Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy was born in the projects of Brooklyn, New York, on April 3rd, 1961. His father was a policeman and his mother was a telephone operator. His parents divorced when he was three and she remarried. They lived in Brooklyn until he was ten years old then they moved to Roosevelt Long Island.

Eddie wanted to be a comedian like his idol Richard Pryor. He used to pretend to be different people and cartoon characters and would get his friends to laugh. Even though he made the teachers laugh he still got into a lot of trouble for disrupting the class. He appeared on stage for the first time when he was 15 at his high school. From that moment on he never stopped performing.

He got his big break at 19 when he was on the show "Saturday Night Live". He started out with just a small part and soon became the most popular comedian. When he was 21 he made his first comedy album and then he made music. One of his first movies was "48 Hours". He also made comedy videos. He went on to make a lot of movies. Some of them weren't so good and he received some negative publicity. Others were bigger than ever, such as Dr. Dolittle 1 and 2, The Nutty Professor, Daddy Day Care and Shrek 1 and 2.

He met his wife Nicole in 1988. They have four children together and he has another son. They live in Englewood, New Jersey. The house has 22 rooms and they call it "Bubble Hill". He gives money to different charities to help people.

I selected Eddie Murphy because he is one of the funniest comedians I've ever seen. Even though he had a lot of tough times in his life he continued to go after his dreams of being successful.