) - Series	Key & Peele
	Peabody Award
2014	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Variety - Series or Special
	American Comedy Award	Best Alternative Comedy Series
		Best Comedy Actor - TV
		Best Comedy Writing - TV
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series
2015	People's Choice Award	Favorite Sketch Comedy TV Show
	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Comedy Series
		Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
		Outstanding Variety Sketch Series		-
		Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series
		Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special	Key and Peele Super Bowl Special
		Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program	Key & Peele Presents Van and Mike: The Ascension
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Key & Peele
2016	NAACP Image Award	Outstanding Comedy Series
		Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series