Cedric Yarbrough

Cedric Yarbrough was born in Burnsville, Minnesota in 1973 and has spent more than twenty years as one of American comedy's most dependable second bananas, which undersells him. His signature part is Deputy S. Jones on Reno 911!, a role he has carried from the original series through Reno 911!: Miami and the later specials, and the trick of it is that Jones is very nearly the sane one. In a squad of clowns somebody has to hold the middle, and holding the middle in improvised comedy is harder than being the clown.

He is very good at playing men whose dignity is under constant, low-level assault and who refuse to surrender it. Kenneth on ABC's Speechless is the warmest version, a caregiver written with none of the usual sentimentality. Tom DuBois on The Boondocks is the sharpest, an anxious, conflict-averse lawyer used by the show as a target, and Yarbrough plays him with enough real hurt that the satire has teeth. He voices Colonel H. Stinkmeaner on the same series, which is the exact opposite register and a good demonstration of how far his voice can travel.

The animation work is extensive: Officer Meow-Meow Fuzzyface on BoJack Horseman, Gerald Fitzgerald on Paradise PD, Officer X on The Penguins of Madagascar, Firestorm and Black Lightning in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, plus Kung Fu Panda 4 and Batman: Caped Crusader. On film he has been the funniest thing in several unfunny comedies, from The 40 Year Old Virgin to Four Christmases to Drillbit Taylor, and he is memorable as Chocolate Giddy-Up in Black Dynamite (2009). Most recently he played Marcus in Juror #2 (2024), a straight dramatic turn that suggests the comedy career has been undersold.