Jordan Haworth Peele (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known for his film and television work in the comedy and horror genres.[1][2] He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. Peele started his career in sketch comedy before transitioning to writing and directing psychological horror with comedic elements. In 2017, Peele was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[3]
Peele's breakout role came in 2003, when he was hired as a cast member on the Fox sketch comedy series Mad TV, where he spent five seasons, leaving the show in 2008. In the following years, he and his frequent Mad TV collaborator, Keegan-Michael Key, created and starred in their own Comedy Central sketch comedy series Key & Peele (2012–2015). The series was critically acclaimed, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. The two wrote, produced, and starred in the comedy film Keanu (2016) and appeared in various projects since.
His 2017 directorial debut, the horror film Get Out, was a critical and box office success,[4] for which he received numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, along with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. He received another Academy Award nomination for Best Picture for producing Spike Lee's drama BlacKkKlansman (2018). He directed, wrote, and produced the acclaimed films Us (2019) and Nope (2022). Critics have since frequently named Us, Nope and in particular Get Out as among the best films of the 21st century.[5][6][7][8]
He attended the Computer School in Manhattan, graduated from The Calhoun School on Manhattan's Upper West Side in 1997 after securing a scholarship to attend the private school, and went on to Sarah Lawrence College, where he majored in theatre.[18] After two years, Peele dropped out to form a comedy duo with Sarah Lawrence classmate and future Key & Peele writer Rebecca Drysdale.[1]
In 2003, Peele joined the cast of Mad TV for its ninth season. Around the time Keegan-Michael Key joined the cast as a featured performer, it was assumed that Key would be chosen over Peele. The two of them ultimately were cast together after showing great comedic chemistry. Peele performed celebrity impersonations, which included favorites Caroll Spinney (as the voice of Big Bird from Sesame Street), Ja Rule, James Brown, Flavor Flav, Justin Guarini, Montel Williams, Morgan Freeman, Timbaland, Forest Whitaker, and Xzibit. Peele was absent from the first four episodes of his second season on Mad TV. He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "White & Nerdy" with Mad TV co-star Keegan-Michael Key. After five seasons on Mad TV, Peele left the cast at the end of the 13th season.
Peele was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award for his song "Sad Fitty Cent", a music video parody about 50 Cent lamenting over his rivalry with Kanye West. The lyrics were, according to the music video, written by Peele, and he was involved in arranging its music. In 2009, he appeared in Little Fockers.[21] He appeared in a viral video titled "Hillary vs Obama" (which was shown as a Mad TV sketch) where he and a Hillary Clinton supporter (played by short-term cast member Lisa Donovan) argue over whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would make a better president, only to get upstaged by a Rudy Giuliani supporter (played by Donovan's brother, Ben). Peele auditioned to be a cast member for Saturday Night Live when SNL producers were looking for someone to play Barack Obama (around the time when SNL and Mad TV — and other scripted shows — were put on hiatus due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike).
In 2016, Peele starred in and produced, with Key, the first feature film in which the two both had leading roles, Keanu (they had previously both appeared in Wanderlust).[27] The film received generally favorable reviews from critics.[28]
In early 2018, Peele announced his intention to retire from acting, stating in an interview with CBS "Acting is just nowhere near as fun for me as directing".[43] In 2018, Peele co-created the TBS comedy series The Last O.G., starring Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish.[44] Also in 2018, Peele co-produced the Spike Lee film, BlacKkKlansman which was released to critical acclaim and was a box office success. The film received six nominations at the 91st Academy Awards including the Best Picture nomination for Peele. On June 28, 2018, it was announced that YouTube Premium would be releasing Weird City, co-created by Peele and Charlie Sanders. The show was released on February 13, 2019, to critical acclaim.[45] On April 5, 2018, it was announced that Amazon Video had given a four-episode order for Lorena, a docuseries about Lorena Bobbitt. The series was set to be directed by Joshua Rofé who would also executive produce alongside Peele, Win Rosenfeld, Steven J. Berger, Jenna Santoianni, and Tom Lesinski. Production companies involved with the series include Monkeypaw Productions, Sonar Entertainment, and Number 19. It ultimately premiered on February 15, 2019.[46][47][48][49]
Peele co-produced and co-wrote the 2021 sequel to Candyman, through his Monkeypaw Productions,[56] of which Candyman star Tony Todd stated in a 2018 interview with Nightmare on Film Street, "I'd rather have him do it, someone with intelligence, who's going to be thoughtful and dig into the whole racial makeup of who Candyman is and why he existed in the first place."[57]Universal and MGM partnered with Win Rosenfeld to co-produce the film with Peele, and Nia DaCosta directed.[58] The new Candyman serves as a "spiritual sequel", taking place back in the Chicago Cabrini Green housing projects, which subsequently underwent gentrification. After multiple delays, the film was theatrically released on August 27, 2021, to positive reviews.[59][60]
Peele's next film, Nope, was released on July 22, 2022.[61][62]
On November 3, 2015, it was reported that Henry Selick was developing Wendell & Wild, a new stop-motion feature with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key based on an original story by Selick.[63] In March 2018, the film was picked up by Netflix.[64]Wendell & Wild was released on Netflix in 2022.
Other projects
There have been several films floated based on Peele's sketch comedy series Key & Peele. In March 2015, it was announced that Key would reprise the role of Mr. Garvey in a feature-length film Substitute Teacher with Peele portraying a rival teacher.[65] In March 2017 in a Reddit AMA, Peele expressed interest in developing a film around his Key & Peele character Wendell Sanders based on the music video "The Power of Wings". The film, titled Wendell Meets Middle-Earth, would follow Wendell's existence in the fantasy world that he likes to see his life in.[66]
In October 2020, Rosenfeld and Peele signed on to produce the remake of Wes Craven's 1991 comedy horror film The People Under the Stairs.[67] It was reported in September 2021 that his Monkeypaw Productions company had struck a deal with Universal Television.[68] Peele approached Walt Disney Pictures with a proposal for a live-action remake of their cult favorite animated property, Gargoyles, but was declined.[69]
Peele's next directorial effort was set to be released on December 25, 2024, before being quietly pulled from Universal's release schedule following the impact of the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes.[71][72] Universal later reinstated the film with a new release date of October 23, 2026, which will mark the longest gap between Peele's films to date.[73]
Through his mother, Lucinda Williams, Peele is descended from the colonial Woodhull family, whose members include Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull and Culper Ring SpyAbraham Woodhull (the latter of whom is his first cousin, eight times removed).[78]
Peele began dating Chelsea Peretti in 2013.[79] They became engaged in November 2015,[80] and Peretti announced in April 2016 that she and Peele had eloped.[81] They have a son (b. 2017).[82]
^"COMEDY CENTRAL® Greenlights Two New Series for the 2012 Season - an Untitled Sketch Comedy From Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and "The Nick Show Kroll" Starring Nick Kroll" (Press release). New York, New York. PR Newswire. June 29, 2011.
^Andreeva, Nellie (January 14, 2010), "'Station' agents are Peele, Gallo, Zuniga". The Hollywood Reporter. 412 (48):5