Stand-up comedian Cedric "The Entertainer" Kyles is also a comic actor who was a cast member of TV's The Steve Harvey Show (1996-2002) and Ice Cube's co-star in the films Barbershop (2000) and Barbershop 2 (2004, with Queen Latifah). A popular nightclub performer in St. Louis, Kyles gained national attention in the early 1990s as a host on Robert L. Johnson's Black Entertainment Television (BET). In the late '90s he traveled the United States as part of the Kings of Comedy tour (with Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac), the subject of the Spike Lee documentary, The Original Kings of Comedy (2000). Since then he has bounced between TV projects and feature films, appearing on cable TV and in numerous character roles on the big screen. His movies include Serving Sara (2002), Intolerable Cruelty (2003, with George Clooney) and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004, with Jim Carrey).

Cedric The Entertainer has also done cartoon voices, including a bear in Dr. Doolittle 2 (2001, starring Eddie Murphy) and a rhino in Ice Age (2002, with Jack Black).