Terry Crews
Biography
Life Story
Terry Crews was born in Flint, Michigan, to Patricia and Terry Crews Sr. He earned an art excellence scholarship to attend Western Michigan University and also earned a full-ride athletic scholarship to play football. Crews was an All-Conference defensive end, and was a major contributor on the 1988 MAC champion WMU Broncos. His college success was rewarded in 1991, when he was drafted by the NFL's Los Angeles Rams.
Crews played six years in the NFL, with stints at the L.A. Rams, San Diego Chargers , Rhein Fire (NFL Europe-Germany), Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles. While in the NFL, used his art talent by painting a line of NFL licensed lithographs for Sierra Sun Editions.
In 1996, Crews co-wrote and co-produced the independent feature film "Young Boys Incorporated" (1996).
Crews retired from the NFL in 1997 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Crews's first break came in 1999, when he auditioned for the extreme sports show called Battle Dome (1999), with other actor-athletes from around the country. Crews was chosen to be a series regular, known as the urban warrior T-Money.
In 2000, Crews made his big-screen debut in The 6th Day (2000). Since then, he has landed roles in Serving Sara (2002), Friday After Next (2002), Deliver Us from Eva (2003), Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), Starsky & Hutch (2004), Soul Plane (2004), White Chicks (2004), and the Mike Judge film, Idiocracy (2006).
Family
Trivia
He is the uncle of actress Storm Ascher.
He has five children, four girls and one boy.
His favorite movies are The Pianist (2002), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), The Thing (1982), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Aliens (1986). His favorite documentary is Roger & Me (1989), a film that has special significance as he comes from Flint, Michigan.
Trains in Brazilian jiu jitsu under jiu jitsu legend Rigan Machado.
First movie he ever saw was The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975).
Played with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams (1991), San Diego Chargers (1993), and Washington Redskins (1995). Also played with the Rhein Fire (World League of American Football, 1995). Was on the roster of the 1996 Philadelphia Eagles, but did not play.
To support himself and his family, he painted portraits of his football teammates.
His first job was as a sketch artist for local TV news stations in the 1980s. When a courtroom sketch artist called in sick, he began filling in for the previous artist.
Became the body of Old Spice ads in 2016.
Is an accomplished flautist.
Terry is heavily desired by the Overwatch community to voice-act a new, buff hero named Doomfist. The community believes his manly voice would suit the new hero perfectly.
Personal Quotes
I love working, and I love this business. I love what I do, and I don't think I'm the guy who can do, like, a movie a year and that's it. I don't know what I'd do! I've already put stuff independently on the internet 'cause I'm bored! I just want to keep going!
I haven't done a single rep in a long time and its not a strong-man type thing. I just work out for reps-work out to stay in shape. I've got a sweet tooth, dude.
I'm still steady into Coldplay. With rock 'n' roll, I go backwards with Sting and The Police. I like the older stuff more so than anybody brand-new, right now. I like Justin Bieber. Hey, he's produced by Usher Raymond! I dig Justin! That's my man!
First of all, bring your deodorant, bring your odor-blocker body wash, because there's gonna be a lot of funky men in that theater.
A guy I knew in high school got my number from my mom, called me up and was like, I can't believe I'm talking to you. I was like, "It's me, it's Terry. I went to high school with you! What do you mean!?"
You have to be willing to put yourself on camera. You have to be willing to not look perfect.
Kids like Tyler [Tyler James Williams]come around only once in a generation. I thank God every day for this little kid being on our show [Everybody Hates Chris (2005)] because some kids have it, some kids don't. It's not about being a little adult, it's about being a kid and portraying a kid, and I think that America gets it when he does it.
I never wanted to do acting or anything. But I tell you, my friend and I, his name is Derrick Carr, a guy I was playing football with on the Rams. He and I wrote a script and we put our money together and made a movie out in Detroit in the off-season. It was called 'Young Boys Incorporated,' all about this gang that ran Detroit for a long time. The big thing about them was that they'd get young kids. Because then if the kids were picked up they'd go to juvie, when they were 18 they'd be released and their slate would be wiped clean and they'd start all over again. So we made that movie. It was terrible. We put all our money together. I was hooked. I had just finished my first season with the Redskins. We'd get kicked out of locations. I loved it. I knew that's what I wanted to do.
You can't do sports for the rest of your life, I don't care how good you are. You can be the best ever, but it's still going to go away. But now that I'm doing what I'm doing? I'm just thankful that I feel like my best days are still ahead of me.
I was always more of a film guy than an athlete guy. I had an art scholarship at Western. But I actually had a Chrysler scholarship to Interlochen up in Traverse City, Michigan. Then had an art scholarship to Western and I just walked onto the football team. But I'm actually a sci-fi special effects guy.
