Background and career
Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans ( WAY-ənz; born June 8, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans first came to prominence as the host and creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color. He has produced, directed or written several films, starting with Hollywood Shuffle, which he cowrote, in 1987. Most of his films have included him and one or more of his siblings in the cast. One of these films, Scary Movie (2000), which Wayans directed, was the highest-grossing movie directed by an African American until it was surpassed by Tim Story's Fantastic Four in 2005. From 1997 to 1998, he hosted the talk show The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show. In 2014, he was a judge for the eighth season of Last Comic Standing.
Wayans was born in Harlem, New York City, the second child of ten of Elvira Alethia (née Green; July 23, 1938–July 10, 2020), a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Stouten Wayans (August 26, 1936–April 1, 2023) a supermarket manager. Genealogical TV show Finding Your Roots revealed that his paternal line traced back to Madagascar. His father was a devout Jehovah's Witness. The family later moved to Manhattan's Fulton housing projects, where he primarily grew up. He attended Seward Park High School during his teenage years, and attended Tuskegee University on an engineering scholarship where he was initiated as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity's Gamma Phi chapter. He entertained his friends at college with made-up stories about life in New York. One semester before graduation, he dropped out of school to focus on comedy.
During his first set performing at The Improv in New York, Wayans met Robert Townsend, who helped him learn about the comedy business. Townsend and Wayans drove to Los Angeles together when Wayans moved to Los Angeles in 1980. Wayans worked there as an actor. He had a regular role as a soldier on the television series For Love and Honor and appeared on Hill Street Blues as an NFL wide receiver. Townsend wrote, directed, and starred in the 1987 movie Hollywood Shuffle; Wayans was costar and cowriter. The movie's success allowed him to raise the money to make I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Fox Broadcasting Company approached Wayans to offer him his own show. Wayans wanted to produce a variety show similar to Saturday Night Live, with a cast of people of color that took chances with its content. Fox gave Wayans a lot of freedom with the show, although Fox executives were a bit concerned about the show's content before its debut. Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the show, In Living Color, a sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from 1990 to 1994.
Death Row Comic (Prison Cable Access) Frenchie Ice Man (Homeboy Shopping Network) Tom Brothers (The Brothers Brothers) Wes (Wes & Les)
Arsenio Hall Billy Dee Williams Don Cornelius Jesse Jackson Little Richard Mike Tyson Marsha Warfield Milli (Rob Pilatus) of Milli Vanilli Morgan Freeman (Damon Wayans was Hoke Coburn from Driving Miss Daisy/Riding Miss Daisy, Principal Joe Louis Clark from Lean on Me) Rick James Steve Harvey Carl Weathers (as Apollo Creed)
Wayans married Daphne Polk in 2001, but the couple filed for divorce in 2004, and their divorce was finalized in December 2006. He dated actress Brittany Daniel from 2007 to 2014.
