Comedy / Film & TV
Charlie Hill
1951–2013 · stand-up comedian, actor, writer
Detroit-born Oneida comedian who in 1977 became the first Native American stand-up to perform on national television.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
aged 62- Birth name
- Charles Allan Hill
- Detroit years
- 1951–1962
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Hill was born in Detroit in 1951 into an Oneida family with Mohawk and Cree heritage, and spent his childhood in the city until 1962, when the family returned to its homestead on the Oneida Nation reservation in Wisconsin. He studied speech and drama at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, acted with the Native American Theatre Ensemble at New York's La MaMa, and then moved to Los Angeles to try stand-up at the Comedy Store. In 1977 his debut on The Richard Pryor Show made him the first Native stand-up comedian on national television, and he went on to become the first Native comic on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, with later spots on Letterman and Leno. He wrote for Roseanne, hosted a Showtime special of Native comedians and toured tribal communities across North America, using humor to puncture stereotypes about American Indians.
Highlights
- Lived in Detroit until age 11
- First Native American stand-up on national TV (The Richard Pryor Show, 1977)
- First Native comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
- Writer for Roseanne; subject of the PBS documentary On and Off the Res' (1999)