Celebrate Jordan Peele’s 44th Birthday With These 5 TV Shows And Films
Happy Birthday, Jordan Peele! The Oscar and Emmy-winning director is celebrating his 44th birthday today, Tuesday, Feb. 21.
Here’s a look back at his successful Hollywood career in television and film.
Born in New York City, the writer, actor, producer and founder of Monkeypaw Productions enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College after graduating from high school in 1997– where he first studied puppetry before taking a comedy class that inspired him to leave school and pursue comedy full-time. He would later become a member of Boom Chicago, an improv theater, before meeting Keegan-Michael Key, at a comedy swap in the city.
After working together as performers on the sketch comedy TV show MADtv, Peele and Key reunited to create and star in the hit Comedy Central series Key and Peele from 2012 to 2015. The show won a 2013 Peabody Award and a 2016 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Variety Sketch Series.”
The duo came together once more in the 2016 film Keanu, which Peele co-wrote before he branched out on his own to release projects under his Monkeypaw Productions.
Peele received significant acclaim for his horror film blockbuster projects. His first feature film, Get Out, earned four Academy Award nominations and scored an Oscar for “Best Original Screenplay.”
Other notable shows with Peele’s name attached include HBO’s Lovecraft Country, Netflix’s Wendell & Wild, Hunters on Prime Video, The Last O.G. on TBS, and the Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman.
To honor him on his birthday, BET.com has put together five films and TV shows to watch today!
Get Out
In 2018 Peele’s breakout film won big at the Oscars after it came home with the award for “Best Original Screenplay.” Get Out follows Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (played by Allison Williams), as they travel upstate to meet her parents. As their getaway weekend progresses, Kaluuya’s character, Chris, discovers disturbing truths about Rose’s family that he could have never imagined.
It also starred LaKeith Stanfield, Lil Rel Howery, Catherine Keener, Caleb Landry Jones and Bradley Whitford.
The movie was nominated for “Best Motion Picture of the Year,” and Peele was also nominated for “Best Achievement in Directing” at the ceremony.
Us
Peele continued his eerie film motif in his 2019 movie Us sees Adelaide Wilson (played by Lupita Nyong’o) return to the beachfront childhood home with her husband (played by Winston Duke), daughter (played by Shanhadi Wright Joseph) and son (played by Evan Alex). Nyong'o's Wilson was quickly haunted by a traumatic experience from her past that turns the family’s trip into a freaky frenzy.
Nope
In another Peele-directed project, this 2022 horror film follows a brother (played by Daniel Kaluuya) and sister (played by Keke Palmer) duo discovering something sinister in the skies above their California horse ranch.
- advertisement
Candyman
Peele’s 2021 slasher film, which he co-wrote and produced, is a sequel to the 1992 horror film which revisits the now-gentrified Chicago neighborhood where the supernatural legend about the hook-handed killer all began.
Stars: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tony Todd, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, and Vanessa Estelle Williams.
Lovecraft Country
As the executive producer of this Primetime Emmy Award-winning series, Lovecraft Country is a horror drama television series that watches Atticus (played by Jonathan Majors) join his friend Letitia (played by Jurnee Smollett) and his Uncle George (played by Courtney B. Vance) as they embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father.
The show featured Michael K. Williams, Aunjanue Ellis, and Wunmi Mosaku.
