These 7 Comedians-Turned-Actors Are In Shows And Movies That Will Make You Cry Laughing Or Cry Crying

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These comedians-turned-actors show up in projects that will have me running out the room cackling or sitting down on the floor in tears.

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Comedians are often explosive in their performance to get a reaction out of audiences while reminding them it’s a joke and OK to laugh rather than being scared or worried. Drama lives in the “real world,” where fear is fear, not funny. Drama is all about compression even though the stakes are so high in the story — usually life and death.

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Phat Tuesdays was an all-Black comedy night on the Sunset Strip at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, which made it into the hottest night in the city.

“You’re going to never recreate how it felt to walk out there and experience the energy of New York at the height of comedy. We saw people get television shows, the creation of Martin, and this was an amazing opportunity to do something great. I started at The Uptown Comedy Club in Harlem. We had anniversary shows, reunion shows, and celebrities popping into this little space with a curtain — to peep through the curtains to see your friend perform on stage. No glitz, no glamour — just in the raw on what you love to do and that’s what that era [birthed],” he says to Ty Cole at BET.com.

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Jamie Foxx began his career as a stand-up comedian. His acting career took off after being cast as Crazy George on the Fox television show Roc, which starred Charles S. Dutton. In 1991, he graduated to dazzling members on the now-infamous Black sketch comedy show In Living Color — a show created by and starring Keenan Ivory Wayans plus castmates David Alan Grier, T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, Kim Wayans, Kelly Coffield Park, Shawn Wayans, and Damon Wayans. 

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When the biopic Ray was released in 2004 starring Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington, it was clear that he was ready to receive an Oscar from the Academy.

Roger Ebert wrote, before his death, a review of the film lauding it and Jamie Foxx's performance. “Jamie Foxx suggests the complexities of Ray Charles in a great, exuberant performance,” Ebert wrote. Though Jamie Foxx is an excellent vocalist, the film features the original music of Ray Charles, and Ebert reminds audiences that Charles was deeply involved in the project until his passing.

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The film Ray details the life and career of soul music architect Ray Charles, who was born as Ray Robinson on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. Jamie Foxx masters the physicality of Ray Charles, who became blind at the age of 6 when he contracted glaucoma. His chemistry with Kerry Washington in Ray is palpable, from the love scenes to the fight scenes. His passion for music-making bursts off the screen in a story that is filled with such lively music as a backdrop to some of life’s most tragic moments.

Just Mercy is based on the true story of attorney Bryan Stevenson’s path to becoming a noble defender of the people. Steven is a Harvard graduate “who founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989 to serve those who’ve been illegally incarcerated or abused in prisons.”  

Donna M. Owens reported for Essence after attending a special screening of the film at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. At the event, Steven spoke about the impact he hopes comes from his work and the film. “I’m excited that this film gets people closer to the inequality in our system,” said Stevenson, whose bestselling memoir, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, inspired the movie. “And I hope it motivates them to get involved.”

Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian, a Black man who was imprisoned on death row after being accused of killing a white woman and put on trial in August 1988. With this evidence, a jury of 11 white people and 1 Black person quickly convicted McMillan after a trial that lasted a day and a half. 

McMillian presented six alibi witnesses who testified that they had been with him at a family fish fry the entire day. In their conviction, the jury recommended a life sentence, but on September 19, 1988, the judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and imposed the death penalty.

Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow builds upon the research of Angela Davis’s Are Prisons Obsolete? where both academic leaders untangle the web of the prison industrial complex. Each writes about the development of the system from chattel slavery, what happens to the people criminalized in it, and their families. 

When chattel slavery transformed into the prison industrial complex as a way to sustain control over African-descendant people in America, it not only removed many Black men from their communities, it also hid them away to be unseen and unheard. They became invisible. This is what makes Jamie’s performance so poignant, because he is by far one of the most recognizable people in the world, and he lent his face to a cause that really needed it — a cause that he understands intimately as a Black man. Seeing an increase in awareness of the cruel phenomenon of unjustly incarcerating Black men means that some tears I cry watching the movie are tears of joy because of the hard work so many members of the Black community have put in to see this story told.

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Steve Martin was born in Waco, Texas, on August 14, 1945, but he was raised in Inglewood and Garden Grove in California. “In 1960, he got a job at the Magic shop of Disney's Fantasyland, and while there he learned magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals,” his IMDb biography says. His time spent studying magic and performing in a comedy troupe come across especially well in Martin’s stand-up performances.

