Who is Alicia Augello Cook

Who is Alicia Augello Cook?

The world knows her by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American recording artist, musician and actress. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16. She later attended Columbia University before dropping out to pursue her music career. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Keys made guest appearances in several television series in the following years. She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold nearly six million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.

Keys was born January 25, 1981 Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City, New York.[1][2] She is the daughter and only child of Irish-Italian mother Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Jamaican father Craig Cook, a flight attendant.[3][4][5][6] She expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures".[2][7] Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.[8] In 1985, Keys made an appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four,
If you watch the clip on you tube when he puts her on his knee he calls her the singer!
where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in the episode "Slumber Party".[9][10] Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother.[11] She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin.[3] She enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14.[4][12] She graduated in three years as valedictorian at the age of 16.[13] She was accepted to Columbia University and had a recording contract with Columbia Records; she attempted to manage both, but dropped out of college after four weeks to pursue her musical career.[13][14]
Keys signed a demo deal with Jermaine Dupri

and So So Def Recordings, where she appeared on the label's Christmas album performing "The Little Drummer Girl".

Alicia Keys: Little Drummer Girl - For more amazing video clips, click here

She also co-wrote and recorded a song entitled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)",

Alicia Keys - Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing) Fanmade - These bloopers are hilarious

which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 film, Men in Black.[14]

The song was Keys' first professional recording; however, it was never released as a single and her record contract with Columbia ended after a dispute with the label. Keys called Clive Davis,

who sensed a "special, unique" artist from her performance and signed her to Arista Records, which later disbanded.[1][2] Keys almost chose Wilde as her stage name until her manager suggested the name Keys after a dream he had. Keys felt that name represented her both as a performer and person.[15] Following Davis to his newly formed J Records label, she recorded the songs "Rock wit U" and "Rear View Mirror", which were featured on the soundtracks to the films Shaft

(2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2

(2001), respectively.[16][17]


Keys released her first studio album, Songs in A Minor, in June 2001. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 236,000 copies in its first week.[19] The album sold six million copies in the United States,[20] where it was certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[21] It went on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide,[22] establishing Keys' popularity both inside and outside the United States, where she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001.[23] The album's lead single, "Fallin'",


Alicia Keys- Fallin' (Live Wetten Dass) - Watch a funny movie here
spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[24] The album's second single, "A Woman's Worth",

Alicia Keys - New Music - More Music Videos

peaked at number three on the same chart.[25] The following year, the album was reissued as Remixed & Unplugged in A Minor, which included eight remixes and seven unplugged versions of the songs from the original.
Songs in A Minor led Keys to win five awards at the 2002 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song for "Fallin'", Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album; "Fallin'" was also nominated for Record of the Year. Keys became the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards.[26] That same year, she collaborated with Christina Aguilera for the latter's upcoming album Stripped on a song entitled "Impossible",
Christina Aguilera ft Alicia Keys Impossible


Impossible - Christina Aguilera Ft. Alicia Keys - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

which Keys wrote, co-produced, and provided with background vocals.[27] During the early 2000s, Keys also made small cameos in television series Charmed

and American Dreams.[3]


Keys followed up her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys,

which was released in December 2003. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 618,000 copies its first week of release, becoming the largest first week sales for a female artist in 2003.[28] It sold 4.4 million copies in the United States and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA.[21][29] It sold eight million copies worldwide,[30] becoming the sixth biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second biggest-selling album by a female R&B artist.[31] The singles "You Don't Know My Name"

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and "If I Ain't Got You"

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both reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the third single, "Diary", entered the top ten.[32][33][34] The fourth single, "Karma",

Alicia Keys - Karma (Official Music Video) - Funny video clips are a click away

was less successful on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 20.[35] "If I Ain't Got You" became the first single by a female artist to remain on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over a year.[36]
Keys won Best R&B Video for "If I Ain't Got You"

at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; she performed the song and "Higher Ground"

with Lenny Kravitz

and Stevie Wonder.[37][38]

