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Hot Celebs
It's Chris Rock
Big Time in 2006
Chris Rock is hot. Chris Rock grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Rock discovered comedy early in life, and was performing in the New York stand-up comedy circuit by his late teens. It wasn't until a performance at the New York Comedy Strip that Rock's dream became tangible. That night, a then 18-year-old Rock was introduced by veteran comedian Eddie Murphy, who was impressed enough to cast him in 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II. While it was no breakout performance, the role and newfound connection with Eddie Murphy helped Rock land a couple of small, supporting roles, and eventually a spot on NBC's long running Saturday Night Live.
Rock stayed with SNL for the better part of three years, and
periodically guest-starred in fellow comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans' In
Living Color. In 1991, he took a break from comedy in
favor
of a more dramatic role -- indeed, Rock's performance as a surprisingly
innocent crack addict-cum-informant in Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City
attracted no small amount of favorable attention. Perhaps the role in New
Jack City is indicative of Rock's driving force, i.e., the politics of
modern society and issues within African-American communities throughout
the United States. Though his delivery is certainly of a comedic nature,
many of his favorite topics are quite serious, and it was Rock's ability
to confront these issues so accurately that launched his career during the
late nineties. While his 1993 screenwriting debut received only lukewarm
reviews, Rock became a household name after his scathing HBO comedy
special Bring on the Pain! (1996) earned him two Emmy awards and a
significantly larger fan base. 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. Before long, Rock received a fourth Emmy, as
well as the NAACP Image Award, for his work on HBO's The Chris Rock Show,
which aired throughout 1998 and 1999.
Rock's film career would continue to grow throughout the late nineties, 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 Dogma(1999), in which he played a rather bitter apostle of Jesus. He also published a book titled Rock This! with much success. Though Dogma received mixed reviews, 1999 was no lukewarm year for Rock - HBO came through once again, and Chris hit it big with Bigger and Blacker, his second televised comedy special, which took on topics ranging from gun-control, to Bill Clinton and proper parenting techniques. In 2000, he played a fantasy hit-man alongside Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty.
In 2001, Rock put his screenwriting abilities to the test in Down to Earth, a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, and again in Pootie Tang, a feature spin-off of one of the characters from The Chris Rock Show. Though Pootie Tang fared much better as a three-minute sketch, the film's razor-sharp pop cultural references begat a spot alongside I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and The Hollywood Shuffle. In 2001, Rock lent his vocal chords for Steven Spielburg's A.I.: Artificial Intellegence and Osmosis Jones, and rejoined Kevin Smith for a tiny role in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. In 2002, Rock was one of several comedians featured in Christian Charles' documentary Comedian, and in the same year starred opposite Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins as a CIA spy in Bad Company. Rock directed and starred in 2003's Head of State as an unlikely presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, and is slated to star opposite Ben Stiller in Eric Darnell's Madagasca
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