Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Cedric The Entertainer rules falls new sitcom The Neighborhood

- Malcolm Venable

Except for the smoke-colored Maserati he eases into his parking space, Cedric the Entertainer arrives for his interview on the CBS lot in uncharacteristically lowkey fashion, dressed in a NflT-shirt, athletic shorts, and a baseball cap pulled low over his tired eyes. He deserves some slack for not appearing in one of the suave ensembles and sharp fedoras he’s become known for: He’s just landed in L.A. after an overnight gig in Las Vegas and came straight to the set of The Neighborhood, the family sitcom costarring Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs, and Tichina Arnold that debuts this fall. As both an executive producer and a Midwesterner with an unrelenting work ethic, Cedric is not a man who lets either wardrobe or a lack of sleep get in the way of the work, and you’ll never hear him complain. “I love this job,” he says. “I’d rather stay busy than sit still.”

Clearly. Born Cedric Antonio Kyles in Jefferson City, Missouri, Cedric the Entertainer may be best known as one of the Original Kings of Comedy, the group whose 2000 concert film made him (along with Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac) a household name, but he’s also king of the Hollywood hustle. From playing cantankerous coot Eddie in the Barbershop franchise to hosting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to doing stand-up in clubs, performing voice work for animated hits (Ice Age, Madagascar), and even popping up on rap albums (Jay-Z, Nelly), Cedric the Entertainer has the most apt moniker in the business. He’s been entertaining across every conceivable platform—more than 30 shows and 20 movies under his belt—for more than three decades.

But it’s his next turn, as Calvin Butler in The Neighborhood, that marks a new milestone for him: playing the lead on a network comedy in front of his widest audience yet.