George Lopez

George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American stand-up comedian and actor.

He is most known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom.

His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture.

George Edward Lopez was born on April 23, 1961, in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California, the son of Frieda and Anatasio Lopez, a migrant worker.

He is of Mexican descent.

He was deserted by his father when he was two months old and by his mother when he was 10 years old, but was raised by his maternal grandmother, Benita Gutierrez, a factory worker, and step-grandfather, Refugio Gutierrez, a construction worker.

Lopez attended San Fernando High School, graduating in 1979.

In 2000, after several years of performing stand-up comedy, Lopez was approached by actress Sandra Bullock for Lopez to produce and star in a comedy.

Bullock was concerned about the lack of Hispanic-oriented sitcoms on American television and pushed to get a sitcom on television that starred Hispanics without being exclusively about the Hispanic American community.

Long criticized by Hispanic American groups for lack of Latinos on their television shows, ABC quickly picked up the television series.

In 2002, Lopez became one of the few Latinos to star in a television comedy series, following in the footsteps of Desi Arnaz, Freddie Prinze, and John Leguizamo.

George Lopez is an American situation comedy that originally aired on ABC from 2002 to 2007.

Lopez is the co-creator, writer, producer, and star of the show.

Lopez has received several honors for his work and contributions to the Latino community, including the 2003 Imagen Vision Award, the 2003 Latino Spirit Award for Excellence in Television and the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award.

Lopez was a cast member and commentator for HBO's hit sports show Inside the NFL for the 2003–04 football season.

He was also named one of "The Top 25 Hispanics in America" by Time magazine in 2005.

On March 8, 2007, it was announced that George Lopez would join the Nick at Nite lineup.

It first aired on Nick at Nite on September 10, 2007.

On May 15, 2007, ABC announced that the series would be canceled after its sixth season.

The show last aired on ABC September 7, 2007.

The show also entered syndication in the fall of 2007.

Never a big Nielsen hit in prime-time, the show became a surprise success in syndication.

After receiving the news that his show was canceled in 2007, Lopez criticized president of ABC Entertainment Steve McPherson for using racially motivated reasons for his decision.

The actor told the Los Angeles Times that "TV just became really, really white again", and lashed out against ABC by saying, "So a chicano can't be on TV, but a caveman can?"

in reference to the short-lived sitcom Cavemen, which was replacing George Lopez on the schedule.

Cavemen garnered a sharply negative reception from critics and viewers, and was canceled after 13 episodes.

Lopez blamed ABC for causing over a hundred of his show's staff to become jobless.

Lopez guest-starred as the mayor of Reno, Nevada, in season five of Reno 911! in 2008.

On March 28, 2009, it was announced that Lopez would be hosting his own late-night talk show on TBS.

Lopez hosted a late-night talk show entitled Lopez Tonight on TBS Monday through Thursday at midnight Eastern Time.

The show debuted in November 2009.

In November 2010, the show moved back to midnight ET to accommodate a new show with former Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien.

Although O'Brien had reservations about the move and initially refused TBS's offer, Lopez supported and even advocated for it, making it different from the 2010 Tonight Show conflict that saw O'Brien depart NBC after a proposal to push Tonight back 30 minutes for Jay Leno to return to the 11:35 p.m. slot.

On August 10, 2011, Lopez received a cancellation notice from TBS.

The network decided not to renew Lopez Tonight for a third season.

On April 18, 2013, it was announced that Lopez would be starring in his own sitcom on FX called Saint George, which premiered on March 6, 2014.

Saint George was produced under Debmar-Mercury and Lionsgate Television's syndication model, which states that if a show hits certain ratings thresholds in its first 10-episode run, it triggers an additional 90-episode order.

Failing to do so, Saint George was canceled on June 25, 2014, after one season.

In August 2015, TV Land announced a straight-to-series order for Lopez, a semi-autobiographical single-camera sitcom, which debuted on March 30, 2016.

Lopez was invited to be a guest judge on America's Got Talent in 2016.