Tommy Davidson

Born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi,[3] Davidson was abandoned in the trash at 18 months old, before being rescued by the woman who became his adoptive mother.[4][5] He was a child of an interracial adoption; his adoptive parents are Caucasian, and he is African-American.[4] He has two older Caucasian siblings, Michael and Beryle. He and his family had moved from Colorado to Wyoming to Oregon by the time he was 5 years old,[6] when they settled in Silver Spring, Maryland.[4] He attended high school at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, in Bethesda, Maryland.[4] After graduating in 1981,[4] he studied communications and interned at the radio station of the University of the District of Columbia for one semester.[7] He had jobs in the kitchen of a hospital and in the storeroom of Hechinger in Hyattsville, Maryland.[4]

Davidson started his career as a stand-up comedian in 1986,[1] when a childhood friend convinced him to perform stand-up at The Penthouse strip club in Park View, Washington, D.C..[4][8] He continued performing in various comedy clubs throughout the Washington Metropolitan region, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. He opened concerts for Patti LaBelle, Starpoint, and Kenny G.[9] He performed on a fundraising telethon for WHMM in 1987.[10]

Davidson won an amateur stand-up competition at the Apollo Theater in 1987.[4] Soon afterwards, he moved to North Hollywood, California, where he met Martin Lawrence, who lived in his building.[4][11] He performed at the Comedy Store, where Robert Townsend heard of him and asked him to be the warm-up comic for an HBO special.[4] After performing at Luther Vandross and Anita Baker shows, he appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show.[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tommy Davidson.

• Tommy Davidson on IMDb