Steve Martin’s stand-up routine has no routine; it is essentially a variety show performed by a guy who now admits in his Steve Martin Teaches Comedy Masterclass that he didn’t know how to write a joke. His stage performance is an improved experiment as a one-man show.

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There are a number of beautiful moments in the film that center around how much George truly cares for Annie, such as when she comes home crying and says, “The wedding’s off," and he consoles her by just listening to his daughter express her emotions. Even though George doesn’t really understand what’s going on and isn’t particularly excited about Annie marrying this guy, he’s there for his daughter to lean on. The scene takes a turn when Annie shares that her fiancé lied to her about something her father did — something George knows to be true. This sort of dramatic irony is common throughout the film and really kicks up the comedy.

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Charles was in love with a woman who had a daughter, and they formed what he thought was a family. He still wakes up and makes breakfast the way her daughter like but finds himself constantly throwing it in the trash. The trio was scheduled to take a cruise together, but his ex wasn’t interested in family time — she felt he was too focused on playing a fatherly role, and she left him. Charles has had a tough time connecting with anyone ever since, until he opens his heart up to Jan.

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Real Husbands of Hollywood is by far one of the silliest shows I have ever seen. Real Husbands of Hollywood is an improv fictional reality show that takes on a camped-up version of the Real Housewives brand where Kevin Hart is the central character. 

The show stars Kevin Hart alongside Duane Martin, Nick Cannon, Nelly, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Boris Kodjoe, J.B. Smoove, and Robin Thicke. It follows a group of Hollywood stars, some of whom were husbands when the show first aired on BET in 2013 — Kevin Hart wasn’t one of them. Each of them talks a lot of trash about each other, Hart more than anyone else as his performance here relies on a boisterous ego that insists that he is the most important friend of the group. The show ran for five seasons on BET before being revived on BET+ in February 2022 for its final season.

The sketch comedy show has been nominated for 19 awards and won 2. It has provided space for a number of comedians to practice their craft while experimenting in the world of parody reality shows. 

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One brother is incredibly famous and wealthy, and the other is not. They are very much so at odds, but Kid’s deference to Wesley Snipes’ Carlton makes it difficult for him to change the nature of a relationship that exploits him. The tale twists and turns with mystery, suspense, and thrill.

Kid is under extreme pressure that only increases with intensity as the story reveals itself. This role pushes Kevin Hart’s image far beyond the big-talking, little stand-up comedian who does buddy cop movies. In this heavy-hitting drama, the Kid is pushed to his limits to save his career and the life it’s created for him.

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He has too much love in his heart to hold onto anger about the past. “It takes too much time and energy to keep hate alive,” says the comedian. Kevin values his relationship with his father and sees the man doing the best he can by being there as a grandfather for Kevin's children.

Hart's openness in his comedy and book make him a great dramatic actor. There is a certain safety that comedy provides artists and audiences. It can be comfortable to perform work about painful experiences when you get to experience the joyous relief of laughing, but stepping into a dramatic story that relies on being under stress can be very uncomfortable for some actors. 

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Talk about a comedian-turned-actor with incredible range and the résumé to match.

The 1998 film has been nominated for 69 awards and won 40, showing its lasting impact on culture. Truman Burbank is introduced as a happy-go-lucky guy in a picture-perfect life where even the grass doesn’t grow more inches than it needs to. Soon Truman grows tired of his routine and specifically the scaringly fake smile from his wife, Meryl, who Laura Linney (from Netflix’s Ozark) plays. He starts asking questions about his life, the town, and everyone. 

Sylvia is a woman Truman knows from high school who always draws him to her, and as they connect, he eventually learns that his world is a sham, and everyone has been in on some warped reality show where they’ve been watching him through tiny cameras since he was born. This sets Truman into a tailspin and brings out an incredibly complex performance from Jim Carrey, a man who began doing stand-up routines for his classmates in junior high.

Fun With Dick and Jane stars Jim Carrey as Dick Harper alongside Téa Leoni’s Jane Harper. The 2005 comedy sits somewhere between Enron parody and modern-day Bonnie and Clyde when Dick’s company bellies up and leaves him as the fall guy for fraud scam. Once Dick realizes he’s been screwed over by ultra-wealthy Jack McCallister — played by Alec Baldwin — he enters a state of depression while everything from his family home is repossessed, including the freshly laid lawn. 

Once the couple finds themselves sitting in a literal pit — where their new home pool would have been — it doesn’t take long for them to team up as bandits and start committing robberies around town to get their dignity back. The comedic chemistry between Carrey and Leoni is rare and just right. Their dynamic brings the laughs with ease and sometimes with surprise. This lighthearted comedy is an easy “yes” any day of the week.

