Chris Rock

Chris Rock is a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director.

After working as a stand-up comedian and appearing in supporting film roles, Rock came to wider prominence as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. He went on to more prominent film appearances, with starring roles in Down to Earth, Head of State, The Longest Yard, the Madagascar film series, Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, Top Five, and a series of acclaimed stand-up specials for HBO. He developed, wrote, and narrated the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, which was based on his early life.

Rock hosted the Academy Awards twice, in 2005 and in 2016. He has won four Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards. He was voted the fifth-greatest stand-up comedian in a poll conducted by Comedy Central. He was also voted in the United Kingdom as the ninth-greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007, and again in the updated 2010 list as the eighth-greatest stand-up comic.

Rock is an outspoken critic of racial profiling and often speaks of the "everyday racism" he experiences despite being famous. In a 2013 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, Rock and Seinfeld are pulled over by the police for speeding while Seinfeld was driving. In the episode, Rock admits to Seinfeld that "If you weren't here, I'd be scared. Yeah, I'm famous – still black."