Dave Chappelle


David Khari Webber Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Chappelle is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards as well as a Mark Twain Prize. He is known for his satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show. The series, co-written with Neal Brennan, ran until Chappelle quit the show in the middle of production of the third season. After leaving the show, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the U.S. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time."
Chappelle has appeared in several films, including Mel Brooks's , The Nutty Professor, Con Air, You've Got Mail, Blue Streak, Undercover Brother, Chi-Raq, and A Star Is Born. His first lead role was in the 1998 comedy film Half Baked, which he co-wrote with Neal Brennan. Chappelle also starred in the ABC comedy series Buddies.
In 2016, he signed a $20 million-per-release comedy-special deal with Netflix and, as of 2019, he has released five standup specials under the deal.
Chappelle received his first Emmy Award in 2017 for his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live. In 2018, he received a Grammy Award for his Netflix-produced comedy album The Age of Spin and Deep in the Heart of Texas. Equanimity, another Netflix special, was nominated in 2018 for three Emmys and received the award for Outstanding Variety Special. In 2019, Chappelle was selected to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which is presented by the Kennedy Center as America's highest comedy honor. In 2020, Sticks & Stones earned Chappelle his third consecutive Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Early life

Dave Chappelle's father, William David Chappelle III, worked as a statistician before becoming a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His mother, Yvonne K. Chappelle Seon, was a professor at Prince George's Community College. Seon also worked for Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba; she is also a Unitarian Universalist minister. Chappelle has a stepmother and a stepbrother. Dave Chappelle's great-grandfather was William David Chappelle, who was born into enslavement and led a delegation of African Americans who met President Woodrow Wilson at the White House.
Chappelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and attended Woodlin Elementary School. His parents were politically active, and family house visitors included Pete Seeger and Johnny Hartman. Hartman predicted Chappelle would be a comedian and, around this time, Chappelle's comic inspiration came from Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. After his parents separated, Chappelle stayed in Washington with his mother while spending summers with his father in Ohio. In high school he worked as an usher in Ford's Theater, the infamous location of Lincoln's assassination. In 1991, he graduated from Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where he studied theatre arts.

Career

Early career

Chappelle was featured in a montage of random people telling a joke in the first episode of ABC's America's Funniest People, airing on September 13, 1990. Chappelle moved to New York City to pursue a career as a comedian. He performed at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater in front of the infamous "Amateur Night" audience, but he was booed off stage. Chappelle described the experience as the moment that gave him the courage to continue his show business aspirations. He quickly made a name for himself on the New York comedy circuit, even performing in the city's parks. In 1992, he won critical and popular acclaim for his television appearance in Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam on HBO. It was his appearance on this show that allowed his popularity to truly begin rising, eventually allowing him to become a regular guest on late-night television shows such as Politically Incorrect, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Howard Stern Show, and Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Whoopi Goldberg nicknamed him "The Kid". At 19, he made his film debut as "Ahchoo" in Mel Brooks' '. He also appeared on Star Search three times but lost to competing comedian Lester Barrie; Chappelle later joked about the irony of his ultimately becoming more successful than Barrie. The same year, Chappelle was offered the role of Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue in Forrest Gump. Concerned the character was demeaning and the movie would bomb, he turned down the part. He parodied the film in the 1997 short Bowl of Pork, where a dim-witted black man is responsible for the Rodney King beating, the LA riots and OJ Simpson being accused of murder. Chappelle played another supporting role in an early Doug Liman film, Getting In, in 1994. At age 19, he was the opening act for R&B soul singer Aretha Franklin. Early in his career, Chappelle was called to perform after comedy veteran Chris Thomas, who was so good that Chappelle, though he had been warned, totally bombed.
Chappelle attracted the attention of TV network executives and developed numerous pilots but none were picked up for development into a series. In 1995, he made a guest appearance on an episode of ABC's popular sitcom Home Improvement. The storyline had Chappelle and real-life friend and comedian Jim Breuer ask Tim Taylor for advice on their girlfriends. The characters' single outing in the episode proved so popular that ABC decided to give them their own spin-off sitcom titled Buddies. However, after taping a pilot episode, Breuer was fired and replaced with actor Christopher Gartin. Buddies premiered in March 1996 to disappointing ratings and the show was canceled after only five episodes out of 13 that had been produced.
After the failure of Buddies, Chappelle starred in another pilot. According to Chappelle, the network was uncomfortable with the African-American cast and wanted white actors added. Chappelle resisted and subsequently accused the network of racism. Shortly afterwards, Chappelle's father died and after returning to Ohio, he considered leaving the entertainment business.
He later appeared as a standup insult comic who targets patrons of a nightclub in the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy, one of his major comedic influences. He had a minor role in 1997's Con Air. At the beginning of 1998, he did a stand-up performance for HBO Comedy Half-Hour. That same year, he appeared in "Pilots and Pens Lost," an episode of The Larry Sanders Shows sixth season, in which he and the executives of the show's unnamed television network satirize the treatment that scriptwriters and show creators were subjected to, as well as the executives' knee-jerk tendencies toward racial stereotypes.
He and Neal Brennan co-wrote the 1998 cult stoner film Half Baked, Chappelle's first starring role, about a group of marijuana-smoking friends trying to get their other friend out of jail. It made money at the box office and remains a classic so-called "stoner" film, a genre that includes the Cheech and Chong films as well as more recent fare like Judd Apatow's Pineapple Express. In December 1998, Chappelle appeared as Tom Hanks' character's friend and confidant in You've Got Mail. In 1999, he appeared in the Martin Lawrence film Blue Streak.
In 2000, Chappelle recorded his first hour-long HBO special, ', in Washington, D.C.. He followed this up with an appearance as "Conspiracy Brother" in the 2002 racial satire Undercover Brother.

