Godfrey C. Danchimah, Jr. (born July 21, 1969), professionally known as Godfrey, is an American

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audienc ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

who has appeared on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

, VH1, Comedy Central, and

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s, such as '' Soul Plane'', '' Original Gangstas'', '' Zoolander'', and '' Johnson Family Vacation''. He was also a spokesperson for 7 Up during the popular '7up yours' advertising campaign and a cast member on the first season of '' The It Factor'', a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1 ...

show. Currently, he is a regular performer at the comedy club Comedy Cellar in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is also known for doing the voices of Mr. Stubborn and Mr. Tall (Season 2) in '' The Mr. Men Show'' and hosting the FOX game show '' Bullseye''. Godfrey also hosted his own radio show on SiriusXM until he parted ways with the show on July 1, 2019. He now owns and hosts a podcast called ‘In Godfrey We Trust’ on the Gas Digital Network. He is also known for collaborating with other social media stars such as King Bach, Destorm Power, etc. He was once a regular guest on VladTV.

Biography

Godfrey's parents are from Nigeria. Their Nigerian heritage is of the Igbo tribe. They emigrated to the US to escape the

Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence ...

. Godfrey is a nephew of Nigerian musician

Sonny Okosun Sonny Okosun (1 January 1947 – 24 May 2008) was a Nigerian musician, who was known as the leader of the Ozzidi band. He named his band Ozzidi after a renowned Ijaw river god, but to Okosun the meaning was "there is a message". His surname is ...

. Godfrey was born in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United ...

on July 21, 1969. Soon after, the family settled in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

where Godfrey grew up. He attended

Lane Technical College Preparatory High School Lane Tech College Prep High School (often shortened to Lane Tech, full name Albert Grannis Lane Technical College Preparatory High School), is a public 4-year selective enrollment magnet high school located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on ...

and received an academic scholarship to the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

, where he majored in psychology. At the University of Illinois, he made the varsity football team and performed at a traditional talent show for new team members. He stole the show, performing impressions of his coaches and teammates and discovered his comedic talent.

Career

Godfrey honed his stand-up skills at the All Jokes Aside comedy club in Chicago in the early 1990s. In 1995, Godfrey made his New York debut at Carolines on Broadway and the Comic Strip Live and was soon signed by the William Morris Talent Agency. He began working regularly in television, first behind the cameras as a warm-up comedian for '' Cosby'' and '' Soul Man''. His first on-camera appearance featured him performing stand-up comedy for NBC's ''

Friday Night Videos ''Friday Night Videos'' (later becoming ''Friday Night'' and then ''Late Friday'') is an American music video show that was broadcast on NBC from July 29, 1983 to May 24, 2002. It was the network's attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularit ...

'', followed by more small television and film roles. In 2000, Godfrey appeared in the Aspen Comedy Festival and on Comedy Central's '' Premium Blend''. He also played a comical role in the movie '' Soul Plane'', acting as an African pilot. He has also been in numerous episodes of BET's ''

Comic View ''ComicView'' is an American stand-up comedy show that aired on BET on Tuesdays and Fridays from September 1992 to December 2008. In May 2014, BET announced the return of ''ComicView''. The show has been the launching pad for such comedians as D ...

''. A self-styled karate master, he continues to do film and television work alongside his stand-up career in New York. His first one-hour special, "Godfrey: Black by Accident" was shot for Comedy Central on January 22, 2011 at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City to a standing room only audience. As a guest of Mike Ward's show called "F*ck les variétés", part of the Just for Laughs 2012 festival of Montreal, his performance was highly acclaimed. In the following year, he had his own solo show called "The Godfrey Complex" in the same festival for a whole week.
? His second one-hour special, "Godfrey: Regular Black" was shot in Chicago, his home town, on August 12, 2016.

Filmography

Film

Television

Comedy releases

References

External links

Official website
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Comedy Central entry for Godfrey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey 1969 births American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors American male voice actors African-American male actors African-American male comedians African-American stand-up comedians American stand-up comedians Illinois Fighting Illini football players Living people Actors from Lincoln, Nebraska Igbo male actors American people of Igbo descent 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people