David Alan Grier

David Alan Grier (born June 30, 1956) is an American comedian and actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, Grier gained popularity playing multiple roles in the American sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'' (1990–1994) and Reverend Leon Lonnie Love on the Fox comedy series ''Martin'' (1993–1997). In 2004, Grier was ranked no. 94 on Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.

Grier made his feature film debut in the Robert Altman directed drama ''Streamers'' (1983) for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Grier then took roles in films such as ''A Soldier's Story'' (1984), ''Boomerang'' (1992), ''Jumanji'' (1995), ''Baadasssss!'' (2003), ''Bewitched'' (2005), ''They Cloned Tyrone'' (2023), ''The Color Purple'' (2023), and ''The American Society of Magical Negroes'' (2024).

On stage, Grier won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in the Broadway revival of ''A Soldier's Play'' (2021). He was Tony-nominated for his roles as Jackie Robinson in ''The First'' (1983), Henry Brown in ''Race'' (2009) and Sporting Life in ''Porgy and Bess'' (2012). Other Broadway roles include in ''Dreamgirls'' (1981), and ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1996).

He has worked extensively in television playing roles such as Bernard on ''Damon'' (1998), Jerome Dagget on ''DAG'' (2000–2001), David Bellows on ''Life with Bonnie'' (2002–2004), Joe Carmichael on ''The Carmichael Show'' (2015–2017), the Lion in ''The Wiz Live!'' (2015), and Hal on ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' (2018). He also created and executive-produced the American satirical show ''Chocolate News'' (2008) for Comedy Central. Provided by Wikipedia