Keegan-Michael Key is an American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the sketch-comedy series MADtv and Key & Peele, along with fellow MADtv cast member Jordan Peele. He also played Pupa in the 2014 buddy cop comedy film Let's Be Cops and voiced Murray the mummy in Sony Pictures' Hotel Transylvania franchise, Alpha the wolf in the 2016 WAG animated film Storks, Dave, an eccentric dove in the 2017 animated biblical comedy film The Star, Wendell in the 2022 Netflix adult stop-motion horror comedy film Wendell & Wild, and Toad in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
For Disney, he played a Reporter in the 2004 Touchstone Pictures sports film Mr. 3000, Hugo Gernsback in the 2015 sci-fi film Tomorrowland, and voiced Phineas Foolery in Sheriff Callie's Wild West. He also appeared in the The Muppets episode "Swine Song". Additionally, he voiced Ducky in the Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 4 and Banzai (renamed Kamari) in the CGI adaptation of The Lion King (both released in 2019). He also voiced the Frog Co-worker and Bjornson the Cheesemonger in the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers hybrid film, Honest John in the live-action remake of Pinocchio (both released in 2022), and portrayed Curtis in the CBS/ABC Studios TV show Gary Unmarried.
Key was born in Southfield, Michigan, the son of an African American father, Leroy McDuffie, and Carrie Herr, a woman of Polish and Flemish descent. He was adopted at a young age by a couple from Detroit, Michael Key and Patricia Walsh, who were both social workers. Like his birth parents, his adoptive parents were also a black man and a white woman. Through his biological father, Key had two half-brothers, one of whom was comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie. Key discovered the existence of his half-siblings only after they had both died. Raised Catholic, Key attended the University of Detroit Mercy as an undergraduate, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater in 1993, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in theater at Pennsylvania State University in 1996.
Roles[]
(Sheriff Callie's Wild West)
.png "Kamari (2019 film).png (198 KB)")
(The Muppets)
(Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers)
(Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers)
.jpg "Pinocchio 2022 (24).jpg (312 KB)")
Gallery[]
.jpg "Keegan-Michael Key Peabody 2014 (cropped).jpg (19 KB)")
_-_Keegan-Michael_Key,_Florence_Kasumba_and_Eric_Andre_with_Kamari,_Shenzi,_and_Azizi.jpg "The Lion King (2019) - Keegan-Michael Key, Florence Kasumba and Eric Andre with Kamari, Shenzi, and Azizi.jpg (475 KB)")
