Damon Wayans

For the actor's son, see Damon Wayans Jr.Template:Use mdy dates

* Stand-up
* television
* film
* Family
* marriage
* American politics
* everyday life

**Damon Kyle Wayans Sr.** (Template:IPAc-en; born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer, and member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a year long stint on the sketch comedy series *Saturday Night Live.*

His true breakthrough, however, came as writer and performer on FOX's sketch comedy show, *In Living Color*, from 1990 to 1992 and his TV series *Damon* (1998). Since then, he has starred in a number of films and television shows, some of which he has co produced or co written, including *Beverly Hills Cop*, *The Last Boy Scout*, and *Major Payne*, and the sitcom *My Wife and Kids*. From 2016 to 2019, he starred as Roger Murtaugh in the television series *Lethal Weapon*.

## Early life

Wayans was born in Harlem in New York City, the son of Elvira Alethia (Green), a homemaker, singer and social worker, and Howell Stouten Wayans, a supermarket manager. He has five sisters—Elvira, Vonnie, Nadia, Kim and Diedra—and four brothers—Keenen, Marlon, Shawn and Dwayne. He was club footed as a child.

This attribute would also be given to his character in *My Wife and Kids*, and his character on the short lived cartoon series *Waynehead*. Wayans attended Murry Bergtraum High School.

## Career

Damon started doing stand-up comedy in 1982. His earliest film appearance was a brief cameo as an effeminate hotel employee in the Eddie Murphy film of 1984, *Beverly Hills Cop*. From 1985 to 1986, he appeared on *Saturday Night Live* as a featured performer, before getting fired after just eleven episodes for improvising during a live sketch, playing his character as a flamboyant gay cop instead of a straight cop. (Damon continued this sketch character in his family created show *In Living Color* on Fox Television, in 1990, as the flamboyant gay character, Blaine Edwards, an obvious hat tip to Blake Edwards of movies starring *The Pink Panther*.) Wayans later claimed that he wanted to be fired due to lack of creative freedom and screen time. Wayans further explained that Lorne Michaels did not want Wayans to do too much too soon and begin drawing comparisons to Eddie Murphy who had just left the show. He also appeared in the syndicated television series *Solid Gold* during the 1980s as a comedian.

With his brother Keenen, Wayans created the Fox sketch comedy series *In Living Color*, which had a mostly African-American cast. The show went on the air in April 1990. It continued running until May 1994, although Wayans left the show in 1992 to pursue a film career.

After *In Living Color*, he starred in films such as *Mo' Money*, *The Last Boy Scout*, *Major Payne*, *Celtic Pride*, *Bulletproof*, and *The Great White Hype*, and wrote and starred in the film *Blankman*. He also appeared in Janet Jackson's video "The Best Things in Life Are Free" and was considered for the role of The Riddler in *Batman Forever* (the role went to Jim Carrey, his co star from *In Living Color* and *Earth Girls Are Easy*).

In October 1996, he produced *Waynehead*, a short lived cartoon for the WB, loosely based on his own childhood growing up in a large family, starring a poor boy with a club foot. The show only lasted a season due to poor ratings. From 1997 to 1998, he was the executive producer of *413 Hope St.*, a short lived drama on the FOX network starring Richard Roundtree and Jesse L. Martin.

In March 1998, he starred in the short lived comedy television series *Damon*, in which he played a detective from Chicago. It aired on Fox. In 1999, his *The New York Times* bestselling book *Bootleg*, with co author David Asbery was published; it is a humorous compilation of his observations about family.

In October 2000, he was the lead in Spike Lee's *Bamboozled*. Wayans starred in the ABC comedy series *My Wife and Kids* from March 2001 to May 2005. In the end of 2006, he produced and starred in the Showtime sketch comedy series *The Underground*, which also featured his son, Damon Jr.. He also hosted the June 2006 BET Awards.

In 2011, he also added author of a serious fictional novel to his credits with "Red Hats" which is the story of a suicidal sixty five-year-old woman who finds friendship and happiness, when she joins the Red Hat Society. As of 2014[update]Template:Dated maintenance category, Wayans continues to perform stand-up comedy and has developed apps with his company of freelancers "MIMS" (Money in My Sleep). The company created applications such as Flick Dat, Diddeo and VHedz.

On November 12, 2015, at the Irvine Improv, Damon Wayans announced his retirement from stand up commencing December 2015. In September 2016, he was cast as Roger Murtaugh in the television version of *Lethal Weapon*, a role originated by Danny Glover in the film series. On October 3, 2018, it was reported that Wayans would leave *Lethal Weapon* after filming of the first thirteen episodes of Season 3 wrapped. *Lethal Weapon* officially ended in February 2019, after three seasons. Damon Wayans is returning with a new project at ABC and is reteaming with My Wife and Kids co-creator Don Reo on the new family comedy, Let’s Stay Together (working title). The project, now in development, will be produced by ABC Studios, a division of Disney TV Studios.