2003–2006: ''Chappelle's Show''

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly sketch comedy show on Comedy Central called Chappelle's Show. The show parodied many aspects of American culture, including racial stereotypes, politics and pop culture. Along with comedy sketches, the show also featured musical performances by mostly hip-hop and soul artists. He promoted the work of other black comedians as well, most notably Paul Mooney and Charlie Murphy.
Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's new parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $55 million contract to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects. Chappelle has said that sketches are not his favorite form of comedy, and that the show's format was similar to short films.
In June 2004, based on the popularity of the "Rick James" sketch, it was announced that Chappelle was in talks to portray James in a biopic from Paramount Pictures, also owned by Viacom. James' estate disagreed with the proposed comical tone of the film and put a halt to the talks.
That same month, Chappelle recorded his second comedy special, this time airing on Showtime, Dave Chappelle: For What It's Worth, at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, where Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams had performed.

Season 3 problems

In a June 2004 stand-up performance in Sacramento, California, Chappelle walked off the stage after berating his audience for constantly shouting "I'm Rick James, bitch!" which had become a catchphrase from his popular "Rick James" sketch. After a few minutes, Chappelle returned and resumed by saying, "The show is ruining my life." He stated that he disliked working "20 hours a day" and that the popularity of the show was making it difficult for him to continue his stand-up career, which was "the most important thing" to him. He told the audience:
Season 3 was scheduled to begin airing on May 31, 2005, but earlier in May, Chappelle stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production and took a trip to South Africa. Chappelle said that he was unhappy with the direction the show had taken, and expressed in an interview with Time his need for reflection in the face of tremendous stress:
Immediately following Chappelle's departure, tabloids speculated that Chappelle's exit was driven by drug addiction or a mental problem, rather than the ethical and professional concerns that Chappelle had articulated.
Chappelle's decision to quit the show meant walking away from his $50 million contract with Comedy Central, and forming a rift with longtime collaborator Neal Brennan.
The show still plays in syndication on several television networks, despite the relatively small number of episodes, compared to most American syndicated television programs. Chappelle's abrupt departure from his show continues to be a focus of interviews and profiles of Chappelle and of Chappelle's own comedy. In Bird Revelation, Chappelle draws an analogy between his departure and the book Pimp, the memoir of Iceberg Slim. In 2009, his show was the subject of a book of critical essays, The Comedy of Dave Chappelle, edited by University of Maryland doctoral student K. A. Wisniewski.

