Donald McKinley Glover is a American comedian, actor, writer, rapper, producer, singer, director, record producer, and songwriter best known for his role as "Troy" in the NBC comedy series Community and well as being the creator, occasional director, writer, executive producer, executive music producer, and the lead role of "Earn" in the show Atlanta which is currently airing on FX. Glover is also known for being a rapper/singer under the stage name "Childish Gambino" and for his singles such as Bonfire, 3005, Sweatpants, Redbone, and his most successful single to date, This is America. Glover has also starred in films such as The Martian, The Lazarus Effect, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Personal Life[]
Glover was born at Edwards Air Force Base, California and then raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He was raised a Jehovah's Witnesses, he then attended DeKalb School for the Arts and graduated from New York University's Tisch School for the Arts with a degree in dramatic writing, along with also being voted "Most Likely to Write For The Simpsons".
Glover also has a child who was born in 2016 and it was revealed it was a boy during his acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards in 2017. He also announced that his son's name is "Legend" at the Governor's Ball in June 2017 and his second child was born in January 2018.
Career[]
In 2006, Glover was contacted by David Miner, he sent Miner some samples of a script that he had written for The Simpsons. Miner and show creator of the show 30 Rock, Tina Fey was really impressed with his writing and Glover was hired as a writer for the show. Glover was a writer for the show from 2006 until 2009, where he made occasional appearances as well. Glover also received the name "Childish Gambino" from Wu-Tang's name generator and then released his debut independent album titled Sick Boi on June 5, 2008. Glover was also apart of the sketch-comedy group, Derrick Comedy, where they released sketches on their YouTube channel and then released a independent feature film titled Mystery Team.
Then in 2009, Glover then started starring as the role of "Troy Barnes" in the NBC comedy show Community. He also released two more mixtapes in the same year, he then released his second album Culdesac. In 2010, Glover premiered his first stand-up comedy special on Comedy Central Presents and in December of that year, he released the first track of his EP titled "Be Alone".
In March 2011, Glover filmed his first one-hour comedy special "Weirdo" which aired on Comedy Central. Glover also signed with Glassnote Records. He then announced plans for his first LP and that he was working with close friend/the composer for Community, Ludwig Goransson. He then announced Glover's debut album, Camp which was later released on November 15, 2011. He then embarked on his "Camp Gambino" tour with special guest, rapper Danny Brown and he later released another mixtape for free digital download titled R O Y A L T Y.
In 2013, it was announced that Glover was leaving Community after starring on the show for five seasons. It was later announced that a new show created by Glover himself was picked up by FX. In the same year, Glover then released his second studio album Because The Internet, a mixtape titled STN MTN and an EP titled Kauai, a song from his second album Crawl was inducted into the video game Far Cry 4, and he was also nominated for two Grammy Awards.
In 2015, Glover won a mtvU Woodie Award for Best Video Woodie for the song "Sober" from his Kauai EP. In 2016, Glover was announced to have a role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, yet it wasn't announced what role he would be portraying. Around June 2016, Glover uploaded a app titled "PHAROS Earth" which allowed fans to buy tickets to his private listening event for his new album. Then in September 2016, Glover's show Atlanta premiered on FX to critical acclaim and earned the Emmy Award for "Best Comedy or In December 2016, Glover released his third studio album, "Awaken, My Love!" which is his first album where it's mainly R&B, soul and funk instead of mainly rap.
In May of 2017, it was also announced that Glover and his brother Stephen had created a animated series for Marvel Comic anti-villain Deadpool, that would air on FXX as Glover and his brother were to serve as writers, producers, and showrunners. However, it was announced in March 2018 that the show would not move forward due to creative differences between Glover and FX. Expect, Glover would later leak a script from the series on his unused Twitter account.In June 2017, after performing at the Governor's Ball, Glover announced that his next album will be his final one as he believes that his music career is no longer necessary. In September 2017, Glover won a Emmy Award for Lead Role in Comedy and became the first African-American director to receive the "Directing For A Comedy Series" Award.
In 2018, Glover was nominated for five Grammy Awards including "Album of the Year" for "Awaken, My Love!" and "Record of the Year" for "Redbone", winning "Best Traditional R&B Performance" for "Redbone". It was also announced that he signed to RCA Records in the beginning of the year. Glover also starred as a young version of "Lando Calrissisian" in Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was released on May 25, 2018.
In May 2018, Glover hosted and performed as "Childish Gambino" on Saturday Night Live, where he also released a new music video for a single titled "This Is America", which became a cultural phenomenon and received over a million views in over 24 hours. The song debuted at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Gambino's first number one single and first single to be featured in the top ten. 2 months later, Glover released an EP titled Summer Pack which featured two singles, "Summertime Magic" and "Feels Like Summer".
In September, Glover began the "This is America Tour" and announced during the first show in Duluth that this is his last tour as "Childish Gambino".
In April 2019, Glover starred in a musical film, Guava Island, alongside singer Rihanna as the film was released by Amazon through the Amazon Prime Video app. The film also premiered on Coachella's livestream on YouTube and Twitch.
Glover was also the voice of the adult "Simba" in the 2019 live-action remake of the Disney film The Lion King, which was released on July 19, 2019.
Discography[]
Studio albums[]
- Camp (2011)
- Because The Internet (2013)
- "Awaken, My Love!" (2016)
Filmography[]
Films[]
- Mystery Team - Jason Rogers
- The Muppets - Junior CEO Executive
- The To Do List - Derek
- Clapping for the Wrong Reasons - The Boy
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - Greg
- The Lazarus Effect - Niko
- Magic Mike XXL - Andre
- The Martian - Rich Purnell
- Spider-Man: Homecoming - Aaron Davis
- Solo: A Star Wars Story - Lando Calrissisian
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Troy Barnes (cameo)
- Guava Island - Deni Maroon
- The Lion King (2019) - Simba (voice)
Television[]
- Late Night with Conan O'Brien - Criminal
- 30 Rock - Various
- Human Giant - College Webcam Guy
- Community - Troy Barnes
- Robot Chicken - Mace Windu (voice)
- Comedy Central Presents - Himself
- Regular Show - Alpha-Dawg (voice)
- Donald Glover: Weirdo - Himself
- Sesame Street - LMNOP
- Girls - Sandy
- Adventure Time - Marshall Lee (voice)
- Ultimate Spider-Man - Miles Morales/Spider-Man (voice)
- China, IL - William "Transfer Billy" (voice)
- Atlanta - Earnest "Earn" Marks/Teddy Perkins
- Saturday Night Live - Himself
Gallery[]
