Wayne Brady Biography

Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian, and television personality, known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He was the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show, the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and has hosted Let's Make a Deal since its 2009 revival. Brady also performed in the Tony Award winning musical Kinky Boots on Broadway as Simon and as drag queen Lola from November 2015 to March 2016.

Early life

Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia to West Indian parents, and moved to Orlando, Florida as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt. Brady refers to his grandmother, Valerie Petersen, as his "mom," since she raised him. Brady is second cousin to professional footballer Jozy Altidore who currently plays for Toronto FC. At 16, Brady started performing in community theater and at the Orlando improv troupe SAK Comedy Lab, where he first started developing his improv skills. He attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida, where he graduated in 1989. In 1990, he enrolled at the University of Miami. In 1996, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he continued developing his acting skills.

Career

Brady's career began as one of the improvisational theater performers in the original (British) version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, along with Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and host Clive Anderson in 1998 when the last season was filmed in Hollywood, after which he became a regular on the American version, hosted by Drew Carey, which was his first Stateside television exposure. In 2003, Brady won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Series for his work on the show, the only person to win the award for a television series, as opposed to a special, since Dana Carvey in 1993.

He went on to star in his own ABC variety show in 2001 called The Wayne Brady Show, and a daytime talk show of the same name in 2002, which lasted two seasons and won four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which went to Brady for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Brady guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1999 and 2000 to take part in "Drew Live" and "Drew Live II". On the show, Brady played several games taken from Whose Line Is It Anyway? for the two episodes with other characters.

In 2004, Brady joined the Broadway revival of Chicago, playing the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. He appeared briefly in the final episode of the 2004 season of the comedy Reno 911!. He guest starred on the Sci Fi Channel's hit series show Stargate SG-1 as Trelak, the first-prime of the Goa'uld System Lord, Ares. He made an appearance on Chappelle's Show, poking fun at his squeaky clean persona.

Brady wrote and sang the theme song for Disney's animated series The Weekenders. In 2005, he sang and recorded Jim Brickman's original Disney song "Beautiful" (a cover of All-4-One's 2002 hit "Beautiful As You") and its Christmas version.

In 2006, Brady became the host of TV Land's That's What I'm Talking About, a talk show discussing the role of African-Americans in the entertainment industry. From August 29September 29, 2006, Brady hosted the Fox show Celebrity Duets.

Brady made several guest appearances on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing James Stinson, the gay brother of Neil Patrick Harris's character, Barney Stinson. Brady has also appeared as a guest star for the MTV show Wild 'N Out, and lent his voice to the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken.

Brady has also guest starred in the CBC comedy, Getting Along Famously, alongside his Whose Line is It Anyway? costar Colin Mochrie. He has also appeared on the episode "You Don't Know Jack" on the television show Dirt and also guest starred on the show 30 Rock, where he played the role of Steven Black, Liz Lemon's date for The Source Awards.

Brady was the co-host of the short-lived VH1 show Vinyl Justice in 1998. In 2007, he starred in the ABC Family film The List. He starred in Flirt, a comedy pilot developed for The CW Television Network, which, if it had been picked up, would have aired in the 200607 television season.

Brady guest starred as Julius Rock's gifted younger brother, Louis, in the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, and hosted a singing game show called Don't Forget the Lyrics! on Fox until its cancellation in June 2009. He also performs "Wayne Brady: Making $%!^ up" at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada four nights a week. He was also on two episodes of Kevin Hill. Brady's debut album was released on September 16, 2008. Brady's version of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" earned Brady a Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.

Brady started hosting an updated version of the game show Let's Make a Deal for CBS in October 2009, which taped at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and currently tapes in Los Angeles. The show replaced the soap opera Guiding Light, which ended its long-time run. The original host of Let's Make a Deal was Monty Hall, who serves as consultant for the new show. Drew Carey currently hosts The Price Is Right, and thus, both game shows in the CBS daytime lineup (as of May 2013) hold the distinction of being hosted by an alumnus of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Brady was the guest host on the May 3, 2010 episode of WWE Raw, where he was involved in an in-ring segment with Edge and Randy Orton, and eventually getting RKO'd by Orton. Later that year, in August, Brady played the role of Tom Collins in a staged production of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl. The production was directed by Neil Patrick Harris.

Brady appeared alongside Let's Make a Deal announcer Jonathan Mangum in two episodes of Fast and Loose, a new improvisational series on BBC2 hosted by Hugh Dennis, in January 2011. Then, along with Holly Robinson Peete, he co-hosted the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards on March 4, 2011.

On May 3, 2011 he appeared on Dancing With The Stars as the lead performer in a tribute to James Brown, celebrating what would have been Brown's 78th birthday in the Macy's Stars of Dance segment. He has also been a special guest of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on GSN.

Brady made a cameo in the 2011 song "Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)" by Lloyd featuring Lil Wayne and Andre 3000, narrating Lil Wayne's section of the song. He also appeared as a special guest star in the March 14, 2012 episode of the TV series Psych.

Brady starred in the 2012 ABC improvisational comedy series Trust Us with Your Life, and returned for the revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the Summer of 2013.

Brady guest starred as Don in the Phineas and Ferb episode, "Where's Pinky?" on June 7, 2013 and for one week February 9 to 13, 2015, guest host on The Late Late Show on CBS.

In November 2015, Brady replaced Billy Porter as Lola in Kinky Boots on Broadway.