''Dave Chappelle's Block Party''

Chappelle was the star and a producer of the Michel Gondry-directed documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party, which chronicles his hosting a free concert in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn on September 18, 2004. Several musical artists, including Kanye West, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Dead Prez and Jill Scott, are featured in the movie both performing in the concert and in conversation off-stage; Chappelle brought Yellow Springs residents to Brooklyn at his own expense. Another highlight of the event was the temporary reunion of 1990s hip-hop group The Fugees.
Chappelle toured several cities in February and March 2006 to promote the film under the name "Block Party All-Stars Featuring Dave Chappelle". Universal Pictures' genre division, Rogue Pictures, released the film in the U.S. on March 3, 2006. It was a success, grossing a total of $11.7 million on a $3 million budget.

2005–2013: Infrequent comedy appearances

In June 2005, Chappelle performed impromptu stand-up shows in Los Angeles, then went on a tour that began in Newport, Kentucky, not far from his Ohio home. He made a surprise appearance on HBO's Def Poetry, where he performed two poems, titled "Fuck Ashton Kutcher" and "How I Got the Lead on Jeopardy!"
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired on February 3, 2006, Chappelle explained his reasons for quitting Chappelle's Show. He also expressed his contempt for the entertainment industry's tone-deafness regarding black entertainers and audiences:
Chappelle was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005, at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show premiered on February 12, 2006. Four days earlier, he had introduced the musical tribute to Sly Stone at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
Chappelle said on Inside the Actors Studio that the death of his father seven years prior influenced his decision to go to South Africa. By throwing himself into his work, he had not taken a chance to mourn his father's death. He also said the rumors that he was in drug or psychiatric treatment only persuaded him to stay in South Africa. He said,
Chappelle said that he felt some of his sketches were "socially irresponsible." He singled out the "pixie sketch" in which pixies appear to people and encourage them to reinforce stereotypes of their races. In the sketch, Chappelle is wearing blackface and is dressed as a character in a minstrel show. According to Chappelle, during the filming of the sketch, a white crew member was laughing in a way that made him feel uncomfortable and made him question himself. Chappelle said, "It was the first time I felt that someone was not laughing with me but laughing at me."
During this time, Chappelle did not rule out returning to Chappelle's Show to "finish what we started," but promised that he would not return without changes to the production, such as a better working environment. He wanted to donate half of the DVD sales to charity. Chappelle expressed disdain at the possibility of his material from the unfinished third season being aired, saying that to do so would be "a bully move," and that he would not return to the show if Comedy Central were to air the unfinished material. On July 9, 2006, Comedy Central aired the first episode of . After the DVD release, Chappelle was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN and reiterated he would not return to Chappelle's Show. An uncensored DVD release of the episodes was made available on July 25.
Chappelle has been known to make impromptu and unannounced appearances at comedy venues, and continues to do so following his post–Chappelle's Show return to standup.
In April 2007, Chappelle set a stand-up endurance record at the Laugh Factory Sunset Strip comedy club, beating comedian Dane Cook's record of three hours and 50 minutes. In December of the same year, Chappelle broke his own record with a time of six hours and 12 minutes. Cook reclaimed the record in January 2008, with a time of seven hours. On November 19, 2009 Chappelle performed at the Laugh Factory again, where it was speculated that he would attempt to take back the record. However, according to the club owner, he was disqualified after he left the stage five hours into his routine.
Chappelle again appeared on Inside the Actors Studio and, in celebration of the show's 200th episode, he interviewed the show's usual host, James Lipton. The episode aired on November 11, 2008. He appeared again on Inside the Actors Studio in 2013, for its 250th episode.
In February 2009, Chappelle did a four hour set at Comic Strip Live in New York.
In August 2011, Chappelle appeared at Comedy Jam in San Francisco.

