Background and career
Michael Elliot Epps (born November 18, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He played Day-Day Jones in Next Friday and its sequel, Friday After Next, and also appeared in The Hangover and The Hangover Part III as "Black Doug". He was the voice of main character Boog in Open Season 2, replacing Martin Lawrence, with whom he starred in the comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, playing "Reggie", cousin of Roscoe (played by Lawrence). He played Lloyd Jefferson "L.J." Wayne in the Resident Evil films (2004–2007) and O'Neil in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web (2024). He has had starring roles in the sitcoms Uncle Buck and The Upshaws.
Epps was born and raised in Indianapolis, the son of Mary Reed and Tommie Epps. In his adulthood, Epps moved to Brooklyn to star in Def Comedy Jam in 1994.
Stand-up comedy Epps began his professional career by joining the Def Comedy Jam tour in 1995 and starred in two of HBO's Def Comedy Jam broadcasts.
Acting Epps' first on-screen appearance came in Vin Diesel's second directorial film, Strays in 1997. In 1999, Epps was then cast as Ice Cube's co-star in the sequel, Next Friday. This followed weeks of auditions, after Ice Cube attended a stand-up set Epps did, and then asked Epps to try out for the role of Day-Day Jones. Later that year, Epps had a cameo in 3 Strikes, and supported Jamie Foxx in Bait. Epps had a voice role in the 2001 film Dr. Dolittle 2 as Sonny the Bear and finished the year with a featured role as comical pimp Baby Powder in How High, starring Method Man and Redman. Epps reunited with Ice Cube in 2002 as the bumbling thief to Ice Cube's bounty hunter in All About the Benjamins, and again re-teamed with Cube in Friday's second sequel Friday After Next. He played Lloyd Jefferson "L.J." Wayne in the films Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) and Resident Evil: Extinction (2007).
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
