Wayne Brady does it all.
That said, he doesn’t often share too much about himself with the public.
Which makes me incredibly happy."
Read on for a look at the complete transformation of Wayne Brady through the years.
Wayne Brady had a difficult childhood
Wayne Brady’s upbringing was strict.
Joe and by the book," he toldPlaybill.
Then, Brady was sent to live with his grandmother.
She, too, was tough on him.
“She feared for my safety.
So she made me stay indoors.
She didn’t let me go outside.
I couldn’t play with other kids much.
I had to come right home from school,” he explained on theImposterspodcast.
However, Brady now tries to see the good in that.
“[I]t did two things.
It made me very self-reliant, and I was able to self-motivate and self-play,” he reflected.
“And I think it triggered my imagination.”
One of the ways he put that imagination to use was in school plays.
He was cast in “A Raisin in the Sun,” and he loved it.
“It was absolutely amazing,” he told Verywell Mind.
He hada bad stutteras a kid, which led to bullying.
Still, he couldn’t help but bring up his memories of the bullying he endured as a result.
The way Brady dealt with the bullying he experienced was to develop his quick-witted sense of humor.
“That what acting was for me.”
You don’t necessarily see me.
I love bringing joy, which is why I love being a character."
Ultimately, Brady was let go from Disney World in an incident that he says wasn’t his fault.
After all, he said, the Tigger gloves are “basically oven mitts.”
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
brought him his big break
Throughout the ’90s, Wayne Brady’s entertainment career was on the rise.
He worked in various theme parks, including a stint as Tigger at Walt Disney World.
The show was a hit.
“It was something most of mainstream American hadn’t seen before,” he reflected toThe Register-Herald.
Brady was particularly great at the latter, devising whole songs based around members of the audience.
and in 2001, he got the chance to step out on his own.
Brady hosted his own variety show, fittingly called “The Wayne Brady Show.”
Sings, dances … it was almost the next Sammy Davis, kind of thing."
Brady was ecstatic about the fact that he was leading his own variety show.
“That was the biggest thing in the world to me,” he toldCBS News.
“I thought that I’d arrived.”
The show was ultimately canceled that year; luckily, he still had “Whose Line?”
to fall back on.
the multi-hyphenate added another impressive descriptor to his name: father.
The couple toldePregnancy Magazinethat Brady had always wanted kids, but his wife had been hesitant.
She told him she was pregnant just after his birthday, and he was so emotional that he cried.
“All of the sudden, I’m crying, because it was just incredible.”
He frequently shouts out her accomplishments on social media and often posts photos of her as a young girl.
There is no greater joy than being your Father!
I love you little buddy!
and “The Wayne Brady Show,” he bristled at criticism that he was too wholesome.
Brady wasn’t a fan of this and said it offended him.
“People take it to be, ‘Ugh, look at him.
He only got there because white people put him on.'”
People still quote the line to him to this day, he told CBS News.
You don’t know me.
His ability to speak to multiple audiences, he told Michigan Live, is a strength.
He summed up his approach by pointing out, “Funny is funny.”
Wayne Brady got divorced twice
In 2007, Brady divorced Mandie Taketa, his second wife.
“I’m a cautionary tale,” he toldYelp’s Black in Business Summitin 2022.
And I got divorced," he said.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child and they’re right!”
“All children will know is love if that’s what you show them.
The album’s title had two meanings.
Also, Brady felt it was about time for him to get started on a musical body of work.
“This album is about seven years behind schedule,” he said in abehind-the-scenes featurette.
“I cried to myself,” he confessed.
“I called my mom and I cried.
I knocked on my little girl’s room and said, ‘Daddy whaa whaa whaa!’
Big deal in my household.”
He didn’t win, and the album’s sales were not particularly successful (it peaked at No.
157 on the Billboard 200 albums chart).
Nevertheless, Brady’s record label boss, Andi Howard, toldSingersroomthat they were happy.
An album of children’s music, “Radio Wayne,” was released in 2011.
His third album was promised for early 2020 but still hasn’t yet materialized.
ended in 2007, but in 2009, Wayne Brady returned to television.
He even sometimes breaks into song the way he used to on “Whose Line?”
The show films in Las Vegas, where Brady also had a nightly variety show at the time.
“You just make it work wherever you could because it’s a feast or famine thing.
“So I’m the last person to complain.”
The show is indeed still on the air.
“We make people smile,” he said.
“It’s really such a unique job.”
In the years since he first went public, Brady has become a mental health advocate.
He made a video forthe Child Mind Instituteabout his experience, speaking directly to his younger self.
“I would just say, hey, talk to someone.
And just know, there’s no shame in it.
Keeping this a secret?
That’s the worst thing you’ve got the option to do.”
“[This] isn’t the beautiful end of a story and then I’m fine …
It is a work in progress.”
“It’s a different experience,” he explained.
“Playing Billy was summer camp for me …
But this is real work.”
“I didn’t realize exactly what it takes to dance in heels.
There’s an art,” he explained to Theater Mania.
“‘I don’t need your permission to do this.
he joked after being unmasked.
“But, God, I mean, really?
I’m gonna take this with me forever.”
“She is 100% behind me and she is my biggest fan.”
Being able to be attracted across the board,” he told the magazine.
Brady’s family supports him as he claims this for himself.
“I just said, ‘Great,'” his ex-wife Mandie Taketa told People.
“As I knew coming out would help him be happier.”
His daughter Maile Brady agreed, recalling that she simply told her father, “Okay!”
