Wayne Brady

Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American television host, comedian, actor, and singer.

He attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, from which he graduated in 1989.

Shortly thereafter, Brady gained employment at Universal Studios Florida, where he appeared in several projects, most notably two involving the character of Beetlejuice.

The first was a street show called "Beetlejuice: Dead in Concert", pitting the titular ghost against the Ghostbusters (this is when the park still had the rights to the franchise), where Brady played Winston Zeddemore.

Later on, the "ghost with the most" was given his own stage show, "Beetlejuice's Rock 'N Roll Graveyard Revue", where Brady portrayed Dracula.

In 1996, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued developing his acting skills.

Brady first appeared on national television as a recurring contestant on the sketch comedy competition Kwik Witz from 1996 to 1999, appearing most often as partners with Frank Maciel.

Brady was one of the improvisational theater performers in the original (British) version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, along with Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and host Clive Anderson in 1998 when the last season was filmed in Hollywood, after which he became a regular on the American version, hosted by Drew Carey.

He co-hosted the short-lived VH1 show Vinyl Justice in 1998.

Brady guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1999 and 2000 to take part in "Drew Live" and "Drew Live II".

On the show, Brady played several games taken from Whose Line Is It Anyway? with other characters.

He went on to star in his own ABC variety show in 2001, The Wayne Brady Show, and a daytime talk show of the same name in 2002, which lasted two seasons and won four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which went to Brady for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

Brady is a five-time Emmy Award winner, winning his first for his work on Whose Line? in 2003, two more in the next year for The Wayne Brady Show, and two for Let's Make a Deal.

In 2003, Brady won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for his work on the show, the only person to win the award for a television series, as opposed to a special, since Dana Carvey in 1993.

In 2004, Brady joined the Broadway revival of Chicago, playing the role of lawyer Billy Flynn.

He appeared briefly in the final episode of the 2004 season of the comedy Reno 911!.

He guest-starred on the Sci Fi Channel's hit series Stargate SG-1 as Trelak, the first prime of Goa'uld System Lord Ares.

He made an appearance on Chappelle's Show, poking fun at his squeaky-clean persona.

Brady co-wrote and sang the theme song for Disney's animated series The Weekenders.

In 2005, he sang and recorded Jim Brickman's original Disney song "Beautiful" (a cover of All-4-One's 2002 hit "Beautiful As You") and its Christmas version.

In 2006, Brady became the host of TV Land's That's What I'm Talking About, a talk show discussing the role of African-Americans in the entertainment industry.

From August 29 to September 29, 2006, Brady hosted the Fox show Celebrity Duets.

Brady made several guest appearances on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing James Stinson, the gay brother of Neil Patrick Harris's character, Barney Stinson.

Brady has also appeared as a guest star for the MTV show Wild 'N Out and lent his voice to the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken.

Brady guest-starred in the CBC comedy Getting Along Famously alongside his Whose Line is It Anyway? costar Colin Mochrie.

He appeared on the episode "You Don't Know Jack" of the television show Dirt and guest-starred on 30 Rock as Steven Black, Liz Lemon's date for the Source Awards.

In 2007, he starred in the ABC Family film The List.

He starred in Flirt, a comedy pilot which was not picked up by the network.

He is a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He was the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show, was the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and has hosted Let's Make a Deal since its 2009 revival.

He was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance, for his cover of the Sam Cooke song "A Change Is Gonna Come".

Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia, to West Indian parents.

He was moved to Orlando, Florida, as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt.

Brady refers to his grandmother, Valerie Petersen, as his "mom", since she raised him.

As a child, Brady developed a stutter.

This led to him being bullied by other children, which caused him a great deal of anxiety.

At 16, Brady started performing in community theater and in the Orlando improvisation troupe SAK Comedy Lab, where he first started developing his improv skills.

Brady guest-starred as Julius Rock's gifted younger brother, Louis, in the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, and hosted a singing game show called Don't Forget the Lyrics! on Fox until its cancellation in June 2009.

He performed "Wayne Brady: Making $%!^ Up" at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada four nights a week.

He appeared on two episodes of Kevin Hill.

Brady also performed in the Tony Award–winning musical Kinky Boots on Broadway as Simon—who is also drag queen Lola—from November 2015 to March 2016, and as James Stinson on the American TV series How I Met Your Mother.