The best David Alan Grier movies and TV shows mostly feature several comedies and comedic series. However, he does have a few random dramatic roles to his name to show his versatility. Grier graduated from college with a Bachelor’s degree in radio, television, and film from the University of Michigan and then got his Masters from the Yale School of Drama. It was an impressive education that paid off when he ended up starring in Broadway musicals to start his career, including the hit Dreamgirls.
This caught the attention of film legend Robert Altman (M*A*S*H), who cast him in the movie Streamers. While he started on Broadway and debuted in an Altman movie, Grier’s comedic timing finally helped him break out. After taking a role in the Keenen Ivory Wayans-directed movie I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, he moved on to the cast of In Living Color, which is when his career exploded. Since that time, Grier’s performances have been dominated by comedy roles on TV and on the big screen.
10 The Big Sick (2017)
David Alan Grier Plays Andy Dodd
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
8/10 9/10 The Big Sick RRomanceComedyDrama
Written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick stars Nanjiani as a fictionalized version of himself whose budding relationship with a woman named Emily is tested by their cultural differences and Emily’s sudden and baffling illness. Gordon and Nanjiani based the film on their lives and relationship, and Zoe Kazan stars alongside Nanjiani as Emily.
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Director Michael Showalter Release Date July 14, 2017 Distributor(s) Amazon Studios , Lionsgate Cast Zoe Kazan , Ray Romano , Kumail Nanjiani , Holly Hunter , Adeel Akhtar Runtime 120 minutes
Most of David Alan Grier’s movie appearances have been smaller supporting roles, although some have been in highly praised films. In 2017, Grier took on the role of Andy Dodd in The Big Sick. The film stars Kumail Nanjiani as Kumail, an Uber driver who works as a struggling stand-up comedian. However, the real story follows Kumail as he falls in love with a woman named Emily (Zoe Kazan) who ends up in a coma just after a huge argument.
The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best films of 2017.
David Alan Grier stars as Andy Todd, the owner of the Playground Stadium and the MC during the comedy shows there. He has a small role in which he introduces the acts, which include Kumail, and he is always noteworthy, thanks to Grier’s comic timing and charisma. Thanks to the cast and the great story, the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, while the American Film Institute named it one of the ten best films of 2017.
9 I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
David Alan Grier Plays Newsman
The movie that changed David Alan Grier’s career path was I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, released in 1988. Grier had previously tried to move from dramas to comedies when he starred in Amazon Women in the Moon in 1987, but when he signed on for I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, it achieved something bigger for him. It caught the eye of director Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was also a lead in the variety sketch series In Living Color. His performance in this movie led him to join that TV show and become a star.
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka is a parody of 1970s blaxploitation films and was Wayans’s directorial debut. Wayans stars as Jack Spade, a soldier who learns his brother overdosed on “gold chains” and died. He returns to Any Ghetto, U.S.A., sees that gold chains have destroyed his neighborhood, and sets out to make things right by targeting the chain lord, Mr. Big. Grier pops up several times as the Newsman, who is interviewing people in the neighborhood to great comic effect.
8 Joe Pickett (2021)
David Alan Grier Plays Vern Dunnegan
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
9.8/10 Joe Pickett CrimeDramaWestern
Based on CJ Box’s novel series, Joe Pickett is a Western crime-drama television series created for Paramount. Joe Picket, the game warden of Saddlestring, WY, decides to investigate the death of a local poacher to protect his family. Pickett’s investigation bears fruit, but the community’s dark secrets are slowly unearthed, putting Joe and his family in danger.
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Cast Michael Dorman , Julianna Guill , Sharon Lawrence , Paul Sparks , Mustafa Speaks , David Alan Grier Release Date December 6, 2021 Seasons 2 Showrunner Drew Dowdle , John Erick Dowdle
Joe Pickett is a Paramount+ TV series based on the novels by C.J. Box about a game warden who moves to Wyoming and faces countless problems there thanks to happenings in Yellowstone National Park. Unlike most TV shows and movies that David Alan Grier joins, this is a straight action drama series, with Joe Pickett fighting to stop bad guys while also dealing with unsavory characters who often have more than enough reasons to want to see bloodshed due to misdeeds hurting those they love.
Related Joe Pickett Season 3: Cancelation, Release Chances & Everything We Know
Joe Pickett season 3 has a lot of story possibilities beyond Paramount+ if it finds a new home, as there are many C.J. Box books still to adapt..
2
Grier plays Vern Dunnegan, a well-respected former game warden and the unofficial mayor of Saddlestring. Dunnegan is a recurring character and also one of the antagonists in the first season of the series, despite being the man who handpicked Joe to be his successor. His main crime is trying to kill an endangered species to force the construction of a pipeline to make himself rich. It is a rare villain role for Grier, but he returns in season 2 after an early parole to help Joe with a new case.
7 Jumanji (1995)
David Alan Grier Plays Carl Bentley
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
9.3/10 Jumanji PGActionAdventureComedy
Jumanji is an action-adventure comedy film by director Joe Johnston and starring Robin Williams. Two orphan siblings move into a home occupied by the former Parrish family, whose son disappeared years ago. When the two start playing a mysterious board game known as “Jumanji,” they unknowingly release the missing Alan Parrish later, along with various other jungle-themed dangers that can only be stopped if they finish the game.
