Actors - Dave Chappelle

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Dave Chappelle

	Actors - Dave Chappelle

For the director and photographer, see David LaChapelle
. David Chappelle (born August 24, 1973 in Washington, D.C.) is an American comedian and actor.

Early life

David Chappelle was enraptured by stand-up comedy since his days as an elementary school student in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a middle school student in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his father William was a professor of voice and music at Antioch College. At 14, Chappelle gathered the courage to perform on stage. After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to Washington, D.C., with his mother, Yvonne Seon (a Unitarian minister). He spent summers with his father in Yellow Springs and attended and graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts (a renowned performing arts high school in Washington, DC), where he majored in literary and theatre arts.

Television stardom

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly television show on Comedy Central, Chappelle's Show. His sketch comedy heavily skewers racial stereotypes and slurs, including Chappelle's African-American heritage. This, combined with pointed social and political commentary, quickly gained the show great popularity. By the end of the second season, it was one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable, and second only to South Park on Comedy Central. Additionally, the DVD set of the first season became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date. Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $50 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects.

One of Chappelle's most widely-known bits has Chappelle portraying late funk musician Rick James during his drug-abusing years in the Rick James sketch. "I'm Rick James, Bitch!"—which James himself acknowledged was a direct quote—has become a part of popular culture, as have many other Chappelle characters and sketches. However, Chappelle eventually grew weary of the phrase's popularity and told audience members who yelled it to "shut up." At an appearance at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Chappelle stopped the show to deal with an audience member who would not stop repeating the phrase.

Chappelle has also done two parodies of music videos, "Piss On You" and its remix, which parodies R&B singer R. Kelly's "Feeling on your Booty", and Ignition Remix.

Season 3 turbulence

The comedian stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of Chappelle's Show. He spent two weeks in South Africa before returning home to his 65-acre farm near Yellow Springs, and then returned to standup comedy. His decision triggered reports that he had mental or drug problems, which he denied. On May 11, news sources (most notably Entertainment Weekly) reported that Chappelle had checked himself into a psychiatric facility in South Africa. Chappelle denies this. On May 14, Time Magazine announced that one of their reporters had interviewed Chappelle in South Africa, and the comedian said no psychiatric treatments were occurring or necessary. Chappelle reportedly went to South Africa to purify himself and to do some soul searching. Chappelle has also said he was unhappy with the direction of his show. He has recently claimed that he felt pressured by network executives regarding the show's content.

Chappelle's Show is on hiatus as of December 2005 while he sorts out unspecified personal issues. On August 3rd, co-star Charlie Murphy gave an interview to TV Guide stating that he believes that Dave Chappelle is finished with Chappelle's Show and would not be returning. Although Chappelle may be done with filming the show, Comedy Central has recently reported that they will release the un-aired sketches of the third season of "Chappelle's Show" into a couple of half hour episodes in mid-2006. A season three trailer was shown on Comedy Central during their Last Laugh '05 and then on their website.

Chappelle, himself, however, has expressed disdain at the possibility of his material from the unfinished third season being aired, saying not only does he feel its "a bully move," but it would keep him from returning to the show.

Chappelle said the show would be done if Comedy Central airs the unfinished material.

Return to stand-up & beyond

In late 2005, Chappelle was reported to be back in the United States, at his house in Yellow Springs, Ohio and performed impromptu shows in Los Angeles and Newport, Kentucky.

Chappelle was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005, at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show premiered on February 12, 2006.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dave Chappelle ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Dave Chappelle; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Actors - Dave Chappelle

Early life

Television stardom

Season 3 turbulence

Return to stand-up & beyond

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay