Anthony Anderson
Anthony Anderson is an actor, born 1970.
For most of the early 2000s Anthony Anderson was the loudest man in other people's comedies: the sidekick, the buddy, the guy behind the counter in Harold and Kumar. Born in Los Angeles in 1970, he ran through Big Momma's House, Kangaroo Jack, two Scary Movie sequels and Malibu's Most Wanted. It was a good living inside a very narrow lane.
The interesting turn was that he could play menace. Antwon Mitchell on The Shield is a gang leader written with no comic relief whatsoever, and Anderson plays him quiet, patient and genuinely frightening, using the same bulk and warmth that made him funny everywhere else. Hustle and Flow and The Departed both took the serious version, and Martin Scorsese used him as one of the few decent people in a film full of liars.
Black-ish is where the two halves met. Dre Johnson is a broad network sitcom lead built for punchlines who also has to carry episodes about police violence, colourism and family history, and Anderson holds both registers without the show cracking down the middle. It ran eight seasons. Alongside it he did years as Detective Kevin Bernard on Law and Order, the least showy job on television and one he took seriously.
He has also built a parallel career as a host and panellist, on Iron Chef America and as host of the revived To Tell the Truth from 2016, which fits him exactly: he is a professional at being the most comfortable person in the room.
Movies (49)
- Scary Movie (2026)
- Scary Movie 4 (2006)
- Scary Movie 3 (2003)
- The Departed (2006)
- Scream 4 (2011)
- G20 (2025)
- Arthur and the Invisibles (2006)
- Ferdinand (2017)
- Hoodwinked! (2005)
- Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
- Transformers (2007)
- Big Momma's House (2000)
- The Star (2017)
- Romeo Must Die (2000)
- Life (1999)
- Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)
- Kangaroo Jack (2003)
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
- Exit Wounds (2001)
- Barbershop (2002)
- Grudge Match (2013)
- The Big Year (2011)
- The Back-Up Plan (2010)
- Hustle & Flow (2005)
- Malibu's Most Wanted (2003)
- Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
- You People (2023)
- The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
- Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)
- Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016)
TV (37)
- Law & Order (1990)
- The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014)
- The Jennifer Hudson Show (2022)
- Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003)
- The Shield (2002)
- black-ish (2014)
- Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter (2015)
- grown-ish (2018)
- People's Choice Awards (1975)
- Steve (2017)
- My Wife and Kids (2001)
- The Bernie Mac Show (2001)
- Celebrity Family Feud (2015)
- 'Til Death (2006)
- The $100,000 Pyramid (2016)
- To Tell the Truth (2016)
- Match Game (2016)
- On Air with Ryan Seacrest (2004)
- Hang Time (1995)
- Samantha Who? (2007)
- Hollywood Game Night (2013)
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (2020)
- mixed-ish (2019)
- The Soul Man (2012)
- Richie Rich (2015)
- Chappelle's Show (2003)
- The Jamie Kennedy Experiment (2002)
- That's My Jam (2021)
- The Gong Show (2017)
- Brain Games (2011)
Where to start with Anthony Anderson
Take black-ish first. It is the whole case for him in one show, eight seasons of a broad family sitcom that keeps stopping to say something genuinely uncomfortable, with Anderson doing both jobs inside the same scene.
Then go straight to The Shield, which is the corrective. His arc there is the best acting he has ever done and it is not funny for one second. The Departed and Hustle & Flow extend the serious run, both small parts, both played without a wink.
The comedies vary wildly. Barbershop holds up because the ensemble is real. Kangaroo Jack does not, and is only interesting as a document of what studios thought he was for. Scream 4 hands him a deputy with three good lines. If you want the working actor rather than the star, Law & Order has years of him doing it properly.
Television and the talk-show circuit
Black-ish is the one, eight seasons and eight Emmy nominations for a show he helped build out of his own family. Grown-ish is the spin-off, and My Wife and Kids is the early sitcom run most people have forgotten he did.
The comedies that made his name
A decade of being the funniest person in somebody else's film. Barbershop is the one that holds up, an ensemble comedy with a real argument in it, and the rest are studio broad comedies of the early 2000s doing exactly what they promise.
The dramatic work
Nobody expects this list from him, which is exactly why it is worth knowing. Six seasons as a homicide detective on Law and Order, a Scorsese picture, The Shield, and Hustle and Flow, which is the best straight performance he has given.