Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, producer and writer. He and Jordan Peele co-created and co-starred in the sketch series Key & Peele (2012–2015) for which he received one Primetime Emmy Award from ten nominations. He also acted in the sketch series Mad TV (2004–2009), sitcom Playing House (2014–2017), the comedy series Friends from College (2017–2019) and the series Reboot (2022). He also appeared alongside Peele in the first season of the series Fargo in 2014, and had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation from 2013 to 2015. Key later starred in the musical comedy series Schmigadoon! (2021–2023).
In 2015, he appeared at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as the Key & Peele character Luther, President Barack Obama's anger translator. Key and Peele produced and starred in the 2016 action-comedy film Keanu. In 2017, Key made his Broadway debut in the comic play Meteor Shower. He hosted The Planet's Funniest Animals on Animal Planet (2005–2008), and hosted Game On! in 2020.
Early life
Key was born in Southfield, Michigan, on March 22, 1971,[1][2] the son of an African-American father, Leroy McDuffie, and Carrie Herr, a woman of Polish and Flemish descent.[3][4] He was adopted at a young age by a couple from Detroit, Michael Key and Patricia Walsh, who were both social workers. Like his birth parents, his adoptive parents were a black man and a white woman.[5][4] Through his biological father, Key had two half-brothers, one of whom was comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie.[6][7] Key discovered the existence of his half-siblings only after both had died.[8]
In 2004, Key joined the cast of Mad TV midway into the ninth season. He and Jordan Peele were cast against each other, but both ended up being picked after demonstrating great comedic chemistry. Key played many characters on the show. One of his most famous characters is "Coach Hines", a high school sports coach who frequently disrupts and threatens students and faculty members. On the penultimate episode of Mad TV, Hines revealed that he is the long-lost heir to the Heinz Ketchup company and only became a Catholic school coach to help delinquent teenagers like Yamanashi (Bobby Lee). During seasons 9 and 10, Key appeared as "Dr. Funkenstein" in blaxploitation parodies, with Peele playing the monster. Key also portrayed various guests on Real **********ing Talk like the strong African Rollo Johnson and blind victim Stevie Wonder Washington. He often went "backstage" as Eugene Struthers, an ecstatic water-or-flower delivery man who accosts celebrities. There was also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a jheri curl and a shower cap who interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by Ike Barinholtz), annoying him with rapid-fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!" Celebrities that Key impersonated on the show include Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Roscoe Orman (as his character Gordon from Sesame Street), Matthew Lillard, Bill Cosby, Al Roker, Terrell Owens, Tyler Perry, Keith Richards, Eddie Murphy (as his character James "Thunder" Early from the movie Dreamgirls), Sherman Hemsley (as his character George Jefferson on The Jeffersons), Charles Barkley, Sendhil Ramamurthy (as Mohinder Suresh), Tyson Beckford, Seal (originally played by Peele until Peele left the show at the end of season 13), Sidney Poitier, Lionel Richie, Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant and Jack Haley (as the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz). He also played female celebrities, including Phylicia Rashād, Robin Antin, and Eva Longoria (as Gabrielle Solis on a Desperate Housewives parody).
Key & Peele
Key and his Mad TV castmate Jordan Peele starred in their own Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele, which began airing on January 31, 2012, and ran for five seasons until September 9, 2015.[13]
Key played the most prominent male character, Ethan Turner, on the Netflix ensemble comedy Friends from College, about a group of Harvard University graduates and friends now in their late 30s living in New York City. He plays an award-winning fiction writer who is being encouraged to start writing for young adult fiction audiences.
Key was one of the founders of Hamtramck, Michigan,'s Planet Ant Theatre, and was a member of the Second City Detroit's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago. Key co-founded the Detroit Creativity Project along with Beth Hagenlocker, Marc Evan Jackson, Margaret Edwartowski, and Larry Joe Campbell.[15] The Detroit Creativity Project teaches students in Detroit improvization as a way to improve their communication skills. Key performed with The 313, an improv group formed with other members of Second City Hollywood that appears around the country.[16][17] The 313 is made up primarily of former Detroit residents and is named for Detroit's area code.[18]
He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "White & Nerdy" with Peele. Key also hosted Animal Planet's The Planet's Funniest Animals.[19] In 2009, Key hosted GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has co-starred in Gary Unmarried on CBS. Key was a panelist on the NPR comedy quiz show Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me... on March 27 and July 24, 2010. Key has been in several episodes of Reno 911! as the "Hypothetical Criminal".
Key and Peele were featured on the cover and in a series of full-page comic photos illustrating The New York Times Magazine article "Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?" on March 31, 2013. A live-action video version was also featured on the Times' website.[20] Key co-stars in the horror-comedy Hell Baby. Key is one of the rotating "fourth chair" performers in the 2013 revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
In addition to Key & Peele, he also co-starred in the USA Network comedy series Playing House, which began airing in April 2014.
Together with Peele, Key played an FBI agent in a recurring role in the 2014 FX crime drama Fargo.
Key has portrayed and rapped as Indian civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi (left) and American basketball player Michael Jordan (right) for Epic Rap Battles of History.
Key was involved in audio episodes for the marketing campaign, "Hunt the Truth" on the website for the video game Halo 5: Guardians, voicing a fictional journalist and war photographer named Benjamin Giraud, who investigates the Master Chief's background.[23]
In the summer of 2017 Key returned to the theater after what he characterized as a "19-year detour into sketch comedy" for a production of Hamlet at New York's Public Theater, playing Horatio opposite Oscar Isaac in the title role.[27] Key, who is a Shakespearean-trained actor, fulfilled his lifelong dream to play Horatio and received rave reviews for his performance.[28]The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney noted that Key's comedic skills were on full display, "...but his ease with the verse and stirring sensitivity [was] a revelation."[29]
In 2017, Key made his Broadway debut[36] in Steve Martin's comedy Meteor Shower.[37][38] His hosting stint on Saturday Night Live on May 15, 2021, marked the first time a MADtv cast member has hosted SNL.
Key currently hosts popular science show Brain Games on National Geographic, which was renewed for a ninth season, his second, on January 17, 2020.[39]
Key was married to actress and dialect coach Cynthia Blaise from 1998 until 2017. They were legally separated in November 2015, with Key filing for divorce the following month.[41][42] He married producer and director Elisa "Elle" Pugliese in New York City on June 8, 2018.[43][44]
Key is a Christian and has practiced Buddhism, Catholicism, and Evangelicalism in the past.[45][10] Being biracial has been a source of comedic material for Key, who told Terry Gross in an interview for NPR, "I think the reason Jordan and I became actors is because we did a fair amount of code-switching growing up and still do."[46][47]
The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey through the Art and Craft of Humor
Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
Based on the podcast with new contributions from Mel Brooks, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mike Myers, John Oliver, Tracy Morgan, Carol Burnett, Jordan Peele and more; as well as illustrations and photos.[58]
^Streiber, Art (March 27, 2013). "The Saintly Way to Succeed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
^Key, Keegan Michael [@KeeganMKey] (November 21, 2013). "We do!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2013 – via Twitter. We have a new one coming out after Thanksgiving. Muhammad Ali versus Michael Jordan
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