Chris Rock began performing in Manhattan comedy clubs as a teenager and was taken under the wings of such comics as Sam Kinison and Eddie Murphy. By 1987, he had made an early TV appearance on the HBO special "Uptown Comedy Express." That same year, Rock made his feature film debut as a parking valet in "Beverly Hills Cop II." But Rock's "big break" came with "Saturday Night Live," on which he lampooned black leaders, impersonated figures like Michael Jackson and created comic characters like the militant talk show host Nat X and the rapper I'm Chillin'.

Feeling stuck and pigeonholed in only black roles, Rock left the series in 1993, jumping to Fox's "In Living Color," but that show was in its waning days and Rock chose to concentrate on other avenues, appearing in only nine episodes. In 1994, he had his first HBO special, "HBO Comedy Half-Hour: Chris Rock - Big Ass Jokes."

Rock co-executive produced, wrote and starred in his second HBO special, "Chris Rock: Bring the Pain" in 1996. The special featured a routine entitled "Niggas vs. Black People," where Chris took aim at the gangsta lifestyle that seemed to symbolize the black experience at the time. The special earned Emmy Awards for writing and as Outstanding Variety, Music and Comedy Special. He was in competition with himself in the writing category, though, as he had also been cited for his work covering the 1996 political convention on Comedy Central's "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher," demonstrating a take on current events that was far more Mort Sahl or Lenny Bruce than Sam Kinison.

Quietly building a feature career as well, Rock could be seen as a rib joint customer in an off-quoted bit in "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" (1988). One of his best parts was his portrayal of Pookie, a con artist street dealer whose undercover work leads to drug addiction and death in "New Jack City" (1991). Rock co-wrote, produced and starred in "CB4" (1993), playing half of a middle class duo who decide to rewrite themselves as bad gangsta rappers. He also made a hilarious turn as Rufus, the hitherto unknown 13th apostle in Kevin Smith's "Dogma" (1999).

In an attempt to increase the number of blacks on the writing side of the comedy, Chris Rock help found "The Illtop Journal", the humor magazine of Howard University and analogue to the famed "Harvard Lampoon."