Tracy Morgan

Tracy Jamel Morgan (born November 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor.

Morgan was born on November 10, 1968, in Brooklyn and raised in Brooklyn's Marlboro Houses and Tompkins Houses in its Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood.

He is the second of five children of a homemaker, Alicia (née Warden), and James Morgan Jr IV, a musician who left the family when Morgan was six years old.

His father named him Tracy in honor of a platoon mate and friend who shipped off to Vietnam with him and was killed in action days later.

The target of bullies as a child, Morgan attended DeWitt Clinton High School.

In 1985, at age 17 in his senior year, he learned that his father had contracted HIV from hypodermic needle use.

His father died in January 1987, aged 38.

Morgan married his girlfriend Sabina that year and dropped out of high school just four credits short of his diploma to care for his ailing father.

Living on welfare, Morgan sold crack cocaine with limited success, but began earning money performing comedy on the streets after his best friend was murdered.

In 1987, while in high school, Morgan married his girlfriend Sabina.

The pair have three sons together.

Morgan was also a regular cast member on Uptown Comedy Club, a sketch-comedy show filmed in Harlem that aired for two seasons, from 1992 to 1994.

He was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003, and played Tracy Jordan in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock from 2006 to 2013, each of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

He also starred as Tray Barker in the TBS comedy The Last O.G.

Morgan joined the cast of the comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1996 (Lorne Michaels chose him over Stephen Colbert in the final round) and performed as a regular until 2003.

In the 2003 Chris Rock film Head of State, Morgan appeared as a man watching television, often questioning why they are not watching Martin.

Morgan had his own sitcom, The Tracy Morgan Show, in 2003, which was canceled after one season.

In 2003, he was on an episode of Punk'd in which his car was towed from the valet parking.

He can be heard as Spoonie Luv on the Comedy Central program Crank Yankers and as Woof in the animated series Where My Dogs At?.

He also was the voice of Luis in the animated film Rio.

Morgan acted in commercials for NFL 2K, NBA 2K, and NHL 2K, co-starring with Warren Sapp, Ben Wallace and Jeremy Roenick.

He appeared in Adam Sandler's film The Longest Yard as a transgender inmate.

From 2006 to 2013, Morgan was a cast member of the television series 30 Rock, playing the character Tracy Jordan, a caricature of himself.

He also hosted the first Spike Guys' Choice Awards, which aired on June 13, 2007.

He said in 2009: "He would say to me, 'Yo, Tracy, man, you should be doing comedy.' A week later, he was murdered. And that for me, that was like my Vietnam. I had my survival guilt when I started to achieve success. Why I made it out and some guys didn't."

Morgan embarked on a stand-up comedy career, successfully enough that he "finally moved to a nice community in [The Bronx neighborhood of] Riverdale, from a run-down apartment next to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx."

Morgan made his screen debut playing Hustle Man on the television show Martin.

The character sold various items from the "hood", always greeting people with his trademark "What's happ'n, chief?," and had a pet dog he dressed as a rapper.

He returned to host on March 14, 2009, and reprised his roles as Brian Fellow and Astronaut Jones.

His work on 30 Rock was well-received, and he was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 2009 Emmy Awards.

Morgan filed for divorce in August 2009, after having been separated for approximately eight years.

Morgan credits one of his sons with having saved him from his alcoholism.

He then made a guest appearance on the 2011 Christmas show, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, and hosted again on October 17, 2015.

In 2018, Morgan began starring in the TBS series The Last O.G. It ran for four seasons until 2021.

Morgan appeared in a stand-up special, One Mic, on Comedy Central.

In July 2019, he hosted the ESPYs in Los Angeles.

In 2022, the New York Friars Club bestowed the Entertainment Icon Award on Morgan at the club's spring gala.

Morgan is only the ninth recipient of the prestigious comedy award, and the first Black recipient.

Morgan has listed Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor as among his primary comedic influences.

He returned to the role in July 2020 for a reunion episode during the COVID-19 pandemic that was an upfront special for NBCUniversal.