Dave Chappelle, born August 24, 1973, in Washington, D.C., started performing stand-up as a teenager and was working New York clubs before he was old enough to get into most of them. Early film roles in comedies like Half Baked built his name, but it was Chappelle’s Show on Comedy Central, which premiered in 2003, that turned him into one of the most quoted comedians of his generation.
Then he walked away. In 2005, at the height of the show’s success, Chappelle stepped back from a reported $50 million deal and largely disappeared from Hollywood for years. His return became one of comedy’s great second acts. A run of Netflix specials brought him a shelf of Grammy and Emmy wins, and in 2019 he received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Off stage, Dave keeps things quiet. He and his wife, Elaine, have raised their three kids largely out of the spotlight on their farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
From sketch comedy to stand-up history, Dave has spent decades making audiences laugh. Take a look at his life in photos in our gallery here.
