Acting Career
Roles in such films as The Last Boy Scout (1991), Coneheads (1993), and Jason’s Lyric (1994) soon led to his own hit comedy series Malcolm and Eddie (1996-2000), for which role he was nominated (1996) and won (2000) the NAACP Image Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. In addition to lending his acting experience to this sitcom, he also wrote and directed four episodes, one of which starred his Godfather and mentor Richard Pryor.
In 2001, Eddie was offered a lead role in Double Take alongside friend Orlando Jones. Griffin then starred beside Denzel Washington in John Q (2002), earning him respect as a dramatic actor. Shortly thereafter, his leading-man status lead to one of his most notable roles, Anton Jackson in Undercover Brother (2002). Eddie’s extensive film resume includes films such as Armageddon (1998), and the worldwide successful comedy franchise Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo(1999) and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005); as well as Date Movie (2006), Scary Movie 3 (2003), My Baby’s Daddy (2004) which he starred, wrote and executively produced for Miramax.
Eddie starred alongside Eddie Murphy in the hit feature Norbit (2007) and starred, wrote and Executive Produced his next comedy special Freedom Of Speech (2007). Later that year he contributed to and performed on T-Pain’s worldwide successful album Circus (2008) and starred in Disney’s Beethoven’s Big Break (2008).
His Comedy Special You Can Tell ‘Em I Said It premiered on Comedy Central February 2011 and he appeared in the feature film American Hero where he plays a wheelchair bound sidekick to Stephen Dorff‘s heroic character, released December 11, 2015.
In June 2012, Eddie took a dramatic turn in David E. Talbert’s play A Fool And His Money in which he received rave reviews as the hero. Eddie was the voice of Richard Pryor in the animated series Black Dynamite on Adult Swim and starred in the R-rated comedy feature Mucho Dinero released in 2016.
Eddie also contributed and performed on Dr. Dre‘s Multi-Platinum selling albums The Chronic (1992) and Chronic 2001 (2001).
Eddie Griffin is widely known for his award winning Comedy Stand-up Special Dysfunktional Family (2003) which he starred, wrote, Executive Produced and performed on the film’s soundtrack with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac.
Eddie’s most recent comedy special Undeniable premiered on Showtime in 2018 to rave reviews. He played The Pastor opposite Dave Chappelle, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 2018’s Academy Award Winning feature film A Star is Born.
Most of Eddie’s comedy specials and films can be found on Netflix, and are available for purchase on iTunes.
