Chris Rock, whose real name is Christopher Julius Rock was born on February 7, 1965 in Andrews, South Carolina. The early years of his life were spent in Brooklyn, New York. After a few years his family shifted to Bedford–Stuyvesant where he spent a significant portion of his life time. Despite facing bullying and racism, he did not give up on his dream to become famous one day.
Today, he is one of the most well-known stand-up comedian, actor, television producer, and filmmaker and his impeccable fame has made him a celebrity of massive net worth. Let’s have a look at his rise to fame.
Did Chris Rock have a tough childhood?
Chris was born to Rosalie who worked as a teacher for the mentally challenged, and Julius Rock, who worked as a truck driver and newspaper deliveryman. Rock’s father died due to ulcer surgery, when Rock was only 23. His younger brothers Jordan, Tony and Kenny also work in the showbiz industry, whereas; Charles, his older half-brother passed away in 2006 due to his alcohol addiction.
In his childhood, Rock had to face a lot of criticism and bullying because of living and studying in a predominately white neighborhoods of Brooklyn. As years passed, the bullying got only worse, and his parents were left with no other option than to pull him out of James Madison High School.
Dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, though Rock was not able to attend school for proper education, he still managed to earn GED. Soon afterwards, he started working at restaurants.
How did Chris Rock’s become so famous?
It was in 1984 when Rock first got into stand-up comedy. He gained recognition after he began performing at the club Catch a Rising Star in New York City. Along with getting a lot of appraisal he also got offered TV series roles such as in “Miami Vice”. Rock was soon recognized by Eddie Murphy as a performer at a nightclub. Eddie and Chris soon became good friends, and Chris got his first role in the movie “Beverly Hills Cop II” (1987) through Eddie.
In 1990, Rock became a part of the cast of the very popular SNL (Saturday Night Live), late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show. He soon got recognized alongside his fellow cast members David Spade, Adam Sandler, Chris Farlet and Rob Sandler. In 1991, he got a lot of praise for his comedy album, “Born Suspect”, and his role in the movie “New Jack City”.
Rock left SNL after two years and was instead seen on African-American sketch show “In Living Color”, the prime-time rival of SNL. However, the show stopped airing after some time after which Rock got the main role in the Comedy/Parody movie “CB4”, released in 1993.
The following year, Rock released his song “Big Ass Jokes”, followed by another song “Bring the Pain” release in 1996, for which he won two Emmy Awards. Soon Rock started gaining more popularity in America.
He got the title “the funniest man in America” by Time and Entertainment Weekly after the release of his comedy specials, “Bigger & Blacker” (1999) and “Never Scared” (2004). Other than this, Rock also had his own talk show on HBO named as “The Chris Rock Show”, which earned him another Emmy award. He also won Grammy awards for his most noticed comedy albums “Roll with the New”, “Bigger & Blacker” and “Never Scared”.
In 2015 following years, Rock hosted the Academy Awards and received mixed reviews for his performance. In 2016, he hosted the 88th Academy Awards.
After he reunited with Sandler for comedy The Week Of (2018), he also rejoined Murphy for an appearance in Dolemite Is My Name (2019). As for now, Rock is also starring in TV season “Fargo”.
What do we know about his personal life?
Rock got married to Malaak Compton on November 23, 1996. On August 22, 2016 the pair split up after their divorce was finalized. He has two daughters named Lola Simone and Zahra Savannah.
Rock is a critic of racial profiling and does not hesitate to talk about “everyday racism” that he experiences, despite his popularity.
Chris was diagnosed with a non-verbal learning disorder on September 18, 2020, which he revealed publicly as well.
What is Chris Rock’s Net Worth?
According to Forbes Chris Rock has a total Net Worth of $57 million. His net worth would’ve been much higher, but he lost tens of millions of dollars in a divorce settlement with Malaak Compton (reportedly as much as $40 million).
Here are some of his famous Quotes
“The government hates rap. That’s why they don’t arrest anybody that kills rappers! Only the good ones are dead, man! Only the good ones: Biggie dead, Tupac dead, Vanilla Ice still alive! They don’t fill out a police report. They don’t even have a chalk line when it’s a dead rapper, they just take a piss around the body.”
“Only dumb people try to impress smart people. Smart people just do what they do.”
“I used to work at McDonald’s making minimum wage. You know what that means when someone pays you minimum wage? You know what your boss was trying to say? “Hey if I could pay you less, I would, but it’s against the law.”
“You know, some people say life is short and that you could get hit by a bus at any moment and that you have to live each day like it’s your last. Bullshit. Life is long. You’re probably not gonna get hit by a bus. And you’re gonna have to live with the choices you make for the next fifty years.”
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