The 2004 picture is a thoughtfully told love story about the couple Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski — played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, respectively — who undergo a procedure to have each other wiped from their memory, but their love is so strong that they unite better than before.

Joel and Clementine had a rocky relationship rife with misunderstanding, disagreement, and elements of what young people experience when they are transforming a strong bond into a solid, committed relationship. When the hurt is too much for them, they turn to this new procedure that promises to relieve them of the painful memories of one another. Once the procedure begins to take effect, the audience witnesses Joel’s reality shatter as he traverses through happy relationship memories he wants to keep. The experience ultimately brings Joel to see he values his relationship with Clementine enough to keep it.

Carrey’s performance as Joel is so deeply emotionally connected to Kate Winslet that it is easy for the audience to root for him. Once it was clear that the couple represents a relationship that is imperfect rather than toxic, even my mind began searching for ways for them to mature through their discord. In this scene, Joel and Clementine find themselves in the middle of another disagreement, and Joel says to her, “Wait,” without even knowing why. Carrey’s line reading gives, “I don’t want to lose you, but I don’t know how to keep you.” 

It hits me in the heart because Carrey’s portrayal at that moment is a man with very little ego and a lot of humility. A man searching for a way to reconnect with the woman he was once sure is the one for him. At that moment, Carrey’s soft voice and slow approach to Clementine communicate safety and commitment. The scene is a glimpse of what follows as Joel is propelled to be united with Clementine once again, and he succeeds.

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According to IMDb, the logline for Mrs. Doubtfire is: After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife. When Daniel Hillard finds out his former wife Miranda Hillard — played by Sally Field — is hiring a housekeeper, he decides to dress up as a woman named Mrs. Doubtfire who is a hop and skip away from a Mary Poppins caricature. 

All goes well until Miranda starts dating James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan who plays a guy named Stu that reappears from her past. Needless to say, Daniel is displeased with Stu’s presence and begins to torture the man under the guise of his Mrs. Doubtfire persona. At the beach club, Daniel hilariously fires a piece of bread at Stu’s head and shouts at him. Something  Daniel could only get away with so easily while dressed as a white-haired elderly woman in the most atrocious patterned ensemble.

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Dr. Patch Adams visited The Oprah Winfrey Show in the 1990s to discuss his work. At the time, Adams had been practicing medicine for 17 years. When Oprah asked him what kind of doctoring he does, he replied, “I consider it political activism. I went through medical school with the idea I wanted to use medicine for social change so I looked at medical problems in care delivery and upon graduation wanted to set up a model addressing all the problems.”

Winfrey then asks Adams what inspired him to do this work. “Civil rights movement, war in Vietnam, and deciding I wanted to stop complaining and I wanted to do something about it,” he says. According to Adams, he was a nerd who knew that he would be a doctor, so he figured, “Why not set up a model for change?”

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Truthfully, Patch Adams wasn’t pleased with the film, and neither was Roger Ebert because of the Hollywood spin it put on the true story. Patch Adams may not be a historical reference for the exact sequence of events, but I believe it does represent the messages of empathy, compassion, joy, and spirituality in a way that resonates.

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In this New York Times interview from 2016, Cole tells Kathryn Shattuck that comedy saved his life.

The Black-ish star couldn’t have predicted that his role on the show as Charlie would be as popular as it has become. “I had no idea the character would break out. 'black-ish' is my family forever. Shout out to [the show’s creator] Kenya Barris. I love him. I would do anything under the sun for Kenya Barris. Put that on a T-shirt. Hashtag it.”

Deon Cole has appeared on Black-ish since 2014, when Charlie was introduced in Season 1, Episode 3: “The Nod.”

The phenom Marsai Martin plays Diane Johnson, Andre and Rainbow “Bow” Johnson’s youngest daughter. Diane has many siblings, including her twin brother, Jack, but she is the only one in a war with Charlie Telphy.

They are arch-nemeses in a way that is so comical it gives off cartoon vibes. This storyline is one of my favorites on the show because it does comedy well. Their inexplicable rivalry encompasses absurdity and mysteriousness fraught with physiological warfare.

Netflix’s The Harder They Fall is a co-production of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, hip-hop icon and businessman Jay-Z, and a number of other Black Hollywood stars.

The Black Western film is a fictional story based on true characters, contributing to the restoration of the rich history of African American cowboys in the United States. It was named Outstanding Motion Picture at the 53rd NAACP Image Awards.

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