Later that year, Keys released her novel Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics, a collection of unreleased poems from her journals and lyrics. The title derived from one of her poems, "Love and Chains" from the line: "I don't mind drinking my tears for water."[39] She said the title is the foundation of her writing because "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question".[40] The book sold over $500,000 and Keys made The New York Times bestseller list in 2005.[41][42] The following year, she won a second consecutive award for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for the video "Karma".[43] Keys performed "If I Ain't Got You" and then joined Jamie Foxx

and Quincy Jones

in a rendition of "Georgia on My Mind"



, the Hoagy Carmichael

song made famous by Ray Charles

in 1960 at the 2005 Grammy Awards.[44] That evening, she won four Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "If I Ain't Got You", Best R&B Song for "You Don't Know My Name", Best R&B Album for The Diary of Alicia Keys, and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals"

for "My Boo" with Usher.[45]

My Boo Live - Usher Feat Alicia Keys - For more amazing video clips, click here


Keys performed and taped her installment of the MTV Unplugged

series in July 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[46] During this session, Keys added new arrangements to her original songs and performed a few choice covers.[47] The session was released on CD and DVD in October 2005. Simply titled Unplugged, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release.[48] The album sold one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and two million copies worldwide.[3][21][49] The debut of Keys' Unplugged was the highest for an MTV Unplugged album since Nirvana's

1994 MTV Unplugged in New York and the first Unplugged by a female artist to debut at number one.[23] The album's first single, "Unbreakable", peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.[50] It remained at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult R&B Airplay for 11 weeks.[51]
Keys opened a recording studio in Long Island, New York, called The Oven Studios, which she co-owns with her production and songwriting partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers.[52] The studio was designed by renowned studio architect John Storyk

of WSDG, designer of Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios. Keys and Brothers are the co-founders of KrucialKeys Enterprises, a production and songwriting team who assisted Keys in creating her albums as well as create music for other artists.[53]


In 2006, Keys won three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Song for "Unbreakable".[54]

Alicia Keys - Unbreakable (Official Music Video) - More free videos are here

She also received the Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[55] In October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the "Mission to Mars" episode of the children's television series The Backyardigans, in which she sang an original song, "Almost Everything Is Boinga Here".[56] That same year, Keys nearly suffered a breakdown. Her grandmother had died and her family was heavily dependent on her. She felt she needed to "escape" and went to Egypt for three weeks. She explained: "That trip was definitely the most crucial thing I've ever done for myself in my life to date. It was a very difficult time that I was dealing with, and it just came to the point where I really needed to—basically, I just needed to run away, honestly. And I needed to get as far away as possible."[57][58]
Keys made her film debut in early 2007 in the crime film Smokin' Aces,

co-starring as an assassin named Georgia Sykes opposite Ben Affleck

and Andy García.

Keys received much praise from her co-stars in the film; Reynolds said that Keys was "so natural" and that she would "blow everybody away".[59][60] In the same year, Keys earned further praise for her second film, The Nanny Diaries,

based on the 2002 novel of the same name, where she co-starred alongside Scarlett Johansson

and Chris Evans.[61]

She also guest starred as herself in the "One Man Is an Island" episode of the drama series Cane.[62]



Keys released her third studio album, As I Am,

in November 2007; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week. It gained Keys her largest first week sales of her career and became her fourth consecutive number one album, tying her with Britney Spears

for the most consecutive number-one debuts on the Billboard 200 by a female artist.[63][64] The week became the second largest sales week of 2007 and the largest sales week for a female solo artist since singer Norah Jones'

album Feels like Home

in 2004.[65] The album has sold nearly four million copies in the United States and has been certified three times Platinum by the RIAA.[66][67] It has sold nearly six million copies worldwide.[68] Keys received five nominations for As I Am at the 2008 American Music Award and ultimately won two.[69] The album's lead single, "No One", peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, becoming Keys' third and fifth number-one single on each chart, respectively.[70]. The album's second single, "Like You'll Never See Me Again",

Alicia Keys - New Music - More Music Videos

was released in late 2007 and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.[71] The album's third single, "Teenage Love Affair",

Alicia Keys - New Music - More Music Videos

peaked at number three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[71] She released the fourth single, "Superwoman",

Alicia Keys - New Music - More Music Videos

which peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 12 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.[71][72]


"No One"

