Martin Lawrence

Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence is a German–born American actor, comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for starring in his self-titled Fox sitcom Martin and in various comedy films, such as the Bad Boys franchise, Nothing to Lose, Blue Streak, Rebound, and the Big Momma's House film trilogy. He also voiced Boog the grizzly bear in the 2006 Sony Pictures animated film Open Season.

For Disney, he played Terrance Paul "T. Paul" Davidson in the 1997 Touchstone Pictures comedy film Nothing to Lose, Bobby Stevens in Wild Hogs, and James Porter in the 2008 Disney comedy film College Road Trip.

Born in Frankfurt, West Germany, Lawrence is the fourth of six children. His father, John Lawrence, was serving in the U.S. military at the time of his birth. His first and middle names were named after civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and U.S. President John F. Kennedy, respectively. When Lawrence was seven, his father left the military, and the family moved from West Germany back to the United States, settling in the Washington, D.C. area in the town of Landover, Maryland. Lawrence's mother had moved her and her six children into the troubled King Square housing projects where he would attend Dodge Park Elementary.

Following his parents' divorce when he was eight years old, Lawrence rarely saw his father, who was a police officer, serving as the Police Chief for the Franklin D. Roosevelt VA Medical Center in Montrose, New York. His mother, Chlora (née Bailey), worked several jobs, including as a sales representative and cashier at various department stores to support her family. Small for his size growing up in the projects, Lawrence often engaged in street fights with other kids. He stated that it was his mother and older brothers who kept him out of jail where most of his childhood friends ended up. During his teen years, Lawrence excelled at boxing. While living in Fort Washington, Maryland, he attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Friendly High School and became a Mid-Atlantic Golden Gloves boxing contender.