Thomas Davidson (born November 10, 1963) is an American comedian and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. He was an original cast member on the sketch comedy TV show ''

In Living Color ''In Living Color'' is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in a ...

'', Mitchell on ''

Between Brothers ''Between Brothers'' is an American television sitcom centered on four middle-class African American men in their late twenties, living in Chicago. It premiered on September 11, 1997 on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, with the second season airi ...

'' (1997-1999), Dexter on ''

Malcolm & Eddie ''Malcolm & Eddie'' is an American sitcom that premiered August 26, 1996, on UPN, and ran for four seasons, airing its final episode on May 22, 2000. This series starred Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin in the lead roles. The program was ...

'' (1999-2000), Oscar Proud on ''

The Proud Family ''The Proud Family'' is an American animated television series created by Bruce W. Smith that originally ran on Disney Channel from September 15, 2001, to August 19, 2005. A revival, known as '' The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder'', was announ ...

'' (2001-2005) & its 2022 revival, Rushon in ''

Booty Call ''Booty Call'' is a 1997 American buddy comedy film, written by J. Stanford Parker (credited as Bootsie) and Takashi Bufford, and directed by Jeff Pollack. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Tommy Davidson, Vivica A. Fox, and Tamala Jones. Plot Rushon ...

'' (1997), Womack in ''

Bamboozled ''Bamboozled'' is a 2000 American satirical dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning blackface makeup and the resulting violent fallout from the show's success. ...

'' (2000), ''

Black Dynamite ''Black Dynamite'' is a 2009 American blaxploitation action comedy film starring Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, and Salli Richardson. The film was directed by Scott Sanders and co-written by White, Sanders, and Byron Minns, who also co-star ...

'' (2009) and its subsequent television series. In 2022, Davidson appeared on Storybound reading from his book, ''Living in Color: What's Funny about Me''.

Early years

Born Anthony Reed in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta. Hi ...

, Davidson was abandoned in the trash at 18 months old, before being rescued by the woman who became his adoptive mother. He was a child of an

interracial adoption Interracial adoption (historically referred to as transracial adoption) refers to the act of placing a child of one racial or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another racial or ethnic group. Interracial adoption is not inherently the same as ...

, being that his adoptive parents are white. His parents changed his name to Thomas Davidson when they adopted him. He has two older white siblings, Michael and Beryle. He and his family had moved from Colorado to Wyoming to Oregon by the time he was five years old. His parents divorced when he was five years old, and his mother and the children moved to Washington, D.C. They later moved to

Wheaton, Maryland Wheaton is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, situated north of Washington, D.C. and northwest of downtown Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name from Frank Wheaton (1833–1903), a career officer in the Uni ...

, then the neighborhood of Rosemary Hills in Silver Spring, and then

Takoma Park Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City", is a Tree Ci ...

. He attended Rosemary Hills Elementary School,

Sligo Middle School Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is a public school district that serves Montgomery County, Maryland. With 210 schools, it is the largest school district in the state of Maryland. For the 2022–2023 school year, the district has 13,994 ...

, and

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) is a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is named for two of the towns it serves; it also serves Kensington and Silver Spring. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda. In May ...

, in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

. After graduating in 1981, he studied communications and interned at the radio station of the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

for one semester. He had jobs in the kitchen of the

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), formerly known as the National Naval Medical Center and colloquially referred to as the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed, or Navy Med, is a United States' tri-service military medi ...

, cleaning at

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

, bussing tables at an IHOP in Wheaton, and working in the storeroom of

Hechinger The Hechinger Company was an American chain of home-improvement centers headquartered in Landover, Maryland, on the immediate outskirts of Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1999. It was also an online retailer owned by Home Decor Products from 2 ...

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper An ...

Early career

Davidson started his career as a

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

in 1986, when a childhood friend convinced him to perform stand-up at The Penthouse strip club in Park View, Washington, D.C. He continued performing in various comedy clubs throughout the Washington Metropolitan region,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He opened concerts for

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...

Starpoint Starpoint was an American R&B and funk band from Maryland that was active from 1978 to 1990 recording 10 albums during that time. It comprised four brothers and two other musicians. The ten albums released did well, some reaching the US R&B Cha ...

, and

Kenny G Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956), known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer. His 1986 album ''Duotones'' brought him commercial success. Kenny G is one of the best-selling artis ...

. He performed on a fundraising telethon for WHMM in 1987. Davidson won an amateur stand-up competition at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

in 1987. Soon afterwards, he moved to

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North H ...

, where he met

Martin Lawrence Martin Fitzgerald LawrenceStated in interview on ''Inside the Actors Studio'' (born April 16, 1965) is an American comedian and actor. He came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor. He got his start playin ...

, who lived in his building. He performed at the

Comedy Store The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. History The Comedy ...

, where Robert Townsend heard of him and asked him to be the warm-up comic for an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

special. After performing at

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross has sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive P ...

and

Anita Baker Anita Denise Baker (born January 26, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. She is one of the most popular singers of soulful ballads, especially renowned for her work during the height of the quiet storm period in the 1980s. Starting her career ...

shows, he appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show.

Filmography

Film

Television

Comedy specials

Book

* Davidson, Tommy; Teicholz, Tom (2020). ''Living in Color''. Kensington Publishing. .

References

External links

The Tommy DavidsonTommy Davidson Music
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Tommy 1963 births African-American male actors African-American male comedians American male comedians 21st-century American comedians American stand-up comedians American male voice actors American male television actors American male film actors American adoptees Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School alumni Living people People from Rolling Fork, Mississippi People from Greenville, Mississippi People from Wheaton, Maryland People from Silver Spring, Maryland People from Takoma Park, Maryland Male actors from Mississippi University of the District of Columbia alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people