2015–2017: Career comeback

In August 2013, Chappelle returned to full-time touring stand-up, as a headliner when he was featured during the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity festival. Sponsored by Funny or Die, Chappelle co-headlined with comedy act Flight of the Conchords.
During a stop in Hartford, Chappelle walked off the stage due to heckling from the crowd that lasted throughout his entire performance. The heckling was so raucous that it drowned out Chappelle's voice over the PA system and included chants of "White Power", a line used in a Chappelle's Show episode that was viewed as wildly inappropriate and out-of-context by other audience members who later wrote about the event. A few days later, Chappelle stopped in Chicago for a performance. The comedy website ComedyHype.com acquired and released audio of him on stage responding to the heckling. Chappelle referenced the Hartford incident, stating that "young, white, alcoholic" should be blamed for the prior incident, that he hoped North Korea would bomb Hartford, that in the future he would not stop in Hartford for gas, and finally summarizing his feelings on the situation by saying, "Fuck Hartford!" However, in August 2014 Chappelle returned to Hartford for a surprise appearance at the 2014 Oddball Festival and received multiple standing ovations during his set.
In June 2014, Chappelle made his first major New York City appearance in eleven years, performing ten nights at Radio City Music Hall. Chappelle promoted the dates by appearing on The Today Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Show with David Letterman.
In 2015, Chappelle appeared in the Spike Lee film Chi-Raq, his first film role in 13 years.
On November 12, 2016, Chappelle made his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live the weekend of Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election. The show also featured A Tribe Called Quest as the musical guest. In his opening monologue, Chappelle tackled Trump and the election head on. He ended his monologue by stating, "I'm wishing Donald Trump luck, and I'm going to give him a chance, and we, the historically disenfranchised, demand that he give us one too." His performance on SNL received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. At the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance. He donated the Emmy to his former high school while filming an episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
On November 21, 2016, Netflix announced that they would be releasing three new stand-up comedy specials from Chappelle in 2017, with Chappelle being paid $20 million per special. The first two specials were released on Netflix on March 21, 2017, and hail directly from Chappelle's personal comedy vault. "Deep in the Heart of Texas" was filmed at Austin City Limits Live in April 2015, and "The Age of Spin" was filmed at the Hollywood Palladium in March 2016. The specials marked the comedian's first concert specials released in 12 years, and proved to be an immediate success as Netflix announced a month later that they were the most viewed comedy specials in Netflix's history.
The third special, Equanimity, was filmed in September 2017 at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., and then on November 20, 2017, Chappelle filmed a fourth special, The Bird Revelation, at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. On December 22, 2017, Netflix announced the expansion of the deal to include The Bird Revelation, which was released with Equanimity on December 31.

2018–present: continued success

In January 2018 at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, Chappelle received a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for his first two 2017 specials The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas.
In September 2018, Chappelle's Equanimity special received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special.
In October 2018, Chappelle returned to the big screen as "Noodles", Jackson Maine's best friend and retired musician in Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, a remake of A Star Is Born. The film was a massive critical and commercial success. He was nominated along with the cast for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture.
In 2018, Chappelle and Jon Stewart joined forces for a duo comedy tour. He has also collaborated with Aziz Ansari for three standup shows in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theater.
In February 2019, Chappelle was nominated for and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for ' and Bird Revelation.
In 2019, Chappelle was chosen to receive the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor presented by The Kennedy Center. President of the Kennedy Center Deborah Rutter stated "Dave is the embodiment of Mark Twain's observation that 'against the assault of humor, nothing can stand'... and for three decades, Dave has challenged us to see hot-button issues from his entirely original yet relatable experience." The set of people honoring Chappelle included Jon Stewart, Bradley Cooper, Morgan Freeman, Lorne Michaels, Tiffany Haddish, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Neal Brennan, Q-Tip, Mos Def, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Erykah Badu, Common, SNL cast members Kenan Thompson, Michael Che and Colin Jost, as well as Eddie Murphy. The Prize was awarded at the Kennedy Center gala on October 27, 2019. The ceremony was broadcast on PBS January 7, 2020. The Mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, declared the day of the award ceremony "Dave Chappelle Day" in Washington, D.C.
On August 26, 2019, Chappelle's fifth Netflix special, ', was released. The special garnered controversy, receiving backlash for jokes about abuse allegations against singers Michael Jackson and R. Kelly, as well as for jokes about the LGBT community and cancel culture, among other topics. In 2020, Sticks & Stones won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
On June 12, 2020, Netflix released , a 27 minute and 20 second video of newly recorded stand-up by Chappelle on the YouTube channel "Netflix Is a Joke". The private event was held outdoors on June 6, 2020, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where audience members observed social distancing rules and wore masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The stand-up was entitled 8:46 in reference to the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, killing him. Chappelle touches on Floyd's death and subsequent protests and takes aim at Don Lemon, Laura Ingraham and Candace Owens.

