humorous and dramatic

markchristopherlawrence.com: “I lived in an area that within two blocks in any direction, there was major gang activity. It could have really been easy for me to go in that direction but it was my mother’s upbringing and some guidance from William, our neighbor, and an interest taken in me by my tenth grade English teacher, Mrs. Schilling, that kept me on the straight and narrow.” Aware of his intelligence and budding oral communication skills, Lawrence’s teacher, Mrs. Shilling, enrolled him in his high school’s debate team. Soon, Lawrence found himself immersed in forensic speaking competition, involved in both humorous and dramatic interpretation of literature, prose, poetry, and theatrical literature. After winning the school district’s Literary Olympiad competition, Lawrence went on to compete on the state and national levels, eventually winning the collegiate Bovero-Tabor Award, an accolade reserved for the top Jr. College speaker in the country. Subsequently, after gaining attention from University of Southern California’s debate team coaches, he was awarded a full scholarship to attend the University. While a student, Lawrence traveled the nation competing in tournaments for USC in individual events. His forte included prose, poetry, theatrical and duo interpretation of literature, and speech to entertain, which ultimately became his springboard into stand-up comedy..." (Da Livin')

Mark Christopher Lawrence (born May 22, 1964) is an American character actor, stand-up comedian and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as esoteric D.J., Tone Deaf, in the 1994 satirical rap mockumentary, Fear of a Black Hat. He has co-starred in popular films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Planet of the Apes, Lost Treasure and The Pursuit of Happyness. Lawrence can currently be seen in his regular role as Big Mike on the NBC series Chuck. He has made guest appearances on many television programs, most notably Heroes, My Name Is Earl, Crossing Jordan, Dharma & Greg, Malcolm in the Middle, Touched by an Angel, Malcolm & Eddie, Men Behaving Badly, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, and Martin. He is also featured on the Radio Series Adventures in Odyssey as "Ed Washington". (Wikipedia)

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Official Web-site: Mark Christopher Lawrence
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