Basing his performance on his grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher, Chris Rock began doing stand-up in 1985 starting with the comedy club, Catch a Rising Star. He had minor roles in the movie,
and the TV. show
. Rock became friends with Eddie Murphy and thus landed a major role in
. By 1990, Chris Rock was well known amongst the comedy genre and he became a cast member on
Despite all his success, he barely appeared on SNL and in 1993 he left the show to star in the show
In Living Color. After the show was canceled a few months later he deiced to focus on his career in film. His film career was short-lived so he decided to focus on stand-up comedy. In 1994, HBO gave him a special,
Big Ass Jokes, but it only received lukewarm acclaim. However, in 1996 his second (and controversial) special,
Bring the Pain, set him on his path to a spot in comedic history by earning him two Emmy Awards. He received an Emmy nomination for his role as commentator for
Politically Incorrect (during the 1996 election). He went on to host the 1997
MTV Video Music Awards and do some Nike commercials. In 1999 he released his third comedy special on HBO,
Bigger and Blacker, followed by
Never Scared in 2004. He also had his own talk show,
The Chris Rock Show, where he earned positive reviews for his interviews with famous people and earning him another Emmy for writing. Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly dubbed Chris Rock the funniest man in America. Since then he has released a book titled,
Rock This! and released
Roll with the New and
Bigger & Blacker and Never Scared. His fifth HBO comedy special,
Kill the Messenger, is scheduled to air on September 27, 2008.
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