Tommy Davidson

Thomas Davidson (born November 10, 1963) is an American comedian, film and television actor. He was an original cast member on the sketch comedy TV show In Living Color.

Born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Davidson was abandoned in the trash at 18 months old, before being rescued by the woman who became his adoptive mother. He was a child of an interracial adoption; his adoptive parents are Caucasian, and he is African-American. He has two older Caucasian siblings, Michael and Beryle.He and his family had moved from Colorado to Wyoming to Oregon by the time he was 5 years old, when they settled in Silver Spring, Maryland. He attended high school at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, in Bethesda, Maryland. After graduating in 1981, he studied communications and interned at the radio station of the University of the District of Columbia for one semester. He had jobs in the kitchen of a hospital and in the storeroom of Hechinger in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Davidson started his career as a stand-up comedian in 1986, when a childhood friend convinced him to perform stand-up at The Penthouse strip club in Park View, Washington, D.C.. He continued performing in various comedy clubs throughout the Washington Metropolitan region, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. He opened concerts for Patti LaBelle, Starpoint, and Kenny G. He performed on a fundraising telethon for WHMM in 1987.

Davidson won an amateur stand-up competition at the Apollo Theater in 1987. Soon afterwards, he moved to North Hollywood, California, where he met Martin Lawrence, who lived in his building. He performed at the Comedy Store, where Robert Townsend heard of him and asked him to be the warm-up comic for an HBO special. After performing at Luther Vandross and Anita Baker shows, he appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show.