“I was always considered funny. I went to college and studied, sang... really thought I was going to be a singer. That’s where the ‘Entertainer’ comes from.”
—Cedric, during an interview with Blackfilm.com
You may not know the name Cedric Kyles, but the odds are you know the stage name of Cedric “The Entertainer.” Cedric turned his great sense of humor into an incredible career. From the stage to the screen, the St. Louis native has put his mark on pop culture.
Cedric Kyles was born on April 24, 1964, in Jefferson City. He moved to St. Louis as a kid and spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years there. Even as a kid, friends and family say that he was funny in every situation. His comedic ways in school earned him the title of Most Popular and Most Humorous in his class at Berkeley High School.
Kyles put his comedy career on hold after graduation from college at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. After graduation, he took a job as an insurance adjuster for State Farm Insurance. But his passion was to be on stage! So on the weekends, you could find him performing at comedy clubs throughout the St. Louis area.
Kyles always dreamed of being a performer. When he was 26, friends urged him to take the stage at a comedy club where the Johnnie Walker National Comedy contest tryouts were taking place. He won the contest, which earned him a chance to perform in Chicago. Thankfully for him, it also came with a little money and the chance to travel the country doing his act.
His next big break came after being in the right place at the right time. Cedric stopped by a comedy club in Dallas. where the headline act wasn’t very entertaining. So Cedric decided to take the stage.
He was an instant hit with the crowd, which included comedian Steve Harvey. The two hit it off immediately. Consequently when Harvey landed his own TV show, “The Entertainer” was invited along for the ride.
His pairings with great comedians paved the way for success in the late 1990s. The Steve Harvey Show debuted in 1997, with Cedric Kyles playing Jackie Robinson. He was a hit on the show and won numerous awards. The next year, Cedric teamed up with big-name comedians Bernie Mac and D. L. Hughley for a comedy tour called The Kings of Comedy. The tour sold out almost every night and took in nearly $40 million over two years.
The exposure of his TV show and the comedy act made him a bankable star in Hollywood. He landed a part in Ride in 1998 and in Big Momma’s House in 2000. That same year, the movie version of The Kings of Comedy hit theaters, which gave the Missouri native even greater exposure. He followed the success of these performances with starring roles of his own in Barbershop and Johnson Family Vacation.
Cedric The Entertainer turned his love for entertaining people into a multi-million dollar entertainment empire. He continues to be one of the highest paid and most in-demand actors in Hollywood. He even set up a foundation to fund scholarships for underprivileged kids in his hometown.
His sense of humor and hard work ethic have allowed him to achieve worldwide fame. Thankfully, his humble roots show that Cedric knows where he came from.
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