Bernie Mac

Description

Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (born October 5, 1957), better known as Bernie Mac, is a two time Emmy Award-nominated American actor and comedian.<p>Mac was born in Chicago, Illinois and was raised by a single mother, Mary, who died of cancer when he was sixteen. Mac attended Chicago Vocational Career Academy. The start of Mac's career was during high school, when he would put on shows for neighborhood kids in Chicago's south side. During his 20s he worked in a variety of jobs; he was a furniture mover, UPS agent and a bread delivery sales rep. Mac has claimed that he was whipped with a belt by both his mother and grandmother during his childhood.<p>Mac started as a stand-up comedian in Chicago's Cotton Club. He won the Miller Lite Comedy Search at the age of 32, at which point his popularity as a comedian began to grow. A performance on HBO's Def Comedy Jam thrust him into the spotlight. He opened for Dionne Warwick, Redd Foxx and Natalie Cole. He also had a short-lived talk show on HBO titled