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For the character, see Terry Jeffords.

Terrence Alan "Terry" Crews (born July 30, 1968) is an American actor and former NFL player. He is perhaps best known for playing Julius on the UPN/CWsitcom Everybody Hates Chris and for his appearances in Old Spice commercials,[1] as well as for roles in films like Friday After Next, White Chicks,Idiocracy, Gamer, and The Expendables. He stars as Nick Kingston-Persons in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet? and as himself in the BET reality series The Family Crews.

Early life

Crews was born July 30, 1968[3] in Flint, Michigan, the son of Patricia and Terry Crews. He grew up in a strict Christian household in Flint and was raised mainly by his mother. His father was an alcoholic who was abusive to his mother. Crews received a flute from his great aunt, and took lessons for eight years.

After earning his high school diploma from Flint Southwestern, he received a Chrysler-sponsored art scholarship at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan, which was followed by an Art Excellence scholarship and a full athletic scholarship for football at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As a defensive end for the WMU Broncos, Crews earned All-Conference honors and won the 1988 Mid-American Conference Championship.

Career

After retiring from the NFL in 1997, Crews moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He had held a long-standing ambition to work in the film industry, but up until then had no plans to pursue acting; simply wanting to be involved in some way. A year earlier, he had co-written and co-produced the independent feature film Young Boys Incorporated. A self-funded production filmed in Detroit with an anti-drug message, the film drew on his own observations, as well as those of his friends and family. Despite describing it as a "horrible" film, he credits the experience with getting him interested in the film industry.

In 1999, Crews auditioned for a role as a character athlete (known as Warriors) in the syndicated game show Battle Dome, which became his first acting part. He played T-Money for two seasons until its cancellation in 2001. The audition process and the opportunity to perform in front of an audience made him realize that he wanted to pursue acting as a career. However, he failed to land another acting job for the following two years.

Appearances in commercials, films, and music videos soon followed. His breakout role came in Friday After Next starring rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube, for whom Crews had previously worked as on-set security. Having never taken acting classes, instead he asked himself what the audience wanted, and he believes this ultimately brought him success. He now believes acting is what he was born to do and would not wish to have any other career, despite the physically demanding nature of the work.

Based on his performance in White Chicks (2004), Adam Sandler changed a role in The Longest Yard (2005) to give it to Crews, who had auditioned for another role in the film. His role as Julius Rock, the father on the UPN/CW sitcom on Everybody Hates Chris, brought Crews wider public recognition, and the show aired for four seasons from 2005-09. Since Everybody Hates Chris, Crews has had main roles as husband and father Nick Kingston-Persons in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet?, which aired for three seasons from 2010–13, and as NYPD Sergeant Terry Jeffords in the ensemble cast of the Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which premiered in 2013 and ran for five seasons before it was picked up for a sixth season by NBC in 2018.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2000 The 6th Day Vincent Bansworth
2001 Training Day Bloods member Uncredited
2002 Serving Sara Vernon
2002 Friday After Next Damon Pearly
2003 Deliver Us from Eva Big bartender
2003 Malibu's Most Wanted 8 Ball
2003 BAADASSSSS! Big T
2004 Behind the Smile Big James
2004 Soul Plane Bouncer
2004 Starsky & Hutch Porter
2004 White Chicks Latrell Spencer
2005 The Longest Yard Cheeseburger Eddy "89"
2006 The Alibi Crazy Eight
2006 Harsh Times Darrell
2006 The Benchwarmers Steven
2006 Puff, Puff, Pass Cool Crush Ice Killa
2006 Click Singing guy in car Uncredited
2006 Idiocracy President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho
2006 Inland Empire Street person
2007 Norbit Big Black Jack Latimore
2007 How to Rob a Bank Officer Degepse
2007 Who's Your Caddy? Tank
2007 Balls of Fury Freddy "Fingers" Wilson
2008 Street Kings Detective II Terrence Washington
2008 Get Smart Agent 91
2008 Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control Agent 91
2009 Terminator Salvation Captain Jericho
2009 Gamer Hackman
2010 The Expendables Hale Caesar
2010 Lottery Ticket Jimmy
2010 Middle Men James
2011 Bridesmaids Boot camp instructor Cameo
2012 The Expendables 2 Hale Caesar
2013 Scary Movie 5
2013 Aztec Warrior Juan Claudio
2013 Reach Me
2013 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 Earl Devereaux
2014 The Expendables 3 Hale Ceasar

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1999–2012 Battle Dome T-Money
2004 CSI: Miami Craig Waters
2005 My Wife and Kids Daryl
2005–2009 Everybody Hates Chris Julius Rock
2006 The Boondocks Various characters Voice
2010–2011 Are We There Yet? Nick Kingston-Persons
2010–2011 The Family Crews Himself Reality show
2011 BrainSurge Himself
2012 The Newsroom Lonny Church
2012 Stars Earn Stripes Himself Reality show
2013 Real Husbands of Hollywood Himself Reality show
2013 Second Generation Wayans Himself (TV series)
2013 Arrested Development
2013-Present Brooklyn Nine-Nine Terry Jeffords (TV series)

Music videos

Year Artist Song Role
2004 Blink-182 "Down" Police officer

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
2012 The Expendables 2 Hale Caesar Voice

References

  1. ^ Terry Crews Talks The Expendables 2
  2. ^ "Flint native Terry Crews shines on screen". The Michigan Journal. February 6, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
  3. ^ "Chris Rock to Appear on His Own Sitcom". BET.com. July 25, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  4. ^ "Everybody Hates Chris". The CW. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
  5. ^ "Terry Crews NFL Football Statistics". Pro Football Reference/USA Today. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
  6. ^ The Family Crews TV Show (Wife says she followed him around the NFL for 9 years)
  7. ^ Tim and Eric direct Terry Crews for Old Spice
  8. ^ ‘Are We There Yet‘ Renewed by TBS for 90 More Episodes 16 August 2010 - tvbythenumbers
  9. ^ "Terry Crews' Triple Threat! Friday Four?! Actor Speaks on Success, Family and More!"UrbLife.com. August 19, 2010.
  10. ^ http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/02/newsroom-scoop-expendables-ii-star-to-play-heavy/

Trivia

  • Producer Dan Goor revealed that his character name Terry Jeffords is a reference to the actor himself, as he originally refused the role, and the character name is to remind him that he almost lost a role which designed from him.
  • Terry Jeffords is the first character created for the show.

External links

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