Comedy / Film & TV / Theatre & dance
Keegan-Michael Key
born 1971 · actor, comedian, writer, producer
Co-creator of Key & Peele who grew up in Detroit, studied theater at the University of Detroit Mercy and co-founded Hamtramck's Planet Ant Theatre.
- Born
Southfield, Michigan
age 55- Detroit years
- 1971–c. 2001
- Field
- Comedy, Film & TV, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Southfield in 1971, Key was adopted as a baby by two Detroit social workers, Michael Key and Patricia Walsh, and raised in the city. He graduated from Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak in 1989 and earned a BFA in theater at the University of Detroit Mercy in 1993 before an MFA at Penn State. Back home he helped turn a Hamtramck coffeehouse into the Planet Ant Theatre, a black-box stage and improv school that has launched many Detroit comedians, and joined the mainstage cast of The Second City Detroit next to the Fox Theatre. From there he moved to Second City in Chicago, then to Mad TV (2004–2009) and to Key & Peele (2012–2015), which won him an Emmy. He co-founded the Detroit Creativity Project, which teaches improvisation in Detroit schools, performs with The 313, an improv troupe of Detroit expatriates named after the city's area code, and remains a loud Detroit Lions fan.
Highlights
- Co-created and co-starred in Key & Peele (2012–2015); Primetime Emmy winner
- BFA in theater, University of Detroit Mercy (1993)
- Co-founder of Planet Ant Theatre in Hamtramck
- Former mainstage cast member of The Second City Detroit
- Co-founder of the Detroit Creativity Project
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · until 1989
Shrine Catholic High School
Catholic high school beside the National Shrine of the Little Flower; Key graduated in 1989.
Studied here · 1989–1993
University of Detroit Mercy (McNichols Campus)
Jesuit and Mercy university where Key earned his BFA in theater in 1993.
Founded · 1990s
Planet Ant Theatre
Arts collective founded in 1993; Key helped convert its coffeehouse into a black-box theater in 1996. Alumni include Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson.
Performed here · 1990s
The Second City Detroit (former site)
Closed · 1993–2005
Detroit branch of the Chicago improv theater, in the Hockeytown Cafe building by the Fox Theatre; Key was a mainstage cast member. It moved to Novi in 2005 and later closed.