Tommy Davidson

Tommy Davidson (born November 10, 1963) is an American actor and comedian. He was an original cast member on the sketch comedy TV show In Living Color, Mitchell on Between Brothers (1997–1999), Dexter on Malcolm & Eddie (1999–2000), Oscar Proud on The Proud Family (2001–2005) and its 2022 revival, Rushon in Booty Call (1997), Womack in Bamboozled (2000), and Cream Corn in Black Dynamite (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 life
Born Anthony Reed in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Davidson was abandoned in the trash at 18 months old, before being rescued by a white woman who became his adoptive mother. 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, then the neighborhood of Rosemary Hills in Silver Spring, and then Takoma Park. He attended Rosemary Hills Elementary School, Sligo Middle School, and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, in Bethesda, Maryland. After graduating in 1981, he studied communications and interned at the radio station of the University of the District of Columbia for one semester. He had jobs in the kitchen of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, cleaning at Roy Rogers, bussing tables at an IHOP in Wheaton, and working in the stockroom of Hechinger in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Career
Davidson started his career as a stand-up comedian in 1984, 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, and Philadelphia. He opened concerts for Patti LaBelle, Starpoint, and Kenny G. He performed on a fundraising telethon for WHMM in 1987.

Davidson won an amateur stand-up competition at the Apollo Theater in 1987. Soon afterwards, he moved to North Hollywood, California, where he met Martin Lawrence, who lived in his building. He performed at the Comedy Store, where Robert Townsend heard of him and asked him to be the warm-up comic for an HBO special. After performing at Luther Vandross and Anita Baker shows, he appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show.

Personal life
Davidson and his wife Amanda Moore have been married since 2015, together they have two children.

Book

 * Davidson, Tommy; Teicholz, Tom (2020). Living in Color. Kensington Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4967-1294-3.