Eddie Griffin Biography

Edward Griffin (born July 15, 1968) is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for portraying Eddie Sherman on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie and the title character in the 2002 comedy film Undercover Brother. He also played T.J. in the Deuce Bigalow movies.

Early life

Griffin was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and was raised by his single mother, Doris Thomas, a phone company operator. In 1984, at 15 years old, he moved to Compton, California to live with his cousins. in 1986, after graduating from Compton High, Griffin enrolled as a biological engineering major at University of Miami, but later left in 1988 and moved to New York City to peruse a career in comedy. Griffin did not see his mother for four years, after Griffin and his mother got into an argument at his 20th birthday party, where Griffin's mother accused him of stealing jewelry from her, which Griffin denied doing. Griffin later moved back to Los Angeles, California in March 1992, to be closer with his family when his mother was injured in a car accident.

Career

Griffin has starred in films such as The Meteor Man (1993), The Walking Dead (1995) Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), Double Take (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), John Q (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) and Norbit (2007). In 2007, he starred in Urban Justice, a thriller set in New Mexico. He also starred in the UPN television series Malcolm & Eddie (1996-2000).

Griffin was ranked at number 62 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. In 2011 Comedy Central released You Can Tell 'Em I Said It on DVD. It was 82 minutes of unedited and uncensored content.

Griffin performed on two tracks from Dr. Dre's 1999 album, 2001, and the intro track from The D.O.C.'s 1996 album Helter Skelter. He also has appeared on commercials for Miller Beer's Man Laws. He is well known for his comedic routine of imitating Michael Jackson on crack cocaine. He also made an appearance on Chappelle's Show in the skit "World Series of Dice" as Grits n' Gravy.

Personal life

Griffin has been married three times. He married his first wife, Carla, in 1984; he was 16 years old. They were together for 13 years before divorcing. He married his second wife, Rochelle, in 2002, but they have since divorced. On September 8, 2011, he married Nia Rivers. However, they filed for divorce after one month of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. They were officially divorced six months later. He has nine children.

In March 2007, Griffin participated in a charity race at Irwindale Speedway to promote the film Redline, using a Ferrari Enzo owned by Daniel Sadek. During a practice run, Griffin accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and lost control of the Enzo, crashing hard into a concrete barrier. He walked away unscathed, but the $1.5 million supercar was badly damaged. Griffin later lashed out at reporters who claimed the crash was a publicity stunt.

During the sexual assault allegations on Bill Cosby, Griffin suggested that Cosby was the victim of a conspiracy to destroy his image and that several other prominent African-American men had been victims of similar conspiracies.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role
1991	The Last Boy Scout	Club DJ
1992	Brain Donors	Messenger
1993	Coneheads	Customer
1993	The Meteor Man	Michael Anderson
1994	House Party 3	Guest at Kid's Bachelor Party
1994	Jason's Lyric	Rat
1995	The Walking Dead	Pvt. Hoover Brache
1997	Eddie Griffin: Voodoo Child	Himself
1998	Armageddon	Bike Messenger
1999	Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo	Tiberius Jefferson "T.J." Hicks
1999	The Mod Squad	Sonny
1999	Foolish	Miles "Foolish" Waise
2000	All Jokes Aside	Himself
2000	Picking Up the Pieces	Sediento
2001	Double Take	Freddy Tiffany
2002	John Q	Lester Matthews
2002	The New Guy	Luther
2002	Undercover Brother	Anton Jackson / Undercover Brother
2002	Pinocchio	The Cat (voice: English dub)
2003	Dysfunktional Family	Himself
2003	Scary Movie 3	Orpheus
2004	Blast	Lamont Dixon
2004	My Baby's Daddy	Lonnie
2005	The Wendell Baker Story	McTeague
2005	Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo	Tiberius Jefferson "T.J." Hicks
2006	Date Movie	Frank Jones
2006	The Year Without a Santa Claus	Jingle
2006	Who Made the Potatoe Salad?	Malik
2006	Irish Jam	Jimmy Winston "Da Jam" McDevitt
2007	Norbit	Pope Sweet Jesus
2007	Redline	Infamous
2007	I'm Rick James	Himself
2007	Urban Justice	Armand Tucker
2008	Beethoven's Big Break	Stanley
2008	Freedom of Speech	Himself
2009	Young World
2010	Hollywont
2010	Bunyan and Babe
2011	You Can Tell 'Em I Said It	Himself
2014	Going to America	Fumnanya
2015	American Hero	Lucille
2017	All About the Money	Christopher Jefferson Johnson

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
Year not known	Saved By The Bell	The Glee Club
1996-2000	Malcolm & Eddie	Eddie Sherman
2004	Chappelle's Show	Grits N' Gravy
2009	Eddie Griffin Going For Broke	Himself
2012-2015	Black Dynamite	Richard Pryor
2014	The Boondocks	Himself (voice)	Episode: "Good Times"

Awards

Award	Film	Event
Best Actor	Last Supper	Los Angeles International Film Festival 2014
Best Actor	Last Supper	San Francisco Global Movie Fest 2014

Discography

Live albums

Title	Album details
The Message in The Hat	Released: July 27, 1993 Label: Sony Entertainment Formats: CD, digital download, LP
The Message	Released: March 29, 1999 Label: Warner Bros, WEA International Inc Formats: CD, digital download, LP
Freedom Of Speech	Released: April 24, 2008 Label: Comedy Central/CodeBlack Formats: digital download|-
You Can Tell 'Em I Said It	Released: February 22, 2011 Label: Comedy Central Formats: digital download

Soundtrack albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions		Certifications
		US	US R&B
Foolish (with various artists)	Released: March 23, 1999 Label: No Limit Records/Priority Records Format: CD, digital download, LP	32	10	RIAA: Gold

Album appearances

• 1996 "Intro" (from The D.O.C. album Helter Skelter)
• 1998 "DP Gangsta" (from Snoop Dogg & C-Murder) album Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told)
• 1999 "Bar One" (with Traci Nelson and Ms. Roq) (from Dr. Dre album 2001)
• 1999 "Ed-ucation" (from Dr. Dre album 2001)
• 2002 "Bitch Ass Niggaz" (from Xzibit album Man vs. Machine)
• 2003 "I Thought U Knew" (with Crooked I, Eastwood & The Dramatics) album Dysfunktional Family) (Various artists)
• 2003 "Dys-Funk-Tional" (from Spider Loc & Eddie Griffin) album Dysfunktional Family) (Various artists)
• 2008 "Take A Ride Skit" & "Feed The Lions Skit" (from T-Pain album Thr33 Ringz)

Music video appearances

• 1997 "Honey" (from Mariah Carey "Butterfly")
• 1997 "The Roof" (from Mariah Carey "Butterfly")
• 1997 "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" (from Puff Daddy album No Way Out)
• 2001 "Take Ya Home" (from Bow Wow album Doggy Bag)

See also

• All Jokes Aside Documentary