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Director Joe Johnston Release Date December 15, 1995 Distributor(s) Sony Pictures Releasing Cast Robin Williams , Kirsten Dunst , David Alan Grier , Bonnie Hunt , Jonathan Hyde , Bebe Neuwirth Runtime 104 Minutes
In 1995, David Alan Grier took on one of his biggest movies in the Joe Johnston fantasy Jumanji. While he wasn’t a main character, he had a memorable role in the film as Carl Bentley, a 1969 shoemaker who grows up into a 1995 police officer. Jumanji follows two kids who find an old board game called Jumanji. However, when they start to play, something strange happens, and animals and beasts from the game come into the real world and begin to run amok.
Seeing Carl react to the attacking animals added comedy to the fun adventure movie.
Years before, the opposite happened when a child found the game, and when he began to play, he was sucked into the game itself. That child grew up inside the game’s dangerous world and is now on the run from a dangerous hunter from the game, who has also escaped. Robin Williams is Alan, the child who grew up in the game, while Grier is one of Alan’s childhood friends, Carl, who became a police officer. Seeing Carl react to the attacking animals added comedy to the fun adventure movie.
6 Life With Bonnie (2002-2004)
David Alan Grier Plays David Bellows
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10
Your comment has not been saved
Life with Bonnie Comedy
The host of Morning Chicago balances her career with family life, supporting her husband John, a family doctor, and caring for their three young children.
Cast Bonnie Hunt , Mark Derwin , David Alan Grier , Charlie Stewart , Holly Wortell , Chris Barnes , Marianne Muellerleile , Anthony Russell , Frankie Ryan Manriquez , Samantha Browne-Walters Release Date September 26, 2003 Seasons 2
A few years after appearing with Bonnie Hunt in Jumanji (both played childhood friends of Robin Williams’s Alan), the two joined forces again in Hunt’s television series Life with Bonnie. In the series, Hunt plays Bonnie Malloy, the other of two children who hosts a local talk show. While she puts on the image of a perfect wife and mother, her life is far from perfect. David Alan Grier stars in the series as David Bellows, the producer of her talk show, always frantically yelling as he gets things done.
He was credited as one of the best characters in the series…
The series lasted for two seasons and 44 episodes before ending in 2004. Most critics praised the series in the first season, but reviews and viewership fell off in the second season, leading to ABC canceling Life with Bonnie. The show seemed to play like an improvised sitcom series, which fit Grier’s strengths perfectly. He was credited as one of the best characters in the series, as the best scenes always took place when Hunt was at work rather than when they focused on her home life.
5 Baadasssss! (2003)
David Alan Grier Plays Clyde Houston
In 2003, Mario Van Peebles directed a movie that paid tribute to his father, Melvin Van Peebles. His father was one of the top blaxploitation stars of the 1970s, and this movie took place in a fictional version of that world, as it showed Melvin’s struggles to get his film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, made. That was the film that really created the blaxploitation genre, and it proved that a large Black audience was ready to see movies based on themselves on the big screen.
On top of directing the movie, Van Peebles played his dad in the movie (the real Melvin showed up in a cameo). As for David Alan Grier, he played Clyde Houston, an adult film producer who agrees to help Melvin by working as his production manager. While mostly an ensemble film, Grier was a standout in a release with several great performances. The film was critically successful, receiving nominations at the Black Reel Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, and NAACP Image Awards.
4 The Color Purple (2023)
David Alan Grier Plays Reverend Avery
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
The Color Purple (2023) PG-13DramaMusical
Based on the novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple is a drama-musical film by director Blitz Bazawule. The film centers on Celie, a young African American woman living through the tumultuous era of the early 1900s in the South who finds her independence through a budding sisterhood that she cultivates over decades.
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Director Blitz Bazawule Release Date December 25, 2023 Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Cast Taraji P. Henson , Danielle Brooks , Colman Domingo , Corey Hawkins , Halle Bailey , H.E.R. , Phylicia Pearl Mpasi , Fantasia Barrino
The Color Purple is one of the most important novels ever written. The book by Alice Walker tells the story of two young Black sisters who faced abuse and persecution after being separated when they were younger. The book was initially turned into a play and then a Steven Spielberg Oscar-winning movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Danny Glover in 1985. Winfrey produced a new version of the story in 2023, which was also a big success.
Grier does a fantastic job in this performance, playing him as a good man compared to some of the more vile and evil male figures who come along to hurt Nettie and Celie in their lives
David Alan Grier had a supporting role in the movie as Reverend Samuel Avery. He is a good, kind man who adopts Celie’s children, Olivia and Adam, with his wife, Corrine. He also takes in Nettie, not knowing she is the children’s aunt. Grier does a fantastic job in this performance, playing him as a good man compared to some of the more vile and evil male figures who come along to hurt Nettie and Celie in their lives.
