Damon Wayans

Wayans was born in Harlem^[3] in New York City, the fourth child of Elvira Alethia (née Green), a homemaker, singer^[4] and social worker, and Howell Stouten Wayans, a supermarket manager.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} His three older siblings are Dwayne, Keenen Ivory, and Diedra. His six younger siblings are Kim, Elvira, Nadia, Vonnie, Shawn, and Marlon. The Wayans children were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses.^[10] As a child, he had a club foot.

This attribute would also be given to his character in My Wife and Kids, and his character on the short-lived cartoon series Waynehead. Wayans attended Murry Bergtraum High School.^[11]

Wayans started doing stand-up comedy in 1982. His earliest film appearance was a brief cameo as an effeminate hotel employee in the Eddie Murphy film of 1984, Beverly Hills Cop. From 1985 to 1986, he appeared on Saturday Night Live as a featured player, before getting fired after just eleven episodes for improvising during a live sketch, playing his character as a flamboyant gay cop instead of a straight cop. Wayans later claimed that he wanted to be fired due to lack of creative freedom and screen time. Wayans further explained that Lorne Michaels did not want Wayans to do too much too soon and began drawing comparisons to Eddie Murphy who had just left the show.^[12] He also appeared in the syndicated television series Solid Gold during the 1980s as a comedian.

With his brother Keenen, Wayans created the Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color, which had a mostly African-American cast. The show went on the air in April 1990. It continued running until May 1994, although Wayans left the show in 1992 to pursue a film career.

During and after In Living Color, he starred in films such as The Last Boy Scout (1991), Mo' Money (1992), Last Action Hero (1993), Major Payne (1995), Celtic Pride (1996), Bulletproof (1996), and The Great White Hype (1996), and wrote and starred in the film Blankman (1994). He also appeared in Janet Jackson's video "The Best Things in Life Are Free" and was considered for the role of the Riddler in Batman Forever (the role went to Jim Carrey, his co-star from In Living Color and Earth Girls Are Easy).

In October 1996, he produced Waynehead, a short-lived cartoon for The WB, loosely based on his own childhood growing up in a large family, starring a poor boy with a club foot. The show only lasted a season due to poor ratings. From 1997 to 1998, he was the executive producer of 413 Hope St., a short-lived drama on the FOX network starring Richard Roundtree and Jesse L. Martin.

In March 1998, he starred in the short-lived comedy television series Damon, in which he played a detective from Chicago. It aired on Fox. In 1999, his The New York Times bestselling book Bootleg, with co author David Asbery was published; it is a humorous compilation of his observations about family.^[13]

In October 2000, he was the lead in Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Wayans starred in the ABC comedy series My Wife and Kids from March 2001 to May 2005. He was also co-creator of the short lived ABC sitcom Rodney, starring Rodney Carrington and Jennifer Aspen, that ran from 2004–2006. In the end of 2006, he produced and starred in the Showtime sketch comedy series The Underground, which also featured his son, Damon Jr. He also hosted the June 2006 BET Awards.

In 2011, he also added author of a serious fictional novel to his credits with Red Hats, which is the story of a suicidal 65-year-old woman who finds friendship and happiness, when she joins the Red Hat Society. As of 2014^[update], Wayans continues to perform stand-up comedy and has developed apps with his company of freelancers "MIMS" (Money in My Sleep).^[4] The company created applications such as Flick Dat, Diddeo^[14] and VHedz.^[4]

On November 12, 2015, at the Irvine Improv, Wayans announced his retirement from stand up commencing December 2015. In September 2016, he was cast as Roger Murtaugh in the television version of Lethal Weapon, a role originated by Danny Glover in the film series. On October 3, 2018, it was reported that Wayans would leave Lethal Weapon after filming of the first thirteen episodes of Season 3 wrapped.^[15] Lethal Weapon officially ended in February 2019, after three seasons.

Wayans returned to scripted television in the fall of 2024 with his son Damon Jr. on the CBS sitcom Poppa's House.^[16]

Wayans was married to Lisa Thorner; they divorced in 2000. He has four children with Thorner: sons Damon Wayans Jr. and Michael Wayans and daughters Cara Mia Wayans and Kyla Wayans. He is also a grandfather^[4] and a great grandfather. He is the uncle of Damien Dante Wayans, Chaunté Wayans and Craig Wayans.

Wayans was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in January 2014.^[17] In December 2015, Wayans successfully underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumor on his pituitary gland. He retired from stand-up shortly thereafter, and spent three months recovering.^[18][19]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Beverly Hills Cop	Banana Man
1987	Hollywood Shuffle	Body Guard No. 2 / Willie
	Roxanne	Jerry
1988	Colors	T-Bone
	Earth Girls Are Easy	Zeebo
	Punchline	Percy
	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	Leonard
1990	Look Who's Talking Too	Eddie	Voice
1991	The Last Boy Scout	James Alexander "Jimmy" Dix
1992	Mo' Money	Johnny Stewart	Also writer
1993	Last Action Hero	Himself
1994	Blankman	Darryl Walker / Blankman	Also writer
1995	Major Payne	Major Benson Winefred Payne
1996	Celtic Pride	Lewis Scott
	The Great White Hype	James 'The Grim Reaper' Roper
	Bulletproof	Detective Jack Carter / Rock Keats
1999	Harlem Aria	Wes
	Goosed	Dr. Steven Hemel
2000	Bamboozled	Pierre Delacroix / Peerlees Dothan
2003	Marci X	Dr. S.
2004	Behind the Smile	Charlie Richman
2007	Farce of the Penguins	Hey, That's My Ass! Penguin	Voice
2011	Herd Mentality	Jimmy Crowder	Short film
2023	Cinnamon	Wally

Close

Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985–1986	Saturday Night Live	Himself / various characters	Main cast: Season 11 & hosted 1995 episode
1986	Triplecross	Ornery Character No. 1	Television film
1987	Sweet Surrender	Ray	Episode: "The Holdens Go to Dinner"
	A Different World	Marvin Haven	Episode: "War of the Words"
1989	One Night Stand	Himself	Episode: "Damon Wayans"
1990–1993	In Living Color	Himself / various characters	Main cast (seasons 1–3); recurring guest star (season 4)
1996–1997	Waynehead	—N/a	Co-creator and executive producer
1998	Damon	Damon Thomas	Main cast; also co-creator and executive producer
2001–2005	My Wife and Kids	Michael Kyle	Main cast; also executive producer
2004–2006	Rodney	—N/a	Co-creator and executive producer
2006	The Underground	Himself / various characters	Main cast; also producer
	Legends Bells	Himself	Television film
2008	Never Better	Keith
2011	Happy Endings	Francis Williams	Episode: "Like Father, Like Gun"
2016–2019	Lethal Weapon	Roger Murtaugh	Main cast
2018	Happy Together	Mike Davis	Episode: "Like Father, Like Son"
2021	Live in Front of a Studio Audience	Willis Drummond	Episode: "Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life"[20]
2024–2025	Poppa's House	Damon "Poppa" Fulton	Lead role; also, co-creator and executive producer

Close

Documentary

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title
2009	Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy

Close

• Wayans, Damon (1999). Bootleg. Harper. ISBN 978-0060193669.
• Wayans, Damon (2010). Red Hats: A Novel. Atria Books. ISBN 978-1439164617.