Wayne Brady

Born in Georgia and raised in Orlando, Florida, as a young boy Wayne Brady never dreamed of making it in Hollywood. In fact, his primary objective as a youngster was to join the military and spend the rest of his days serving his country. That all changed however when, at the age of 16, Brady appeared in a high school play in Orlando. The experience was life-changing for the teenage Brady and from that moment on he decided to embark on a career as a professional entertainer. In addition to starring in numerous community plays throughout Florida, he also honed his improvisational comedy chops by joining Orlando's most prominent improv troupe SAK Comedy Lab. By the early 90s Brady was guest starring on TV shows, but knew that in order for his career to really take off he'd have to move to Hollywood, which he did in 1996. His first big break came in 1998 when he began appearing on the British improvisational comedy series "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" (Channel 4, 1988-99). The show was such a success that in 1998 it was picked up by the American network ABC, with Brady continuing to appear as a regular improviser. Brady's success on that show earned him the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to host his very own variety show "The Wayne Brady Show" (ABC/Syndicated, 2001-04), which ran for three seasons and won numerous Daytime Emmy Awards. Throughout the 2000s Brady continued working at a furious pace, appearing on several TV shows yearly, including memorable roles on CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS, 2005-2014) and Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show" (Comedy Central, 2003-06), before he landed a game show hosting job for the reboot of "Let's Make a Deal" (CBS, 2009- ). The revived show began appearing on the CBS network in 2009. Despite the daily grind of hosting a game show, Brady continued appearing regularly in films and TV shows well into the 2010s. He also returned to the stage in 2017 when he began in the Chicago stage version of the smash hit Broadway musical "Hamilton." Brady played Aaron Burr in the production, which ran in Chicago from January to April of 2017.