Personal life

Brady has been married twice. He married Diana Lasso on December 31, 1993. They divorced on September 21, 1995. On April 3, 1999, he married dancer Mandie Taketa. He and Taketa have one child, a daughter named Maile Masako Brady, born on February 3, 2003. Brady and Taketa separated on April 5, 2006 and Taketa filed for divorce on July 2, 2007.

In 2007, Brady became an official supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities and is a member of their celebrity board, the Friends of RMHC.

In 2013, Bill Maher compared Brady to President Barack Obama, in that they were both supposedly "not black enough". Brady took issue with this statement, suggesting that Maher should "be careful when you make statements like that, because it will allow his viewers to make the same stereotypical assumptions about black people."

As a child, Wayne struggled with stuttering due to a great deal of anxiety he felt from being bullied by other children. Wayne stated in a November 2014 Entertainment Tonight interview that he suffers from clinical depression, and that he suffered a mental breakdown on his 42nd birthday. He credits Taketa for helping him recover.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Superboy	John	Episode: "The Sons of Icarus"
1993	I'll Fly Away	Damon	2 episodes
1993	In the Heat of the Night	Henry Ulmer	Episode: "Hatton's Turn" (Parts 1 & 2)
19971999	Kwik Witz	Himself	Syndicated improv
1998	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (UK)	Himself	3 episodes in series 10
19982006, 2013present	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (US)	Himself	Starring: seasons 27, 9-; recurring: seasons 1 & 8 Also executive producer (season 9-)
1999, 2000	The Drew Carey Show	Himself	"Drew Live" and "Drew Live II" (improv episodes)
2000	Batman Beyond	Micron	Episode: "The Call" (Parts 1 & 2)
2000	Geppetto	The Magician	Movie
20012004	The Wayne Brady Show	Host	Variety show
2002	Miss America	Host
2004	Chappelle's Show	Himself	2 episodes
2005	Stargate SG-1	Trelak	Episode: "It's Good to be King"
2006/2008	Everybody Hates Chris	Louis	2 episodes
2006	Robot Chicken	Pegasus 'Sunny Muffin' / Salam Fayyad (voice)	Episode: "Adoption's an Option"
2006	Crossover	Vaughn
2006	Shorty McShorts' Shorts	Cameron	Voice; 3 episodes
20062014	How I Met Your Mother	James Stinson	13 episodes
2007	30 Rock	Steven Black	Episode: "The Source Awards"
2007	Dirt	Henchman	Episode: "You Don't Know Jack"
2008	The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon	Sparx	Video game
20072009	Don't Forget the Lyrics!	Host
2009present	Let's Make a Deal	Host
2011	Fast and Loose	Himself	UK improv; 2 episodes
2011	Are We There Yet?	Devin	Episode: "The Man and the Bragging Snafu Episode"
2011	Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza	Himself	5 episodes
20122013	American Dad!	Cuba Gooding Jr. / Tungee	3 episodes (voice)
2012	Trust Us with Your Life	Himself	7 episodes
2012	Psych	Hilton Fox	Episode: "Shawn and the Real Girl"
2013present	Sofia the First	Clover the Rabbit	Voice role
2013	So You Think You Can Dance	Guest judge (himself)	2 episodes
2014	Hollywood Game Night	Himself	Episode: "50 Charades of Grey"
2014	So You Think You Can Dance	Guest judge (himself)
2015	The Late Late Show	Guest host	5 episodes
2016	The Price Is Right	Himself	Mash Up Week

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Clifford's Really Big Movie	Shackelford
2004	Going to the Mat	Mason Wyatt
2005	Roll Bounce	D.J. Johnny Feelgood
2006	Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild	Reeko (voice)	Direct-to-video
2007	The List	Lewis
2012	Foodfight!	Daredevil Dan	Voice role
2013	Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright	Brik Pimlento (voice)	Direct-to-video
2014	The Hero of Color City	Blue	Voice role
2015	VeggieTales: Noah's Ark	Shem	Direct-to-video
2016	Todrick Hall: Straight Outta Oz	Todrick's Father	Visual Album

Discography

Albums

Year	Album details	Chart positions
		US	US R&B	US Heat
2008	A Long Time Coming Released: September 16, 2008 Label: Peak/Concord Music	157	20	2
2011	Radio Wayne Released: May 31, 2011 Label: Walt Disney	"?	"?	"?

Singles

• 2000
  • "The Weekenders" Theme Song
• 2004
  • "Unsung Heroes"
  • "Between"Wayne Brady with The Sesame Street Muppets
• 2005
  • "Beautiful"Wayne Brady, accompanied on piano by songwriter Jim Brickman
  • "Don't Stop"Jamie Jones featuring Wayne Brady and William Carthright
• 2008
  • "Ordinary"
• 2009
  • "F.W.B."
• 2013
  • "Whistle While I Work it"Chester See featuring Tobuscus with Wayne Brady

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2001	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program	Whose Line Is It Anyway?
2002
2003
2003	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Talk Show Host	The Wayne Brady Show
2004
2009	Grammy Awards	Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance	"A Change Is Gonna Come"
2010	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Game Show Host	Let's Make a Deal
2011		Outstanding Game Show Host
2012		Outstanding Game Show Host
2013		Outstanding Game Show Host
2014		Outstanding Game Show Host
2014		Outstanding Original Song	"30,000 Reasons to Love Me" for Let's Make a Deal (lyrics writer)
2016		Outstanding Game Show Host	Let's Make a Deal