Influences

In his interview with Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton, he said that his biggest influences in comedy are Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Paul Mooney, and Mel Blanc.
When asked about his earliest influence in comedy, Chappelle said:
When asked about the biggest influence on him in comedy, Chappelle spoke of Richard Pryor:

Critical reception and analysis

Chappelle has been praised by fellow comedians for his work. Katt Williams and Kevin Hart have both said that they consider Chappelle to be the greatest stand-up comedian of all time.
His work, as well as that of Margaret Cho, was also the subject of a book by Canadian dramaturg Elizabeth Ludwig, American Stand-Up and Sketch Comedy, that was published at the end of 2010. A monograph published by the University of Gothenburg titled Representations of Ethnicity in Stand-up comedy: A Study of the Comedy of Dave Chappelle examined the racial significance of language used in Chappelle's routines.

Charity work and advocacy

In 2004, he donated his time to Seeds of Peace International Camp, a camp located in Otisfield, Maine, which brings together young leaders from communities in conflict.
Chappelle endorsed Andrew Yang in the 2020 United States presidential election.

Personal life

Chappelle married Elaine Mendoza Erfe in 2001. They live with their two sons, Sulayman and Ibrahim, and their daughter, Sanaa, on a farm near Yellow Springs, Ohio. He also owned several houses in Xenia, Ohio. Chappelle told Yellow Springs' residents in September 2006, "Turns out you don't need $50 million to live around these parts, just a nice smile and a kind way about you. You guys are the best neighbors ever. That's why I came back and that's why I'm staying."
Chappelle converted to Islam in 1998. He told Time in May 2005, "I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way." Chappelle appears in a video explaining the religious backstory of the Well of Zamzam in Mecca.
His great-grandfather, Bishop William D. Chappelle, born enslaved in 1857, served as a president of Allen University.
His great-great-grandfather, Robert J. Palmer, was a member of the South Carolina Legislature, then majority black, during Reconstruction.
His great-uncle, W.D. Chappelle, Jr., was a black physician and surgeon who opened the People’s Infirmary around 1915, a small hospital and surgery practice in Columbia, South Carolina during a time when segregation prevented many African Americans from having access to healthcare.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stand-up specials

Awards and nominations

Chappelle has received many awards and nominations for his work in standup and television including three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album. He has also received two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination along with the ensemble of A Star Is Born.
YearAwardCategoryNominated workResult
2004Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Variety, Music or Comedy SeriesChappelle's Show
2004Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy ProgramChappelle's Show
2005Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Variety, Music or Comedy SpecialDave Chappelle: For What it's Worth
2017Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy SeriesSaturday Night Live
2018Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Variety Special Dave Chappelle: Equanimity
2020Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Variety Special '
2020Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Writing for a Variety Special'
2018Grammy AwardBest Comedy AlbumDave Chappelle: The Age of Spin
& Deep in the Heart of Texas
2019Grammy AwardBest Comedy AlbumDave Chappelle: Equanimity & The Bird Revelation
2020Grammy AwardBest Comedy Album
2019Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Cast in a Motion PictureA Star Is Born

Honors and legacy

In 2019, Chappelle was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Those to honor Chappelle at the event included Jon Stewart, Bradley Cooper, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Chris Tucker and Lorne Michaels. The award ceremony was turned into a television special and released on Netflix.