Alicia Keys - New Music - More Music Videos

earned Keys the awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song at the 2008 Grammy Awards.[73] Keys opened the ceremony singing Frank Sinatra's

1950s song "Learnin' the Blues"

as a "duet" with archival footage of Sinatra in video and "No One" with John Mayer

later in the show.[74] Keys also won Best Female R&B Artist during the show.[75] She starred in "Fresh Takes",

a commercial micro-series created by Dove Go Fresh, which premiered during The Hills on MTV from March to April 2008. The premiere celebrated the launch of new Dove Go Fresh.[76] She also signed a deal as spokesperson with Glacéau's VitaminWater

to endorse the product,[77] and was in an American Express commercial for the "Are you a Cardmember?" campaign.[78] Keys, along with The White Stripes'

guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White,

recorded a theme song to Quantum of Solace,

the first duet in Bond soundtrack history. Another Way To Die

[79] In 2008, Keys was ranked in at number 80 the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists.[80] She also starred in The Secret Life of Bees,

a film adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's

acclaimed 2003 bestseller novel of the same name alongside Jennifer Hudson

and Queen Latifah,

released in October 2008 via Fox Searchlight.[81] Her role earned her a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.[82] She also received three nominations at the 2009 Grammy Awards and won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Superwoman".[83]

Alicia Keys - New Music - More Music Videos

In an interview with Blender magazine, Keys allegedly said "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other, 'gangsta rap' didn't exist" and went on to say that it was created by "the government". The magazine also claimed she said that Tupac Shakur

and The Notorious B.I.G.

were "essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing".[12] Keys later wrote a statement clarifying the issues and saying her words were misinterpreted.[84] Later that year, Keys was criticized by anti-smoking campaigners after billboard posters for her forthcoming concerts in Indonesia featured a logo for the A Mild cigarette brand sponsored by tobacco firm Philip Morris.

She apologized after discovering that the concert was sponsored by the firm and asked for "corrective actions". In response, the company withdrew its sponsorship.[85]


Keys and manager Jeff Robinson

signed a film production deal to develop live-action and animated projects with Disney. Their first film will be a remake of the 1958 comedy Bell, Book and Candle

and will star Keys as a witch who casts a love spell to lure a rival's fiancé.[86] Keys and Robinson also formed a television production company called Big Pita.[87] Keys and Robinson will develop live-action and animated projects from their company, Big Pita and Little Pita, with Keys as producer, thespian, banner spearheading soundtrack and music supervision.[88]


Keys is expected to play a 1940s biracial piano child prodigy, Philippa Schuyler,

in an upcoming film entitled Compositions in Black and White. It is based on a 1995 biographical book of the same name by Kathryn Talalay.[89]

"The challenge, in order to actually be able to play classical piano as a woman of mixed race, was by far more than I could ever imagine", Keys said, "That's what intrigued me about that role." The biopic will tell the difficult tale of Schuyler's controversial career, love-hate relationship with her mother, and the black community, her second career as a writer, and her eventual death in a helicopter accident. "Her story is very deep, even up to the point where the relationship between her and her mother gets very strained and she chooses to go to Europe and pass as a Spanish woman in order to be able to play, in order to be able to live a more normal life", Keys said, adding that she and Halle Berry

hoped to start shooting in early 2008, but has not been filmed to date. "As of right now, we're still in the first, second draft of the script", she said, "So a little bit of time—at least a year."[90]
It has been reported that Keys will release her fourth studio album in late 2009. As part of the promotional drive for the album, she will be performing at the Cayman Island Jazz Festival on December 5, the final night of the three day festival which will be broadcast on BET.[91] In June 2009, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Keys with the Golden Note Award, an award given to artists "who have achieved extraordinary career milestones".[92]



An accomplished pianist, Keys incorporates piano into a majority of her songs and often writes about love, heartbreak and female empowerment.[2][41] She was inspired by several musicians, including Prince,

Nina Simone,

Barbra Streisand,

Marvin Gaye

and Quincy Jones.

