onceuponaman: Who is Michael Elliot Epps?

Who is Michael Elliot Epps? The entertainment and comedy world knows Mike Epps as an American stand-up comedian, actor, film producer, writer, singer, musician, and rapper, best known for playing Day-Day Jones in Next Friday and the sequel-to-the-sequel, Friday After Next, and also starring alongside Ice Cube in All About The Benjamins. He is known as the new voice of Boog in Open Season 2 and Open Season 3.

As of 2010, Epps was the executive producer on a documentary about the life story of a former member of Tupac Shakur's Outlawz, Napoleon: Life Of An Outlaw.

Early life

Epps was born November 18, 1970 in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 18, 1970 into a large family.
Epps' natural comedic ability was encouraged at an early age, and he began performing stand-up as a teenager. Epps moved to Atlanta where he worked at the Comedy Act Theater, before moving to New York City to star in Def Comedy Jam in 1995. Epps ended up on the Def Comedy Jam tour and starred in two of HBO's Def Comedy Jam broadcasts.

Career

Stand-Up Comedy

Epps began his professional career by joining the Def Comedy Jam tour in 1995 and starred in two of HBO's Def Comedy Jam broadcasts. He later appeared in Vin Diesel's directorial debut, Strays in 1997.

In 1999, Epps was then cast as Ice Cube's co-star (effectively, Chris Tucker's replacement) in the sequel, Next Friday. This came after weeks of auditions after Ice Cube attended a stand-up set Epps did, and then asked Epps to try out for the part of Day-Day Jones. His role as Day-Day Jones was a breakthrough for the new actor, who was already familiar to much of the audience from his stand-up work. Later that year, Epps had a cameo in 3 Strikes, and supported Jamie Foxx in Bait.
Epps had a voice role in the 2001 movie Dr. Dolittle 2 as Sonny, and finished the year with a featured role as comical pimp Baby Powder in How High, starring Method Man and Redman. Epps reunited with Ice Cube in 2002 as the bumbling thief to Ice Cube's bounty hunter in All About the Benjamins, and again re-teamed with Cube in the continuing Friday saga's latest entry Friday After Next.

Epps also got to voice another bear character—Boog—in the 2008 film Open Season 2 and its sequel two years later, Open Season 3, after Martin Lawrence declined the role. In 2010, Epps also released a stand-up comedy special, Under Rated &Never Faded and hosted the 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards.
Epps' name has become synonymous with a particular style of humor, through his appearance with several other African-American artists in the same genre.^{[citation needed]} Aside from featuring Cube, the common thread of these films was the hilarious prominence of marijuana-smoking comic characters, like the ones portrayed by Epps.

Music

Epps recently had a small part in the song A Bay Bay by Hurricane Chris, doing the Rick James move. He also hosted a Jim Jones and Skull Gang album entitled Jim Jones & Skull Gang Present A Tribute To Bad Santa Starring Mike Epps. Epps has also made a song called Trying To Be a Gangsta with Pooh Bear.
Epps also has a song called Big Girls, which came out in 2008. It was originally recorded by Bow Wow, and featuring Yung Joc. The song is currently on iTunes and can be found on his album, Funny Bidness - Da Album, which was released October 27, 2009. Epps also has featured in rapper French Montana's 'Mac Wit Da Cheese' mixtape which was released April 19, 2009.

Personal life

Filmography

Epps married Michelle McCain in July 2006. He had met her while filming The Fighting Temptations (in which they appeared alongside Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Beyonce). McCain had a minor, non-speaking role in the movie as Epps' character's girlfriend. Epps has also dedicated his time and money to the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for the Arts in Georgia.

Year	Title	Role	Note
1997	Strays	Mike
2000	Next Friday	Day-Day Jones
2000	3 Strikes	Crackhead
2000	Bait	Stevie Sanders
2001	Dr. Dolittle 2	Sonny	Voice only Credited as Michael E. Epps
2001	How High	Baby Powder
2002	All About the Benjamins	Reggie	Credited as Michael Epps
2002	Friday After Next	Day-Day Jones/Old Man with Shotgun
2003	Malibu's Most Wanted	Rap-Battle Host	Uncredited
2003	The Fighting Temptations	Lucius
2004	Still 'Bout It	Bobby Ray
2004	Resident Evil: Apocalypse	L.J.
2005	Guess Who	The Cab Driver	Uncredited
2005	The Honeymooners	Ed Norton
2005	Roll Bounce	Byron
2006	The Unsuccessful Thug
2006	Something New	Walter
2007	Talk to Me	Milo Hughes
2007	Resident Evil: Extinction	L.J.
2008	Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins	Reggie Jenkins
2008	Shelly Fisher	Esquire Jones
2008	Hancock	Criminal	Uncredited
2008	Bigg Snoop Dogg Presents: The Adventures of Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
2008	Soul Men	Duane Henderson
2008	Open Season 2	Boog	Voice only Replacing Martin Lawrence
2009	Next Day Air	Brody
2009	The Hangover	Black Doug
2009	The Janky Promoters	Jellyroll
2010	Love Chronicles: Secrets Revealed	Thomas Black
2010	Lottery Ticket	Reverend Taylor
2010	Ghetto Stories: The Movie	Janitor	Cameo
2010	Faster	Grone
2010	Open Season 3	Boog	Voice only
2011	Jumping the Broom	Unknown
2012	Last Friday	Day-Day Jones