## Awards and honors

Wayans received four Emmy awards nominations for his acting and writing in *In Living Color*.

For his role in *My Wife and Kids*, he won the 2002 People's Choice Awards for Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Series, and received four International Press Academy "Golden Satellite Award" nominations.

## Personal life

Wayans was married to Lisa Thorner; they divorced in 2000. He has four children with Thorner: sons Damon Wayans Jr., Michael Wayans and daughters Cara Mia Wayans, Kyla Wayans; and is a grandfather. He is the uncle of Damien Dante Wayans, Chaunté Wayans and Craig Wayans. Wayans is a close personal friend of both NBA legend, Michael Jordan and fellow *In Living Color* star, Jim Carrey.

Wayans was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in January 2013.

In September 2015, Wayans defended American comedian Bill Cosby from his sexual assault accusations, stating, "It's a money hustle". He continued, saying, "Forty years – listen, how big is his penis that it gives you amnesia for 40 years? If you listen to them talk, they go, 'Well, the first time...' The first time? Bitch, how many times did it happen? Just listen to what they're saying and some of them really is unrape-able. I look at them and go, 'You don't want that. Get outta here.Template:'"

## *In Living Color*

### Characters

* Whiz (Homeboy Shopping Network)
* Homey D. Clown
* Blaine Edwards (Men on...)
* Handi-Man
* Reverend Ed Cash
* Anton Jackson
* Head Detective
* Tom Brothers (w/Keenen Ivory Wayans)
* Oswald Bates

### Impressions

* Babyface (on *Saturday Night Live*)
* Don King (on *In Living Color*)
* Little Richard (on *Saturday Night Live* and *In Living Color*)
* Louis Farrakhan (on both *Saturday Night Live* and *In Living Color*)
* Redd Foxx (on *In Living Color*)
* Richard Pryor (on *In Living Color*)
* Fab Morvan (on *In Living Color*)
* Jamie Foxx (on *In Living Color*)

## References

1. ↑ You nay it how? Template:Webarchive
2. ↑ "Damon Wayans Biography: Film Actor, Television Actor, Comedian, Director, Producer (1960–)". Biography.com (FYI / A&E Networks). http://www.biography.com/people/damon-wayans-538728#profile.
3. ↑ Tucker, Ernest (April 14, 1989). "Militant Wayans is mellowing out", *Chicago Sun-Times*, p. 9.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Triangulation 175 Damon Wayans – TWiT.TV". http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/175.
5. ↑ "Keenen Ivory Wayans' Interactive Family Tree". https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/blog/keenen-ivory-wayans-interactive-family-tree/.
6. ↑ "Shawn Wayans Biography (1971–)". http://www.filmreference.com/film/73/Shawn-Wayans.html.
7. ↑ Stein, Joel (September 11, 2000). "Marlon Wayans". *Time*. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997920,00.html.
8. ↑ The Movie Chicks – Interview – Marlon Wayans Template:Webarchive
9. ↑ Stated on *Finding Your Roots*, January 19, 2016, PBS
10. ↑ "Damon Wayans Biography – Yahoo! Movies". https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800060529/bio.
11. ↑ "What Damon Wayans said in 2015 about getting fired at SNL, In Living Color, Kevin Hart, social media, and yes, Bill Cosby", *The Comic's Comic* (September 8, 2015).
12. ↑ "CNN – Chatpage – Books – Damon Wayans". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/COMMUNITY/transcripts/wayans.html.
13. ↑ Interview: Damon Wayans Sr. Template:Webarchive Joonbug.com February 14, 2014. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
14. ↑ Munroe, Jill (October 3, 2018). "Damon Wayans Shockingly Quits 'Lethal Weapon' with Exclusive Announcement to EUR". https://www.eurweb.com/2018/10/damon-wayans-shockingly-quits-lethal-weapon-with-exclusive-announcement-to-eur-watch/. "An emotional and clearly hurting Damon Wayans went on to explain that as a 58-year-old diabetic, working 16-hour days had become too much. He also felt the strain that his current job was putting on his personal life. His mother and daughter recently underwent surgeries that the actor said he missed because he was working."
15. ↑ "PCA Winners – People's Choice". http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/awards/nominees/?year=2002.
16. ↑ Devores, Courtney (May 22, 2014). "Damon Wayans Sr. confronts diabetes with a fork and a laugh", *Charlotte Observer*.
17. ↑ "Bill Cosby Scandal Blasted as a 'Money Hustle' by Damon Wayans (Video)", Yahoo (September 4, 2015).
18. ↑ "Damon Wayans Defends Bill Cosby, Calls Accusers "Bitches" and "Unrapeable"", US Weekly (September 6, 2015).

## External links

* Template:IMDb name
* Twit.tv's Triangulation Episode 175 Damon Wayans

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