Mike Epps

Michael Elliot "Mike" Epps (born November 18, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, film producer, writer and rapper. He is best known for playing Day-Day Jones in Next Friday and its sequel, Friday After Next, and also appearing in The Hangover, as "Black Doug". He was the voice of Boog in Open Season 2 (the sequel to Open Season), but was replaced by Matthew J. Munn in Open Season 3. As of 2010, Epps was the executive producer on a documentary about the life story of a former member of Tupac Shakur's Outlawz, Napoleon: Life of an Outlaw. He is also known for playing L.J. in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction in 2004 and 2007 respectively.

Early life

Epps was born at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Mary Reed and Tommy Epps. Epps' natural comedic ability was encouraged at an early age, and he began performing stand-up as a teenager. Epps moved to Atlanta where he worked at the Comedy Act Theater, before moving to Brooklyn to star in Def Comedy Jam in 1995. Epps ended up on the Def Comedy Jam tour and starred in two of HBO's Def Comedy Jam broadcasts.

Career

Stand-up comedy

Epps began his professional career by joining the Def Comedy Jam tour in 1995 and starred in two of HBO's Def Comedy Jam broadcasts.

Movie career

Epps' first on-screen appearance came in Vin Diesel's directorial debut, Strays in 1997.

In 1999, Epps was then cast as Ice Cube's co-star (effectively, Chris Tucker's replacement) in the sequel, Next Friday. This came after weeks of auditions after Ice Cube attended a stand-up set Epps did, and then asked Epps to try out for the role of Day-Day Jones.[citation needed] His role as Day-Day Jones was a breakthrough for the new actor, who was already familiar to much of the audience from his stand-up work[citation needed]. Later that year, Epps had a cameo in 3 Strikes, and supported Jamie Foxx in Bait.

Epps had a voice role in the 2001 movie Dr. Dolittle 2 as Sonny the Bear and finished the year with a featured role as comical pimp Baby Powder in How High, starring Method Man and Redman. Epps reunited with Ice Cube in 2002 as the bumbling thief to Ice Cube's bounty hunter in All About the Benjamins, and again re-teamed with Cube in Friday's second sequel Friday After Next.

Epps also got to voice another bear character (Boog) in the 2008 film Open Season 2 after Martin Lawrence declined the role. In 2010, Epps also released a stand-up comedy special, Under Rated & Never Faded, and hosted the 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards.

Epps' name has become synonymous with a particular style of humor, through his appearance with several other African-American artists in the same genre. Aside from featuring Cube, the common thread of these films was the hilarious prominence of marijuana-smoking comic characters, like the ones portrayed by Epps.

[ Wikipedia ]