Damon Kyle Wayans Jr. (born November 18, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for starring as Brad Williams in the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

sitcom '' Happy Endings'', for which he was nominated for the

Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series The Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series is one of the award categories presented annually by the Critics' Choice Television Awards (BTJA) to recognize the work done by television actors. Winners and nomin ...

in 2012, and as Coach in the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

sitcom ''

New Girl ''New Girl'' is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Television for Fox that originally aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around a kooky teacher, Jessica Day (Zooey ...

.'' In 2014, he starred in the comedy film ''

Let's Be Cops ''Let's Be Cops'' is a 2014 American buddy cop action comedy film co-written and directed by Luke Greenfield. The film stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. as two friends who pretend to be police officers in Los Angeles. The film co-starred N ...

'', and provided the voice of Wasabi in '' Big Hero 6''. He is the eldest son of actor and comedian

Damon Wayans Damon Kyle Wayans Sr. (; born September 4, 1960) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. Wayans performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a year long stint on the sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live.' ...

, and nephew of

Keenen Ivory Wayans Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans (born June 8, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans first came to prominence as the host and the creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch comedy s ...

Shawn Wayans Shawn Mathis Wayans (born January 19, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Along with his brother Marlon Wayans, he wrote and starred in The WB's sitcom ''The Wayans Bros.''(1995–1999) and in the comedy films ''Don't Be a ...

Kim Wayans Kimberly Nichole Wayans (born October 16, 1961) is an American actress and comedian. Wayans is the sister of Keenen Ivory, Damon Sr., Marlon, Shawn and Nadia Wayans. She is best known for her numerous roles on the Fox sketch comedy show ''In ...

, and

Marlon Wayans Marlon Lamont Wayans (born July 23, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Wayans began his career portraying a pedestrian in ''I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'' (1988). He went on to regularly collaborate with his brother Shawn Wa ...

.Damon Wayans Biography (1960— )
Filmreference.com. Retrieved on December 30, 2011.

Early life

Wayans was born on November 18, 1982, in

Huntington, Vermont Huntington is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,938 at the 2020 census. History The town was originally called "New Huntington", but the name was changed to "Huntington" in October 1795. It was named for ...

. He is a member of the

Wayans family The Wayans family () is an American show-business family. Family members include Keenen Ivory Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Damon Wayans Sr., Kim Wayans, Damon Wayans Jr., Damien Dante Wayans, and Chaunté Wayans. Works created by Wayans fa ...

, the son of Lisa Thorner and actor and comedian

. He has three younger siblings: Michael, Cara Mia, and Kyla.

Career

Wayans made his film debut when he was cast in his father's feature film of 1994, ''

Blankman ''Blankman'' is a 1994 American superhero comedy parody film directed by Mike Binder and starring Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier. It was written by Wayans and J. F. Lawton. Plot As kids, Darryl and Kevin Walker grew up as fans of the tele ...

'', playing Young Kevin. He later appeared on his father's sitcom ''

My Wife and Kids ''My Wife and Kids'' is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001, to May 17, 2005. The series was produced by Touchstone Television. It starred Damon Wayans as Michael Kyle, the patriarch of an African-American family. Wayans and ve ...

'' as John, one of Junior's friends. He later worked as a staff writer on the series. In fact, the character of Junior was loosely based on Wayans Jr. himself. He appeared in and served as a writer on '' The Underground''. Wayans Jr. also surprised audiences when he garnered a standing ovation during his debut appearance on ''

Def Comedy Jam ''Def Comedy Jam'' is an HBO television series produced by Russell Simmons. The series had its original run from March 7, 1992 to May 2, 1997. Simmons was inspired to make Def Comedy Jam by The Uptown Comedy Club in Harlem, New York and Jerry Le ...

''. He starred in the

comedy ''

Dance Flick ''Dance Flick'' is a 2009 American musical comedy film directed by Damien Dante Wayans in his directorial debut and written by and starring many members of the Wayans family. The film was set for release in the United States on February 6, 2009, an ...

'' as the film's main character, Thomas. From April 2011 to May 2013, Wayans starred as Brad Williams, one of the lead characters in the

comedy series '' Happy Endings'', alongside

Eliza Coupe Eliza Kate Coupe (born April 6, 1981) is an American actress, comedian and model, known for playing Jane Kerkovich-Williams in the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings'', Denise "Jo" Mahoney in the final two seasons of the medical comedy-drama '' ...

Elisha Cuthbert Elisha Ann Cuthbert Phaneuf (; born 30 November 1982) is a Canadian actress and model. As a Child actor, child actress, she made her first televised appearance as an extra in the Canadian horror-themed series for children ''Are You Afraid of the ...

Zachary Knighton Zachary Andrew Knighton (born October 25, 1978) is an American actor, most widely known for starring as Dave Rose on the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings''. Prior to that, he co-starred as Dr. Bryce Varley on ABC's science fiction series '' Fla ...

Adam Pally Adam Saul Pally (born March 18, 1982) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for starring as Max Blum in the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings'' and as Dr. Peter Prentice in ''The Mindy Project''. He also starred ...

, and

Casey Wilson Cathryn Rose "Casey" Wilson (born October 24, 1980) is an American actress, comedienne, and screenwriter. She starred as Penny Hartz in the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings'' for which she was twice nominated to the Critics' Choice Television A ...

. Despite critical acclaim and a cult following, the show was cancelled by ABC after concluding its third season on May 3, 2013. Wayans was nominated for "Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series" at the

NAACP Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

and Critic's Choice Television Awards for his work on ''Happy Endings''. On May 16, 2011, the

Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

announced that it had picked up the

Zooey Deschanel Zooey Claire Deschanel (; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She made her film debut in '' Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known for he ...

anchored comedy ''

'', which featured Wayans in the supporting role of Coach. However, ''Happy Endings'' had already been picked up for a second season on rival network ABC. The producers of ''New Girl'' initially planned to recast Wayans' role, but later decided not to recast nor reshoot the

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

in which he appeared. Instead, starting with the second episode, Wayans' character was substituted with

Lamorne Morris Lamorne Morris (born August 14, 1983) is an American actor, comedian and television personality. He is known for roles such as Winston Bishop in the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'' (2011-2018), Darrin Morris in the National Geographic docudrama ''Vall ...

, playing the role of Winston, a former roommate who had been pursuing a professional basketball career in Latvia. With ''Happy Endings'' cancelled after its third season, it was announced in July 2013 that Wayans would return for at least four episodes of ''New Girl'' in the upcoming third season. In November 2013, it was announced that Wayans would remain on the show for the rest of Season 3. In May 2014, it was announced Wayans would return as a series regular for season four. In October 2018, it was announced that Wayans Jr. would be starring in a sitcom entitled '' Happy Together'', alongside

Amber Stevens West Amber Dawn Stevens West is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Ashleigh Howard in the ABC Family series ''Greek (TV series), Greek'' (2007–2011)'','' Maxine in the NBC sitcom ''The Carmichael Show'' (2015–2017), and Clair ...

. It was cancelled after thirteen episodes, due to low ratings.

Personal life

Wayans has two daughters with ex-girlfriend Aja Metoyer. In 2016, Wayans married Samara Saraiva. The couple has two sons and two daughters together.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayans, Damon Jr. 1982 births American people of Malagasy descent 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors Male actors from Los Angeles Male actors from Vermont American male child actors American male film actors African-American stand-up comedians American stand-up comedians African-American screenwriters American television writers American male television writers Living people Damon Jr African-American male actors American male television actors American male voice actors Crossroads School alumni Comedians from California Screenwriters from California 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people African-American male writers