3 They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
David Alan Grier Plays The Preacher
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
They Cloned Tyrone RComedyMystery Sci-Fi
They Cloned Tyrone is a comedic sci-fi mystery movie by director Juel Taylor and writer Tony Rettenmaier. The film follows a group of people who stumble upon a top-secret cloning experiment being conducted by the U.S. government when a man who died following a failed drug deal reappears – completely unscathed.
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Director Juel Taylor Release Date July 21, 2023 Distributor(s) Netflix Cast John Boyega , Teyonah Parris , Jamie Foxx , Kiefer Sutherland , David Alan Grier , J. Alphonse Nicholson Runtime 119 Minutes
In 2023, David Alan Grier took on a role in the surprising Netflix sci-fi comedy release They Cloned Tyrone. The film follows Fontaine (John Boyega), a drug dealer who is killed by a rival drug dealer. However, when Fontaine shows up the next day to the same client who saw him murdered, it opens up a giant mystery of how he returned from the dead with no memories of his actual death the day before. This eventually leads them to an underground lab that, as the title suggests, is involved in cloning.
Related They Cloned Tyrone 2: Sequel Chances, Story Set-Up & Everything We Know
Will They Cloned Tyrone 2 arrive on Netflix after the major success of the first movie? Here is what we know, from the cast and story to more.
David Alan Grier stars in They Cloned Tyrone as The Preacher. The entire film’s premise is about whitewashing Black people into acting like white people, and Fontaine and his friends set out to stop this. Grier’s role as The Preacher is one of the people used to lure all the Black people in the neighborhood into “drinking the Kool-Aid,” which will make them fall in line and be obedient. It is one of the film’s most disturbing and awkwardly comic moments, and Grier is in top form.
2 Martin (1993-1997)
David Alan Grier Plays Reverend Leon Lonnie Love
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
Martin
Martin is a popular television sitcom starring Martin Lawrence as Martin Payne, a wisecracking Detroit DJ navigating life and relationships with his quirky group of friends. The series, which aired from 1992 to 1997, explores comedic situations and misunderstandings with Payne’s girlfriend Gina and their entourage, providing a humorous take on urban life and romance. Tisha Campbell, Tichina Arnold, Carl Anthony Payne II, and Thomas Mikal Ford co-star.
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Cast Martin Lawrence , Tisha Campbell-Martin , Carl Anthony Payne II , Thomas Mikal Ford , Tichina Arnold , Garrett Morris , Jon Gries Release Date August 27, 1992 Seasons 5 Creator(s) John Bowman , Martin Lawrence , Topper Carew
After making his name in the sketch comedy series In Living Color, David Alan Grier got his first major sitcom role in the series Martin. The series stars Martin Lawrence as Martin Payne, a Detroit disc jockey who later becomes a talk show host, and his girlfriend Gina Waters-Payne (Tisha Campbell). Martin mostly follows their relationship and friends, who come in and out of their lives. Grier stars in the series as Reverend Leon Lonnie Love.
Related How Backstage Drama Got Martin Canceled After Just 5 Seasons
Martin Lawrence’s self-titled sitcom Martin made him a star, but after only five seasons, backstage drama caused the hit show to be canceled.
1
A recurring character, Reverend Leon Lonnie Love is Pamela’s (Tichina Arnold) cousin, a local church reverend who Pamela tries to hook up with Gina after she breaks up with Martin. He ends up as a huge comedy foil, as while he is a reverend, he is also extremely perverted and greedy. He is mostly an antagonist when he appears, and his flamboyant attitude and propensity to tell nothing but lies make him a standout character in a show full of great performances.
1 In Living Color (1990-1994)
David Alan Grier Plays Various Roles
Your Rating
10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
In Living Color Comedy
Created by Keenen Ivory Wayans for FOX, In Living Color is a sketch comedy series that aired from 1990-1994. In Living Color provided a new take on the evening sketch comedy series airing at the time, with a mostly Black cast and a focus on unique humor helmed by the Wayans family. The series also featured several rotating guests and took home an Emmy in its release year for Outstanding Variety Series.
Cast Jim Carrey , Tommy Davidson , David Alan Grier , T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh , Keenen Ivory Wayans , Kim Wayans Release Date April 15, 1990 Seasons 5 Showrunner Keenen Ivory Wayans
The TV series that made David Alan Grier a star is the 1990 sketch comedy series In Living Color. Grier had already starred in Keenen Ivory Wayans’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, and Wayans invited Grier to join his family for this iconic sketch series. On top of the Fly Girls (which included a young Jennifer Lopez), the cast included the Wayans siblings (Keenen Ivory, Damon, Shawn, and Kim), Tommy Davidson, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, and many more.
Of his most iconic roles on In Living Color, Grier and Damon Wayans teamed up for “Men on Film,” where they played effeminate Black film critics who gave movies “two snaps up.” He also played Calhoun Tubbs, a blues singer who sings very short songs all at less than 10 seconds, without warning that he is about to start singing. Another highlight was Grier and Kim Wayans playing Mr. and Ms. Brooks, a seemingly loving couple always trying to kill each other