Chris Rock (born September 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. He first gained recognition in the 90s for his stand-up comedy on The Comedy Channel. He has released three comedy albums and three comedy specials since 1994. He also appeared in the movie "Down to Earth" with Martin Lawrence and Queen Latifah.
Chris Rock's first television special aired on HBO in 1995, titled "The Chris Rock Show", which won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program
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More than 10 years later, he released his first HBO special "Kill the Messenger". Now he has released his newest HBO special "Bigger & Blacker" which premiered on February 17, 2010. It was directed by Spike Lee and featured an all-star cast of comic actors including Tracy Morgan, Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Sarah Silverman, Eddie Murphy, Kevin Hart and Tracy Morgan.
His latest HBO special "Never Scared" debuted on June 3rd 2011.
Chris Rock hosted the Academy Awards for the first time in 2005, where he became the second African American to host the award show after Hattie McDaniel who had hosted in 1937. He is also one of only four people to have hosted the Oscars twice.
Chris Rock has written two autobiographical books chronicling his life as a comedian: "Born Suspect" (2005) and "" (2008).
He has also written two other children's books - "The Boondocks" (1999), which deals with race relations in America's inner cities; and "Bigger & Blacker", which deals with growing up black in America.
Chris Rock is set to release his first non-animated film "Tropic Thunder". The film stars Jack Black as a character named Ben Stiller who plays a fictional action hero called Tugg Speedman whose real name is Ben Stiller. It features Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Tom Sizemore, Tim Robbins and Kevin Hart.
For his role as Tugg Speedman Chris Rock plays himself but plays one of the best friends of Tugg Speedman played by Jack Black where they are both African American characters named Benjamin Stiller played by Jack Black. On August 12th 2010 it was announced that Chris Rock would co-star alongside Jay Leno in Jay Leno's Garage which will be filmed