[93][94] Keys is a multi-instrumentalist who plays five different musical instruments.[95] Keys' style is rooted in gospel and vintage soul music, supplemented by bass and programmed drumbeats.[96] She heavily incorporates classical piano with R&B, soul and jazz into her music,[97][98] but began experimenting with genres, including pop and rock, in her third studio album, As I Am.[96][99][100] Patrick Huguenin

of the New York Daily News stated that her incorporation of classical piano riffs contributed to her breakout success.[36] Jet magazine states she "thrives" by touching her fans with "piano mastery, words and melodious voice".[101] The Independent described her style as consisting of "crawling blues coupled with a hip-hop backbeat", noting that her lyrics "rarely stray from matters of the heart".[102] Blender magazine referred to her as "the first new pop artist of the millennium who was capable of changing music."[103]


Keys has a vocal range of a contralto, which spans three octaves.[36][104] Critics have called her voice strong, raw and impassioned;[105][106] others feel that her voice is "emotionally manufactured" at times and that she pushes her voice out of its natural range.[105][106] Keys' songwriting is often criticized for lack of depth, which has lead to her writing abilities being called limited.[105] Her lyrics have been called generic, clichéd and that her songs revolve around generalities.[105][96] Greg Kot

of the Chicago Tribune feels that she "[pokes] around for multi-format hits rather than trying to project any sort of artistic vision".[106] Diversely, Jon Pareles

of Blender magazine stated that the musical composition of her songs makes up for their lyrical weakness,[99] while Gregory Stephen Tate

of The Village Voice compared Keys' writing and production to 1970s music.[107]
Joanna Hunkin

of The New Zealand Herald reviewed one of Keys' performances, where Kylie Minogue

also attended. She described Minogue's reaction to Keys' performance, saying "it was obvious she was just as much of a fan as the 10,000 other people at Vector Arena". She went on to say that Minogue was "the original pop princess bowing down to the modern-day queen of soul".[108] Hunkin characterized Keys' opening performance as a "headbanging, hip-gyrating performance" and her energy as "high-octane energy most bands save for their closing finale". At the end of her two-hour performance, fans "screamed, stomped and begged for a second encore".[108] Hillary Crosley

and Mariel Concepcion


of Billboard magazine noted that her shows are "extremely coordinated" with the audience's attention span "consistently maintained". The show ended with a standing ovation and Keys "proved that a dynamic performance mixed with superior musicianship always wins".[109] Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and is listed on the Recording Industry Association of America's best-selling artists in the United States, with 14 million certified albums.[110] She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and has established herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.[9][111][112][107]

Keys is the co-founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that provides medicine to families with HIV and AIDS in Africa.[113] Keys and U2 lead singer Bono

recorded a cover version of Peter Gabriel

and Kate Bush's

"Don't Give Up", in recognition of World AIDS Day 2005. Keys and Bono's version of the song was retitled "Don't Give Up (Africa)" to reflect the nature of the charity it was benefiting.[114][115] She visited African countries such as Uganda, Kenya and South Africa to promote care for children affected by AIDS.[116][117][118] Her work in Africa was documented in the documentary Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland and was available in April 2008.[119]
Keys has also donated to Frum tha Ground Up, a non-profit organization that aids children and teenagers with scholarships.[120][121] She performed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the worldwide Live 8 concerts to raise awareness of the poverty in Africa and to pressure the G8 leaders to take action.[122] In 2005, Keys performed on ReAct Now: Music & Relief and Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, two benefit programs that raised money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.[123][124] In July 2007, Keys and Keith Urban

performed The Rolling Stones' 1969 song "Gimme Shelter"

at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the American leg of the Live Earth concerts.[125][126]
Keys performed Donny Hathaway's

1973 song "Someday We'll All Be Free" at the America: A Tribute to Heroes televised benefit concert following the September 11 attacks.[127] She participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert which took place at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2007, along with other various artists.[128] She recorded a theme song for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.


