Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian, and television personality best known for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and his tenure hosting Let's Make a Deal.
Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia, and moved to Orlando, Florida, as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt. At age 16, Brady started performing in community theater and with the improv troupe SAK Comedy Lab, where he started developing his improv skills. He attended Dr. Phelps High School and later enrolled in the University of Miami.
His career began on the British version of the ensemble improvisational comedy program Whose Line Is It Anyway? during its last season in 1998. After this, he became a regular performer in the American version hosted by Drew Carey, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety, Musical, or Comedy series.
He has since starred in a wide range of television shows and theatre performances, though many of the former were short-lived compared to Whose Line. He remains part of the Production Posse of Whose Line to this day.
Film roles:
Television roles:
- The Adventures of Superboy
- Aftermath
- Are We There Yet?
- Black Lightning
- Chappelle's Show
- Dirt (2007)
- Don't Forget the Lyrics!
- The Drew Carey Show
- Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
- Everybody Hates Chris
- Fast and Loose
- Hollywood Game Night
- How I Met Your Mother
- In the Heat of the Night
- The Late Late Show
- Let's Make a Deal
- The Masked Singer
- The Neighborhood
- Psych
- So You Think You Can Dance
- Stargate SG-1
- 30 Rock
- Trust Us with Your Life
- Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Theatre roles:
- Chicago
- Hamilton
- Kinky Boots
- Merrily We Roll Along
- Ratatouille the Musical
- RENT
Voice acting roles:
- American Dad!
- Batman Beyond
- Clifford's Really Big Movie
- The Cuphead Show!
- The Electric Piper
- Food Fight
- The Hero of Color City
- The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
- The Loud House
- Robot Chicken
- Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright
- Shorty McShorts' Shorts
- Sofia the First
- Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild
- VeggieTales: Noah's Ark
Tropes Associated With Wayne Brady
- The Ace: He is the go-to-guy for song and dance numbers on Whose Line.
- Achilles' Heel: Wayne cracks up more often than Ryan and Colin.
- Adam Westing: In one of Chappelle's Show's most memorable sketches, Brady appears As Himself spending an evening with Dave, in which we learn he is actually a cold-blooded gangbanger, pimp and crime lord. During their evening together, Brady murders a rival gangbanger in a drive-by, collects earnings from his prostitutes, drugs Dave with PCP, murders a police officer, steals Dave's sandwich, and shoots Dave in the leg.
- LGBT+ Creators: Wayne Brady came out as pansexual in August 2023.
- New Jobs As The Plot Demands: Between the end of the original run of the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 2003 and his getting the hosting gig for the revival of Let's Make a Deal in 2009, none of his jobs stuck.
