Lil Rel Howery

Milton Howery Jr. grew up on the West Side of Chicago.[1] He attended Providence St. Mel School from fifth grade to ninth grade. He then transferred to Crane High School.[2] At Crane High School, Howery wrote jokes and created a script in a senior talent show, which made him decide to pursue comedy professionally.[2] Playing high school basketball, he reminded people of his older cousin Darrel, and he was nicknamed Lil Rel.[3]

Howery began performing stand-up comedy on Chicago's East Side at the Lion's Den.[4] He made his television debut in January 2007 on the reality television competition Last Comic Standing.[5][6] The same year, he was on P. Diddy Presents: The Bad Boys of Comedy on HBO.[7] In 2009, he was part of America's National Night Out Against Crime in Chicago.[8]

In 2012, Howery and five other comedians starred in FOX's revival of the 1990s sketch program In Living Color.[5][9] The show was canceled in 2013. Howery went on to work as a writer, producer, and one of the regular cast members of the truTV sketch comedy series Friends of the People.[10] In 2015, he began co-starring as Bobby Carmichael on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show alongside the show's creator, Jerrod Carmichael.[11]

In early 2016, Netflix added Howery's first exclusive solo stand-up special, Kevin Hart Presents: Lil Rel: RELevent, for streaming in the United States.[12]

Howery won the 2017 "Best Comedic Performance" MTV Movie & TV Award for his performance in Jordan Peele's satirical horror film Get Out.[13][14]

On May 10, 2018, Fox picked up Rel, a sitcom starring Howery in the lead role and Jerrod Carmichael and Mike Scully serving as executive producers. Howery said the show is loosely based on his own life, including being a divorced father.[15] The series premiered September 9, 2018.

Howery married Verina Robinson on November 24, 2008.[16][17] They have two children. The couple divorced in 2017.[17][18]

In June 2016, Howery was a passenger in a vehicle that struck another car in University Village, Chicago.[19] The driver in the other car argued with Howery, and eventually called 911. Howery allegedly punched him in the face.[19][20] The driver of the car Howery had been in drove away without him.[19] Police officers arrived and arrested Howery on a charge of misdemeanor battery.[19] He was found not guilty of the charge.[21][22] The driver sued Howery for injuries from the fight.[17]

• Lil Rel Howery on Twitter
• Lil Rel Howery at IMDb