Key is perhaps best known as one-half of the comedy duo Key & Peele with Jordan Peele, whom he met while starring on the FOX late-night sketch comedy series MadTV. Their own sketch series, also titled Key & Peele, ran on Comedy Central from 2012 to 2015. In 2016, Key and Peele starred in the comedy film Keanu, which they also produced.
He is also the paternal half-brother of late comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie. Neither Key nor McDuffie were aware of the other's existence in the latter's lifetime, and the former only learned of their relationship after his death.
Selected filmography:
- MadTV (2004 — 2009) as himself / various characters
- Reno 911! (2005 — 2008) as Hypothetical Criminal
- Role Models (2008) as Duane
- Gary Unmarried (2009-2010) as Curtis
- Childrens Hospital (2010 — 2015) as Cop / Captain Tripper
- Just Go with It (2011) as Ernesto
- Key & Peele (2012 — 2015) as himself / various charactersnote
- Afternoon Delight (2013) as Bo
- Whose Line Is It Anyway? (2013 — 2016) as himself
- The LEGO Movie (2014) as Frank the Foreman (voice)
- Fargo (2014) as FBI Special Agent Bill Budge
- Parks and Recreation (2014 — 2015) as Joe
- Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) as Mike
- Bojack Horseman (2014 — 2015) as Sebastian St. Clair (voice)
- HUNT the TRUTH (2015) as Benjamin Giraud
- SuperMansion (2015 — 2019) as American Ranger
- Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) as Beca's Boss
- Tomorrowland (2015) as Hugo Gernsback
- Vacation (2015) as Jack Peterson
- Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) as Murray the Mummy (voice, taking over from Cee Lo Green)
- Keanu (2016) as Clarence / Smoke Dresdennote
- The Angry Birds Movie (2016) as Judge Peckinpah (voice)
- Storks (2016) as Alpha Wolf (voice)
- Why Him? (2016) as Gustav
- Samurai Jack (2017) as Da Samurai (voice, taking over from David Alan Grier)
- Friends from College (2017 — 2019) as Ethan Turner
- The Star (2017) as Dave the Dove (voice)
- The Predator (2018) as Coyle
- Toy Story 4 (2019) as Ducky (voice)
- The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) as skekZok the Ritual-Master (voice)
- Green Eggs & Ham (2019-) as Narrator (voice)
- Playing with Fire (2019) as Mark Rogers
- Home Movie: The Princess Bride (2020) as Inigo Montoya
- Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020) as Gustafson
- Schmigadoon! (2021-) as Josh Skinner
- The Bubble (2022) as Sean Knoa
- The Pentaverate (2022) as Dr. Hobert Clark
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) as Bjornson the Cheesemonger / Frog Co-Worker (voice)
- Pinocchio (2022) as John Worthington Foulfellow (a.k.a. Honest John) (voice)
- Wendell & Wild (2022) as Wendell (voice)
- Reboot (2022-) as Reed Sterling
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) as Toad (voice)
- Wonka (2023) as Chief of Police
- Migration (2023) as Delroy (voice)
- IF (2024) as Slime (voice)
- Transformers One as Bumblebee (voice)
Keegan Michael-Key's work provides examples of the following tropes:
- Keet: Displays a surprising amount of energy for his age, most notably with all his jumping and kicking as Luther. And despite being left to sit out the musical numbers on Whose Line, he's incapable of sitting still.
- Last-Name Basis: He became famous as a member of the "Key & Peele" duo, making him publicly known by his last name. After time has passed, this is no longer the case.
- No Indoor Voice: While performing, this is something to be expected of him. When being himself, he is noticeably soft-spoken.
- Plays Great Ethnics: He has played black characters, as well as Latinos, Arabs, South Asians and Native Americans. His light skin tone combined with a little makeup also allowed him to pass as white in a few of his comedic sketches.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the Red Oni to Peele's more easygoing and relaxed Blue Oni.
- Self-Deprecation: A lot of his roles are comically ridiculous.
- Those Two Guys: With Jordan Peele as part of the Key and Peele duo as well as shared starring roles in movies such as Keanu, Toy Story 4 and Wendell & Wild.
