Reno 911

Background:

“This thing could run forever if it wanted to. I mean, funny cops are funny cops. I run into a bunch of police officers and they say, 'Your show is one of the most real depictions of cop life there is. ‘CSI,’ those are all really entertaining but you don't know how many times that kind of stuff has happened to us.' So those type of story lines and these type of characters too almost, not every department has a character just like Jones or just like Dangle or just like Johnson, but pretty damn similar.” Cedric Yarbrough

Comedian and actor Cedric Yarbrough is widely recognized for playing Deputy Jones, an emotionally shallow smooth-talking cop, on Comedy Central's series "Reno 911!" (2003-2008), and in its film version, "Reno 911!: Miami" (2007). He also lent his voice to the character Tom Dubois (2005-2008) on Adult Swim's animated television series "The Boondocks" and guest starred in "Arrested Development," "The Bernie Mac Show," "Love, Inc.," and "How I Met Your Mother."

On the big screen, this 6' 2" funny man could be seen in the films "Meet the Fockers" (2004), "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (2005), "Unaccompanied Minors" (2006), "Drillbit Taylor" (2008), "Get Smart" (2008), and "Four Christmases" (2008). He will appear in the upcoming films "Black Dynamite" and "Miss March."

Seed

Childhood and Family:

On March 20, 1973, Cedric Yarbrough, nicknamed “Seed,” was born in Burnsville, Minnesota. He has two brothers, Eni and Trevor, and one sister named Amber.

After graduating from Burnsville High School, in Minnesota, Cedric attended Minnesota State University, where he graduated in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Drama.

Cedric is a huge fan of Bobby McFerrin and Elvis Costello. He now lives in Los Angeles.

The Boondocks

Career:

"I got into acting right when I got into a community college. I played sports in high school. I wasn’t very good so I ended up going to a community college in Minneapolis and they didn’t have any sports there. I needed to do something with my time and acting always intrigued me so I started taking acting classes there. Then I ended up transferring to Minnesota State University and became a theatre major. That’s when I got hooked." Cedric Yarbrough

Acting in the play “Sweeney Todd” when he was in school, Cedric Yarbrough became a member of the Mixed Blood Theatre and the Brave New Workshop improvisational group. After working as a janitor and at Kinko’s during college, he wrote and acted in sketch comedy at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis.

In 2000, Yarbrough moved to Los Angeles and began appearing on screen in director Tim VandeSteeg's independent comedy film called "Mulligan." He went on to guest star in such sitcoms as Fox's "Andy Richter Controls the Universe," UPN's "The Parkers," Fox's "Arrested Development," Fox's "The Bernie Mac Show," and UPN's "The Bad Girl's Guide." He also could be seen in the 2004 films "Broken," a 14-minute short comedy written and directed by Paco Farias, and "Meet the Fockers," a romantic comedy helmed by Jay Roach and starring Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, and Barbra Streisand.

"Right after college, I got in to some local theatre there and that was fairly easy. Maybe it was because of the talent pool, maybe it was because they needed a tall black guy, whatever it was, it was easy for me to break into the Minneapolis theatre community. But once I moved out of Minneapolis and moved to L.A., it was pretty difficult. Even though I got a fair amount of success when I moved here, it still proved to be pretty difficult. When I moved here July 4, 2000, the show ‘Reno’ didn’t air until two or three years later. So I hustled and bustled and waited a lot of tables and due to the success of ‘Reno,’ it’s provided me with some opportunities to do other TV shows and other films." Cedric Yarbrough

From 2003 to 2008, Yarbrough co-starred as Deputy Jones on Comedy Central's series "Reno 911!" He would later reprise his role for its film version, "Reno 911!: Miami" (2007), which was directed by Robert Ben Garant. About his character on “Reno 911,” Yarbrough said, “He has a first name and maybe it will be revealed in either the TV show or maybe a sequel to the movie, or maybe even a prequel to the movie. Maybe we'll pull a whole George Lucas and see Jones' inception and conception. But for now, it's kind of a secret. But yes, Jones has a first name.”

During this time, Yarbrough also voiced the character of Tom Dubois (2005-2008) on Adult Swim's animated television series "The Boondocks" and guest starred in an episode of UPN’s sitcom "Love, Inc." and CBS’ sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." He was also an interviewee on VH1's “Big in '04.”

On the big screen, moviegoers could catch him in Judd Apatow's comedy "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (2005; starring Steve Carell), Guy Shalem's "Cook-Off" (2006), Paul Feig's comedy "Unaccompanied Minors" (2006), Armen Kaprelian and Kent G. Llewellyn's "Closing Escrow" (2007), and in Douglas Horn's dramatic comedy "Entry Level" (2007). About his cameo in “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” Yarbrough recalled how much fun it was to do the scene at the health clinic, "It was great; it was amazing. It was fun, really fun. I didn’t know too much about what was required of me. I auditioned originally for the store manager role. The store manager role was named Paul and they changed the role after the saw Ms. Lynch come in and blow me out of the water. So they changed the role to Paula. But they still had me in mind. They still liked me and liked my audition and thought I worked well with Steve [Carell] when I came in and auditioned."

Recently, in 2008, Yarbrough appeared in Blake Leibel's comedy movie "Bald," Nicholas Siapkaris' 5-minute short comedy "Nice Meal," and Steven Brill's comedy starring Owen Wilson, "Drillbit Taylor." He was also cast in Peter Segal's action comedy film adaptation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry's 1960s spy parody television series, "Get Smart" (2008; starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway), Gary Anthony Williams' 18-minute comedy "I Own You" (2008), and Seth Gordon's Christmas themed romantic comedy "Four Christmases" (2008; starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon). Yarbrough will next be seen in the upcoming films "Black Dynamite" and "Miss March," a comedy film directed by and starring members of the "Whitest Kids U' Know" Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger.

Awards:
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