She joined Joss Stone

and Jay-Z

on the effort, which served as a theme song for Obama's campaign.[129] For her work, Keys was honored at the 2009 BET Awards with the Humanitarian Award.[130] more

Who is Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III

Chris Rock

Who is Christopher Julius Rock III[6]

[7][8] The world knows him by his stage name ChrisRock, Rock is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted by Comedy Central as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time.[9]

Rock was born February 7, 1965 in Andrews, South Carolina. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they relocated and settled in the working-class area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.[6] His mother, Rosalie (née Tingman), was a teacher and social worker for the mentally handicapped; his father, Julius Rock, was a former truck driver and newspaper deliveryman.[10] Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery.[11] His younger brothers Tony and Kenny[12] are also in the entertainment business. His older brother, Charles, died in 2006 due to a long struggle with alcoholism.[13][14][15] Rock has said that he was influenced by the performing style of his paternal grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher.[6][16]



Rock began doing stand-up comedy in 1985 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star.[6] He slowly rose up the ranks of the comedy circuit in addition to earning bit roles in the film I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

and the TV series Miami Vice.

Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy

befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II.




Rock became a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1990. He and other new cast members Chris Farley,

Adam Sandler,

Rob Schneider

and David Spade

became known as the Bad Boys of SNL. In 1991, he released his first comedy album Born Suspect

and won acclaim for his dramatic role as a crack addict in the film New Jack City.

His tenure on SNL gave Rock national exposure.



A frustrated Rock left Saturday Night Live in 1993, appearing instead as a "special guest" star on the predominately African-American sketch show In Living Color.

The show, however, was canceled months later. Rock then decided to concentrate on a film career. He wrote and starred in the mockumentary CB4

but the film was not a success. Acting jobs became scarce, and Rock abandoned Hollywood to concentrate on stand-up comedy.[16]
Rock starred in his first HBO comedy special in 1994 titled Big Ass Jokes.

But it was his second stand-up special, 1996's Bring the Pain,

that reinvented Rock as one of the best comedians in the industry.[17][18] His routine, which featured commentaries on race in America, stirred up a great deal of controversy.[19] Rock won two Emmy Awards for that special. Adding to his popularity was his much-publicized role as a commentator for Comedy Central's Politically Incorrect during the 1996 Presidential elections[17] which e arned him another Emmy nomination.[20] Rock also was the voice for the "Lil Penny"

puppet who was the alter ego to basketball star Penny Hardaway

in a series of Nike shoe commercials from 1994-1998,[17] and hosted the '97 MTV Video Music Awards.
Rock later had two more HBO comedy specials: Bigger & Blacker

in 1999, and Never Scared


in 2004. Articles relating to both specials called Rock "the funniest man in America" in Time[21] and Entertainment Weekly,[2] respectively. HBO also aired his talk show, The Chris Rock Show,

which gained critical acclaim for Rock's interviews with celebrities and politicians. The show won an Emmy for writing. His television work has won him a total of three Emmy Awards and 15 nominations.[20] By the end of the decade, Rock was established as one of the preeminent stand-up comedians and comic minds of his generation.
During this time, Rock also translated his comedy into print form in the book Rock This! and released the Grammy Award-winning comedy albums, Roll with the New, Bigger & Blacker and Never Scared.
Rock's fifth HBO special, Kill the Messenger,

premiered on September 27, 2008.[22]


It was not until the success of his stand-up act in the late 1990s that Rock began receiving major parts in films. These include roles in Dogma,

Beverly Hills Ninja,

Lethal Weapon 4,

Nurse Betty,

The Longest Yard,

Bad Company,

and a starring role in Down to Earth.


Rock has also increasingly worked behind the camera, both as a writer and director of Head of State

and I Think I Love My Wife.

In the fall of 2005, the UPN television network premiered a comedy series called Everybody Hates Chris,

based on Rock's school days, of which he is the executive producer and narrator. The show has garnered both critical and ratings success.[23] The series was nominated for a 2006 Golden Globe for Best TV Series (Musical or Comedy), a 2006 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Comedy, and two 2006 Emmy Awards for costuming and cinematography.[24]


In early 2005, Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards ceremony. The decision to have Rock host the awards was seen by some as a chance to bring an "edge" to the ceremony, and to make it more relevant or appealing to younger audiences. During one segment Rock asked, "Who is this guy?" in reference to actor Jude Law

seemingly appearing in every movie Rock had seen that year and implied Law was a low-rent Tom Cruise

(he made a joke about filmmakers rushing production when unable to get the actors they want: "If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait [to make the film]!"). Subsequently, a defensive Sean Penn

took the stage to present and said, "In answer to our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors." (At the time, Penn and Law were shooting All the King's Men.)

