Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian and television personality. He is best known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He has also daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show, the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and the host of Let's Make a Deal on CBS.

Brady is a five-time Emmy Award winner. He was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance, for his cover of the Sam Cooke song "A Change Is Gonna Come".

Early life 
Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia. He moved to Orlando, Florida as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt.  Brady refers to his grandmother, Valerie Petersen, as his "mom", because she raised him.

At 16, Brady started developing his improw skills while performing in community theater and in the Orlando improvisation troupe SAK Comedy Lab. He attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, from which he graduated in 1989. He moved to Los Angeles in 1996 and continued developing his acting skills.

Career 
Brady was one of the improvisational theater performers in the original (British) version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He host Clive Anderson in 1998 when the last season was filmed in Hollywood, after which he became a regular on the American version.

In 2004, Brady joined the Broadway revival of Chicago. He played the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. 

In 2006, he became the host of TV Land's That's What I'm Talking About.

Brady appeared on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He was playing James Stinson, the gay brother of Neil Patrick Harris's character, Barney Stinson. Wayne has also appeared as a guest star for the MTV show Wild 'N Out and lent his voice to the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken.

He was on two episodes of Kevin Hill. 

Brady's debut album was released on September 16, 2008. 

On the May 3, 2010, Brady was the guest host episode of WWE Raw. He was involved in an in-ring segment with Edge and Randy Orton. Later that year, in August, Brady played Tom Collins in a staged production of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl.

On March 4, 2011, he co-hosted the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards with Holly Robinson Peete .

In the summer of 2013 Brady took part in the 2012 ABC improvisational comedy series Trust Us with Your Life and returned for The CW's revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

On June 7, 2013,Brady guest-starred as Don in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Where's Pinky?". 

From February 9 to 13, 2015, he guest-hosted The Late Late Show on CBS.

Brady played the lead role of Aaron Burr in the PrivateBank Theatre production of Hamilton in Chicago from January 17 to April 9, 2017.

On April 29, 2018, Brady won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for Let's Make A Deal for the first time, after seven previous nominations.

Brady began making appearances as Dr. Reese Buckingham on The Bold and the Beautiful in November 2018.

On October 10, 2019, he was featured in a 30-minute YouTube documentary created by SoulPancake in collaboration with Funny or Die wherein a variety of comedians discuss mental health called Laughing Matters.

He was named the winner of The Masked Singer season two where he was revealed to have portrayed "Fox" on December 18, 2019.

Brady later appeared as a guest panelist in season four of The Masked Singer where he also sang Maroon 5's "Memories" as "Mr. TV" at the start of the sixth episode.

On December 28, 2020, It was announced that Brady would star as Django in a benefit concert presentation of Ratatouille the Musical, an internet meme that originated on TikTok, inspired by the 2007 Disney/Pixar film. The concert streamed exclusively on TodayTix on January 1, 2021, and raised over $1 million for The Actors Fund.

References

Other websites

 

1972 births
Living people
Actors from Orlando, Florida
African American actors
American stand-up comedians
African American comedians
American movie actors
Singers from Florida
American television actors
American television personalities
Comedians from Florida
People from Columbus, Georgia