Dave Chappelle Biography

Cable TV star Dave Chappelle is the standup comedian known for his cutting-edge humor, often racially-charged and sometimes raunchy, and for his hit TV series Chappelle’s Show.

Chappelle started doing stand-up comedy in Washington, D.C. when he was a teenager. Just after high school he went to New York, where he quickly became a regular on the comedy club circuit. His frank and funny routines earned him comparisons to the 1970s comedy superstar Richard Pryor. Soon he was in Hollywood, lured by development deals for TV shows and the chance to appear in movies. His film credits include Half Baked (1998), You’ve Got Mail (1998, starring Tom Hanks) and Undercover Brother (2002, with Denise Richards).

After years of false starts and small parts, Chappelle hit the big time in 2003 with Chappelle’s Show, a cable TV comedy series made up of skits, short films and impressions of celebrities such as Samuel L. Jackson and Rick James. In 2004 Chappelle signed a deal for two more seasons and a guaranteed paycheck reported to be $50 million. In late 2004, however, he halted production on his show and postponed the new season “indefinitely.” In May of 2005 he suddenly dropped out of sight, turning up two weeks later explaining that he had gone to a friend’s in South Africa to relieve the stress of his success. Chappelle reemerged in the late 2010s, again touring with great success and doing a series of lucrative TV specials for Netflix.