Dave Chappelle

On August 24th, 1973 Dave Chappelle was born in Washington, D.C. He was born to William David Chappelle III and Yvonne Chappelle. His father was a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and his mother was a professor at Howard University and the University of Maryland. Growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland Chappelle attended Woodlin Elementary School. During his young development years, he was comically inspired by various comedians, particularly Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor

Following his parents separation, Chappelle stayed in Washington with his mother while spending summers with his father in Ohio. Majoring in theatre arts he graduated from Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1991.

In his pursuit of making a career as a comedian, Chappelle moved to New York City. After gathering the courage he performed at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater in front of the infamous "Amateur Night" audience. The performance resulted in him being booed off the stage and Chappell has described the experience as the moment that gave him the courage to continue his show business aspirations. He quickly made a name for himself in the New York comedy circuit, even performing in the city's parks. When he was 20 years old, Chappelle made his film debut as "Ahchoo" in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Undercover Blues also released that year and Chappelle had a small but showy role in the film. On the strength of his performances in these films, Chappelle was offered the role of Bubba in Forrest Gump. The movie was in pre-production stage. But not realizing the effect that the Academy Award winner for Best Picture would have, and concerned about what seemed to be a racially demeaning character, he turned down the part. He also played another supporting role in a little-seen movie "Getting In" in 1994. After a small but notable role on ABC's Home Improvement ABC decided to give them their own spin-off sitcom called Buddies. However, after taping a pilot episode, Jim Breur was fired and replaced with actor Christopher Gartin. To disappointing ratings Buddies premiered in March of 1996. The show was cancelled after only four episodes out of thirteen that were produced. Nine years later, in May 2005, ten of the episodes were released on a single-disc DVD to capitalize on Chappelle's new-found fame. He later appeared as the nightclub comedian (Reggie) in The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy, one of his major comedic influences. He also had minor roles in Con Air and Martin Lawrence's Blue Streak. He co-wrote (with Neal Brennan) and starred in Half Baked, a cult fim about a group of weed-smoking best friends trying to get their friend out of jail.

^THE NIGGA TRIED TO KILL MY FATHER!^

Lol Im sorry I just had too.

Dave Chappelle

By 2002, after also appearing side by side with Tom Hanks in "You've Got Mail" Chappelle played "Conspiracy Brother" in the movie "Undercover Brother"A year later in 2003 Chappelle debuted his own weekly sketch Comedy show on Comedy Central called Chappelle's Show, a show that parodied many aspects of American Culture including racial stereotypes, politics and pop culture. Chappelle's pointed social and political commentary quickly helped the show garner critical and commercial success as well as controversy. Richard Pryor, one of Chappelle's comedic influences, was a fan of the show and stated that he had "passed the torch" to Chappelle. the show earned Chappelle's show earned him two Emmy Nominations and the DVD set became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date, overtaking the previous best selling, The Simpsons first season DVD. It had sold over 3 million copies. It was reported that due to the success of the show Comedy Central's parent company Viacom offered Chappelle a $55 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) if he continued the production of 'Chappelle's Show' for two more years. Season 3 was scheduled to air on May 31st, 2005, but in May 2005, Chappelle stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of Chappelle's Show. Chappelle has since stated that he was unhappy with the direction the show had taken, claiming pressure from network executives regarding the show's content. Chappelle left the United States to visitSouth Africa. Being gone triggered rumors of drug use and mental illness. In a interview he did for Time Magazine's South African bureau, Chappelle denied any drug or mental problems but stated that his reasons for visiting South Africa were to reflect on his life and career.

Since then Dave Chappelle has gone on to doing great things in his career filming his own Documentary film and returning to Comedy. He's thought to be by many people one of the funniest men alive.

Personal Thought:

Dave is by far one of my favorite comedians if not my favorite. I remember seeing him in a movie called Scrooged and just found him to be a very humorous person. I also remember him in Blue Streak and When his Show debuted there wasn't an episode I Missed.

On my 17th Birthday I was fortunate enough to speak to him on the phone and I just thought that had to be the coolest thing a person could experience on their Birthday.

This is my Shout out to Dave Chappelle. and remember "When you lose, don't Lose the Lesson!" LMFAO.