Mike Epps

By 1995, Mike Epps ended up on the Def Comedy Jam tour and starred in two of HBO's Def Comedy Jam broadcasts. With a stop along the way to appear in actor Vin Diesel's directorial debut "Strays" (1996), Mike Epps was well on his way to becoming one of the bigger names in stand-up.

He appeared in an episode of "The Sopranos" in 1999, the same year the comedian learned that Ice Cube was soon to cast his co-star (effectively, Chris Tucker's replacement) in the "Friday" sequel "Next Friday." Epps headed for Los Angeles, where he invited Ice Cube to catch his stand-up set. Impressed, the rapper-actor-producer asked Epps to try out for the part of Day-Day, which he landed after weeks of auditions.

Opening at Number One on the box-office charts, "Next Friday" was a breakthrough for the new actor, who was already familiar to much of the audience from his stand-up work Epps' played the ineffectual Day-Day, a smoked-out character stalked by his obsessive ex-girlfriend (Tamala Jones) and her brutish younger sister Baby D (Lady of Rage). Later that year, he had a cameo in DJ Pooh's "3 Strikes" and supported Jamie Foxx in the action comedy "Bait."

Mike Epps began 2001 with a voice role in the family comedy "Dr. Dolittle 2" and finished the year with a featured role as comical pimp Baby Powder in "How High," starring hip-hop artists Redman and Method Man. Epps played the bumbling thief to Ice Cube's bounty hunter in the action comedy "All about the Benjamins" and again re-teamed with the rapper-actor-filmmaker in the continuing "Friday" saga's latest entry "Friday After Next" (both 2002).

Other notable movie roles include The Fighting Temptations with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and R&B/Pop diva Beyoncé Knowles, Guess Who (the 2005 remake of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with Bernie Mac), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), the 2005 remake of The Honeymooners with Cedric the Entertainer, and Roll Bounce (playing one of two garbage men along with Charlie Murphy).

Information from the club's site