121 Chris Rock Facts: Did You Know This About The Comedian?
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Chris Rock is a renowned American comedian.
He was born in South Carolina and grew up in Brooklyn. He had the gift of making people laugh from a very young age.
He was discovered by the American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy in 1986. His career skyrocketed from thereon.
Chris Rock starred in the classic comedy movie series 'Grown Ups' with his friend Adam Sandler, released some incredible comedy albums, like 'Born Suspect', 'Bigger And Blacker', had his own talk show, and even wrote a comedy series based on his own childhood, 'Everybody Hates Chris'.
Read on to know more facts about Chris Rock and if you like this article, then also check out Adam Sandler facts and Will Smith facts.
Fun Facts About Chris Rock
Chris Rock is one of the most popular and renowned American standup comedians. In his personal life, he is a fun person too. His friendship with Adam Sandler and relationship with his daughters is quite precious. He also believes in living a humble life.
When Chris Rock talked to Oprah back in 2002, he described his style as 'half rapper and half preacher'. He gave the credit of this style to his grandfather who was a preacher.
He said when he talks to an audience, he tries to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. He tries to introduce some new perspectives into the lives of his audiences.
In another interview later in his life in 2017, he said that preaching on comedy shows becomes a little hard. Mainly because people wait until the end of a comedy show and then the audience decides that the standup comedian is boring.
Chris Rock had a 19-year-long married life with Malaak Compton.
They both divorced in 2016, but he was still a doting father and loved his two daughters very much.
In an interview with the magazine titled 'Rolling Stone', he said that people assume that men don't have feelings, so when he tells his friends that he bought a house around the corner of his previous house to stay close to his daughters, it blows their minds.
In another interview in 2007 with 'Best Life', the American comedian said you only know how good you can become when you have kids.
Once you have kids, when you love them, it makes you feel like, for them, you can make anything happen.
Chris Rock and Adam Sandler have been good friends for many years. They have starred in a total of seven movies together with Adam Sandler including both the volumes of the comedy film series of 'Grown Ups'.
Chris Rock had admitted that he is a huge fan of President Barack Obama. The American comedian had the good fortune to be included in the president and first lady's going-away party in 2016 at the White House.
Later Chris Rock described the experience to Jimmy Fallon in 2017 on The Tonight Show as it was like he had died and then went to the black heaven.
Facts About Chris Rock's Career
Chris Rock started working as a busboy and a hospital orderly. He only started doing stand-up comedy as a way to make a little more money until he got discovered by another renowned American comedian and actor Eddie Murphy and there started Chris Rock's career.
Chris Rock did not intend to be a comedian in his mind when he started his career.
He started working for money as a busboy at a Red Lobster and as a hospital orderly. He started his work as a comedian in 1985 when he saw an ad in the newspaper for an open-mic night at a club called 'Catch a Rising Star'.
As he auditioned and got the job, he had to start his work there at 7:45 p.m. and had to work till 2:00 a.m. in the morning.
He worked for six long years and observed the comedians perform there year after year.
In an interview in 2014 with Vulture, Chris Rock said that rather than learning about what he wanted to be, he rather learned more about what he didn't want to say and didn't want to be.
He worked in another club, 'Comic Strip', and in 1986, when Eddie Murphy came to the club one fine evening, the manager introduced Chris Rock to Eddie Murphy.
As Chris Rock got the opportunity to perform in front of Eddie Murphy, he performed well and the acclaimed comedian, Eddie Murphy gave him a small chance in his movie, 'Beverly Hills Cop II'.
Away from the comedy clubs, Chris Rock earned $600 USD by acting in 'Beverly Hills Cop II'.
As he appeared in The Arsenio Hall Show, he managed to catch the attention of Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live. Chris Rock became a part of Saturday Night Live in 1990 and continued there for three years.
As a host, he has been featured on Saturday Night Live twice, and he has also made reappearances a few times including when Eddie Murphy hosted and when Dave Chappelle hosted the show for their first time.
He later started his own talk show 'The Chris Rock Show'. 'The Chris Rock Show' went on for three seasons.
He started his work as a writer and director in the early 2000s. In 2005, he wrote, narrated, executive-produced, and co-created the sitcom 'Everybody Hates Chris'. The story of 'Everybody Hates Chris' was based on the childhood life of Chris Rock.
Awards Won By Chris Rock
Chris Rock has won 27 awards in total and has been nominated a total of 120 times in his life. He has won the Grammy Awards three times and been nominated four times. He has won the Primetime Emmy Awards four times and been nominated 19 times.
Chris Rock was nominated for Emmy Awards for the first time in 1997 as a cast member of 'Politically Incorrect', the late-night ABC talk show's writing team.
His first two Emmy Awards came for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program and Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special for his 1996 HBO comedy special, 'Chris Rock: Bring the Pain'.
He got nominated for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program, and Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program for his own talk show, the comedy series, 'The Chris Rock Show' and won once in 1999.
He got nominated for the 2004 comedy special 'Chris Rock: Never Scared', and 2008 comedy special 'Chris Rock: Kill The Messenger', and won for the 2008 comedy show as well.
He has won the Grammy Awards three times for Best Spoken Comedy Album for 'Roll With the New' in 1998, won Best Spoken Comedy Album for 'Bigger and Blacker' again in 2000, and finally for Best Comedy Album in 2006 for 'Bigger and Blacker'.
Facts About Chris Rock's Childhood
Chris Rock grew up in a humble home with seven other siblings. He studied in an almost all-white public school where he became a victim of discrimination and bullying. This shaped his life in many ways.
Chris Rock or Christopher Julius Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina on February 7, 1965. He had seven siblings among whom he was the eldest brother.
His father, Julius Rock was a newspaper delivery truck driver, and his mother, Rose Rock was a social worker and a teacher. Along with Chris, Julius, and Rose Rock had six boys and one girl. Chris had a paternal older half-brother by the name Charles Ledell Rock who died after a struggle with alcoholism in 2006.
His only sister is Andi Rock and among the rest of his five brothers, Jordan, Kenny, and Tony Rock are also in show business. His other two younger brothers are Andre and Brian Rock.
When Chris was still a toddler, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York where he spent the rest of his childhood in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He was admitted into a nearly all-white public school in Gerritsen Beach and this has not only affected his childhood, but also his career.
In his school, he started to witness racism and discrimination from a very early age. He discontinued going to school when he was in the 10th grade, but he earned his GED. He admitted later in his life that this influenced his comedy bits in a great way.
He also credited his parents for his work ethic. He later studied broadcast journalism at a community college for a year.
In an interview with Oprah in 2002, he admitted that he sensed that he had a gift for comedy at a very young age.
He described a time when he was speaking about something where he was dead serious, but everyone who was there with him was cracking up. He understood that he had a gift and he needed to work with that.
He further said that by the time when he was seven-eight years old, he would watch comedy shows and when credits rolled, he'd say to himself that he was going to write for one of those shows.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 121 Chris Rock facts: did you know this about the comedian? then why not take a look at Adam Levine facts, or Adam Lambert facts?
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