Cedric Antonio Kyles (born April 24, 1964), better known by his stage name Cedric the Entertainer, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and television host. Beginning in the 1990s, he built a successful career in stand-up comedy, as well as in film, television, and voice acting, earning recognition for his contributions to American comedy and entertainment.
He is best known for co-starring with Steve Harvey on The WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, as one of The Original Kings of Comedy, for starring as Eddie Walker in Barbershop and for voicing Maurice in the Madagascar film series. He hosted BET's ComicView during the 1993–1994 season and Def Comedy Jam in 1995. He starred in the TV Land original series The Soul Man, which aired from 2012–16 and hosted the 12th season of the daytime version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from 2013–14 . He has also done voice work for Ice Age, Charlotte's Web, Planes and Planes: Fire & Rescue. From 2018 to 2026, he starred on the CBS sitcom The Neighborhood. In 2019, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Early life
Cedric was born on April 24, 1964, in Jefferson City, Missouri, the son of Rosetta (née Boyce), a schoolteacher, and Kittrell Kyles, an employee of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He has a younger sister, Sharita Kyles Wilson, a communications professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Cedric was raised in Caruthersville, Missouri, but after junior high school he moved to Berkeley, Missouri, a northern suburb of St. Louis. He is a graduate of Berkeley High School.
Cedric majored in mass communication at Southeast Missouri State University and worked as a State Farm Insurance claims adjuster and substitute high school teacher before becoming a full-time comedian. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi.
Career
Cedric's stage name came about when he felt that his real name, Cedric Kyles, sounded too formal. Inspired by an entertainer named Kodak, he came up with the name "Cheerio", but received a cease and desist letter from General Mills over their cereal Cheerios. He settled on his stage name when someone introduced him as "an entertainer, Cedric the entertainer" and the name stuck.
After appearing on It's Showtime at the Apollo in 1992, Cedric hosted BET's ComicView during the 1993–1994 season, and Def Comedy Jam in 1995. He then moved into acting, auditioning for and receiving his first-ever role as The Cowardly Lion in the 1995 Apollo Theater Revival of The Wiz. He expanded his career by playing Steve Harvey's friend Cedric Jackie Robinson on The Steve Harvey Show.
While his acting career grew, Cedric continued to perform stand-up comedy and traveled the country as one of the Kings of Comedy headliners with Steve Harvey, D. L. Hughley and Bernie Mac. The act was later made into a Spike Lee film, The Original Kings of Comedy (2000). From 2002-2003, Cedric had his own sketch comedy show, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, but after being renewed for a second season, it was canceled by Fox before the season began. He took time to write a book, Grown-A$$ Man. He appeared in the 2003 video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004. He recorded comedic interludes on two Nelly albums, Country Grammar (2000) and Nellyville (2002) as well as on Jay-Z's The Black Album (2003). A more recent HBO Comedy Special was Cedric The Entertainer: Taking You Higher in 2006.
Cedric began appearing in films, including Ride (1998), Big Momma's House (2000), Barbershop (2002), and its sequels Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016), Serving Sara (2002), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Johnson Family Vacation (2004), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Man of the House (2005) and Be Cool (2005).
He was the subject of controversy when his Barbershop character made unpopular remarks about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. These jokes (about the pastor's promiscuity with women, and Parks just being tired to get to the back of the bus) were spoken in character, as part of the script. Rev. Jesse Jackson publicly asked for those jokes to be edited out of the movie on the DVD and VHS releases.
Personal life
Cedric is married to Lorna Wells. They have two children, Croix (born 2000) and Lucky Rose (born 2003). He also has a daughter, Tiara (born 1989), from a previous relationship. He continues his involvement with his high school by awarding a scholarship each year to a graduating senior through the Cedric the Entertainer Charitable Foundation, whose motto is "Reaching Out...Giving Back". In May 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts and humanities by Lincoln University of Missouri, which was his parents' alma mater. In May 2025, he was awarded another honorary doctorate in fine arts by Southeast Missouri State University, his alma mater. In 2018, St. Louis honored him by renaming the street in front of the Kappa Alpha Psi Alumni House to Cedric The Entertainer Way.
Books
Grown-A$$ Man, Ballantine Books, 2002. ISBN 978-0345447784
Flipping Boxcars: A Novel (with Alan Eisenstock), Amistad, 2023. ISBN 978-0063258990
