Damon Wayans is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor, one of the Wayans brothers.

Wayans was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elvira, a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Wayans, a supermarket manager. He has five sisters, Elvira, Vonnie, Nadia, Kim, Diedre, and four brothers, actors Marlon Wayans, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and Dwayne Wayans. He had a clubbed foot as a child. This attribute would also be given to his character in My Wife & Kids and his character on the cartoon series Waynehead. Wayans attended Murry Bergtraum High School.

Wayans started his standup-comedy career in 1982 at the Good Times Club in New York City. With topics ranging from relationships and sex to rap music, he began his first professional routine with a joke on family life. "My opening killer joke," he recounted to Allan Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: "I'm from a poor family. We were so poor that my father drove a 1974 Big Wheel."

For the next several years Wayans refined his routine at comedy clubs around the country. In 1984 he got his first part in a movie--the blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy. The following year, he got a big break in television when he won a role as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live. Wayans left the show a year later to pursue other projects including a return to the standup-comedy circuit. "Standup is my roots," he told the Chicago Tribune, "and it's hard for a comic to give it up. And the thing is, this is the only thing that I really have control of, in terms of writer, producer and star."

Also in 1990, In Living Color debuted. David Hiltbrand of People labeled In Living Color "a riotously energetic, recklessly funny comedy-revue show ... that proves that prime time has been sorely lacking in satire with a black sensibility." When asked by George Wayne of Interview if he thought it was breakthrough television, Wayans responded: "On certain levels, yes