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7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Larry Wilmore

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If you watch The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, you already know Larry Wilmore as its "Senior Black Correspondent." But when Comedy Central picked him to host a new show of his own, The Minority Report With Larry Wilmore, which will replace the departing Stephen Colbert in the 11:30 p.m. slot in January 2015, the 52-year-old actor-writer-producer  expressed surprise at getting the opportunity - not because of his race, but because of his age.

"I've been in the business for a while," Wilmore recently told the New York Times. "I really thought the window was closed ..."

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Here are seven things you probably didn't know about Wilmore:

 

  • He studied theater at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona before dropping out to pursue an acting career.

 

  • Wilmore got his start in television in the 1990s, working as a writer on shows such as In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The Jamie Foxx Show.

 

  • In the early 1990s, he was a contestant on Star Search as a standup comic. Here's a rare clip of one of his comedy club appearances:

 

  • He is the co-creator of two TV series: The PJs, an animated comedy in which he teamed with Eddie Murphy, and The Bernie Mac Show, for which he won an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series in 2002.

 

  • In addition to working as a writer and producer for The Office, he appeared as Mr. Brown, the diversity trainer.

 

 

  • Before he was offered his own program by Comedy Central, Wilmore was set to be showrunner for a new ABC comedy series, Black-ish, featuring comic movie actor and former Law & Order star Anthony Anderson. "I couldn't believe it came from [ABC parent] Disney, of all places," he told the New York Times. "But then I thought: I guess Mickey Mouse is black, when you think about it."

 

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Photo: thelarrywilmore.com

 

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