Law was not the only actor that Rock poked fun at that evening, however -- he turned the joke on himself at one point, saying, "If you want Denzel [Washington]

and all you can get is me, wait!" Older Oscar officials were reportedly displeased with Rock's performance, which did not elevate ratings for the ceremony.[25] Rock was also criticized for referring to the Oscars as "idiotic", and asserting that heterosexual men do not watch them, in an interview prior to Oscar night.[26][27]


Rock's first music video was for his song "Your Mother's Got a Big Head" from his album Born Suspect. Rock

also made videos for his songs "Champagne" from Roll With the New and "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)" from Bigger & Blacker. Chris Rock also directed and appeared in the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Hump de Bump".

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Rock appeared in the Big Daddy Kane music video "Smooth Operator"

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as a guy getting his hair cut.
He also appeared in Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down",

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one of the many celebrities seen lip-synching the song.


Rock's

subject matter typically involves family, politics, romance, music, class relationships, and race relations in the United States. Though not strictly autobiographical, much of his comic standpoint seem rooted in his teenage experience; his strict parents, concerned about the inadequacies of the local school system, arranged to have the adolescent Rock bused to a nearly all-white high school in Bensonhurst (an Italian-ethnic neighborhood of Brooklyn known at the time for poor race relations). In his memoir "Rock This," the comedian recalls, "My parents assumed I'd get a better education in a better neighborhood. What I actually got was a worse education in a worse neighborhood. And a whole bunch of ass-whippings."[28]
The comedian has also expressed discomfort with the notion that success in standup comedy—or, indeed, in any aspect of the entertainment industry—should oblige him to serve as a role model. In this position, he finds himself directly at odds with one of his comic idols, Bill Cosby.

Cosby has reprimanded Rock both explicitly—for his famous/notorious Niggas vs. Black People track[29]—


and implicitly, for heavy use of the word "nigger."[30] Rock has not wavered from a position explored in his 1996 Roll With The New show, and reiterated in his 1997 memoir: "Why does the public expect entertainers to behave better than everybody else? It's ridiculous...Of course, this is just for black entertainers. You don't see anyone telling Jerry Seinfeld

he's a good role model. Because everyone expects whites to behave themselves...Nowadays, you've got to be an entertainer and a leader. It's too much."[31]
At the London Live Earth concert on July 7, 2007, which was broadcast live on the BBC, before introducing the Red Hot Chili Peppers,

Rock called the crowd "motherfuckers" and "shit" after a brief sigh when he said he was joking. Due to the broadcast being at 5:45pm Rock was immediately cut off, and the BBC made several apologies for his use of the word "motherfucker".[32]

Rock has been married to Malaak Compton

since November 23, 1996.[33] She is the founder and executive director of StyleWorks, a non-profit, full-service salon that provides free services for women leaving welfare and entering the workforce.[33] They have 2 daughters together, Lola Simone (born June 28, 2002) and Zahra Savannah (born May 22, 2004).[34]

In November 2006, the entertainment news website TMZ.com reported that Rock

was filing for divorce after nearly ten years of marriage to Malaak.[35] Two weeks later, however, TMZ reported that Rock had not filed divorce papers, and that it appeared that the couple had been able to work out their differences and stay together.[36] In response to the reports, the Rocks released a statement to the press denouncing them as "untrue rumors and lies".[33]
Often the subject of tabloids, when asked about paparazzi and the other negative aspects of fame, Rock says he accepts the bad with the good: "You can't be happy that fire cooks your food and be mad it burns your fingertips."[37]
In 2007, freelance journalist and former actress Kali Bowyer

filed a paternity suit against Chris Rock, claiming he was the father of her son, and in need of hospitalization.[38] DNA testing proved that Rock was not the child's father.[39]
Rock currently resides in Alpine, New Jersey.[40]
Rock is an avid supporter of the New York Mets baseball team. During the 2007 season he was seen nearly every game on the video screen leading the crowd in a chant of "Let's Go Mets."
In 2008, Rock's family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2.


A DNA test showed that he is descended from the Udeme people of northern Cameroon and that he is 20% Caucasian.[41]

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