July 10, 2008
Chris Rock grew up in Brooklyn and projected a marked aptitude for comedy early in life. Rock established himself as a household name after his scathing HBO comedy special Bring the Pain (1996) earned him two Emmy awards. The same year, he received a third Emmy for his work as a writer and correspondent for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Then, in 1997, the successes of Rock's stand-up, his contributions to Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, and his work on Bring the Pain collectively inspired HBO to sign Rock for a sketch comedy series, The Chris Rock Show, that ran from 1997 to 2000.
Rock's film career expanded throughout the late '90s, and the young comic won particular notice for his role as a hot-headed law enforcement agent in 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 opposite Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, and later for Kevin Smith's irreverent Dogma (1999), as a bitter apostle of Jesus. He also published a book titled Rock This! with much success. In 1999 Rock mounted his second HBO comedy special, Bigger & Blacker, which found the comedian addressing topics from gun control to Bill Clinton and proper parenting techniques.
Rock’s most frequent turn arrived in the form of a new semiautobiographical sitcom on UPN, Everybody Hates Chris that debuted in September 2005. As narrated by Rock, this sweet, gentle, nostalgic and witty program caught everyone off guard and drew outstanding ratings during late 2005 TV Sweeps. In 2007, Rock returned to cinemas, posing a quadruple threat (writer/producer/ director/star) with the adults-only sex comedy I Think I Love My Wife.
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