Tracy Morgan

Tracy Jamal Morgan (born November 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2003 and played Tracy Jordan on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock from 2006 to 2013, both of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also starred as Tray Barker on the TBS comedy The Last O.G.

Morgan was born in Brooklyn and raised in Brooklyn's Marlboro Houses and Tompkins Houses in its Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. His father named him Tracy in honor of a platoon mate and friend who shipped off to Vietnam with him and was killed in action days later. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and dropped out four credits short of his diploma to care for his ailing father, who died in January 1987. Morgan began earning money performing comedy on the streets after his best friend was murdered, and embarked on a stand-up comedy career.

Morgan made his screen debut playing Hustle Man on the sitcom Martin and was a regular cast member on Uptown Comedy Club. After joining SNL in 1996, he starred in his own sitcom, The Tracy Morgan Show, in 2003, and from 2006 to 2013 played Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock. He has had a number of solo stand-up specials, including One Mic in 2002, Bona Fide in 2014, and Staying Alive in 2017. His autobiography, I Am the New Black, was released on October 20, 2009. Morgan has listed Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor among his primary comedic influences.