Anthony Anderson

Born in August of 1970 and raised in Compton, CA, Anderson started his acting career in television commercials at the age of five. Educated in a performing arts high school before earning a talent scholarship to Howard University, Anderson kept his talents fresh and upon graduation began to take small roles in television and film. With his career gaining steady momentum in 1996, Anderson played a recurring role on television's Hang Time, along with appearances in Showtime's Roger Corman-produced Alien Avengers. Keeping up work until frequent film roles began to take hold in 1999, Anderson would turn up that year in the Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy comedy Life, along with a role in Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights. Frequently cracking good-natured jokes about his homeboy-makes-good saga, his friendly sense of humor has translated into warm and well-received roles in Big Mama's House (2000), Me, Myself and Irene, and See Spot Run (2001). With other roles in such action films as Romeo Must Die (2000) and Exit Wounds (2001), in addition to a role in the teen horror entry Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), Anderson has proven equally adept in multiple genres and styles, consistently providing notable performances even if the films that accompany those performances are ultimately forgettable. Anderson played the philandering husband of Jada Pinkett-Smith in Kingdom Come in 2001 and starred with Jerry O'Connell in the lost-in-the-outback comedy Down and Under the same year. ~ Jason Buchanan