Terry Crews

Terry Crews met Rebecca King while he was a college sophomore and she was serving as a music minister at a local church. They married on July 29, 1989, though some biographical listings date the marriage to 1990. The couple has five children: daughters Azriel, Tera, Wynfrey, and Naomi Burton, and son Isaiah Crews, who is also an actor. They also have a grandchild.

Crews has spoken publicly about growing up in a strict Christian household with an alcoholic and abusive father. In his memoir Manhood: How to Be a Better Man or Just Live with One, he described a pornography addiction that began during childhood and later affected his marriage. He entered rehabilitation and later discussed the subject through his writing and public advocacy.

Crews attended Western Michigan University on an art scholarship before earning a full athletic scholarship to play football. He was an all-conference defensive end and contributed to the 1988 Mid-American Conference champion Western Michigan Broncos.

The Los Angeles Rams selected Crews in the 11th round of the 1991 NFL draft. His professional football career included the Rams, the Green Bay Packers, the San Diego Chargers, the Washington Redskins, and the Philadelphia Eagles, as well as the Rhein Fire of the World League of American Football. He appeared in 32 NFL games and played as a defensive end and linebacker.

During his football years, Crews continued to use his artistic skills. He created portraits for teammates and produced a line of NFL-licensed lithographs. After retiring from professional football in 1997, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in entertainment.

Crews began performing professionally as T-Money on the action competition series Battle Dome, a role he held for two seasons. He made his big-screen debut in The 6th Day in 2000 and subsequently appeared in films including Serving Sara, Friday After Next, Deliver Us from Eva, Starsky & Hutch, Soul Plane, and White Chicks.

His role as Julius Rock, the father on Everybody Hates Chris, brought him wider recognition. The series ran from 2005 to 2009. He later played President Camacho in Idiocracy, Agent 91 in Get Smart, and Hale Caesar in The Expendables film series. His other film credits include The Longest Yard, Norbit, Terminator Salvation, Bridesmaids, Blended, Deadpool 2, and Rumble.

Crews has frequently combined physical comedy with his athletic build. He also provided voice work for American Dad!, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and Rumble. His credits include music-video appearances for Muse's songs "Pressure" and "Algorithm" and a lip-sync performance in Brittany Howard's video for "Stay High."

Crews played NYPD Sergeant, later Lieutenant, Terry Jeffords on Brooklyn Nine-Nine from 2013 to 2021. The role placed him in the ensemble comedy's central police precinct and became one of his best-known television performances. He also appeared in Are We There Yet?, Arrested Development, and the BET reality series The Family Crews, which featured his family and ran from 2010 to 2011.

He hosted America's Got Talent: The Champions before beginning his run as host of the main America's Got Talent program in 2019.

Crews and fashion designer Nana Boateng founded the design company Amen & Amen. The company produced furniture and lighting collections, and Crews later designed a furniture collection for Bernhardt Design. In 2021, Amen & Amen expanded into film production as a virtual production studio. Crews has also written and illustrated books, including the children's book Terry's Crew, and co-wrote Together: How Fame, Failure and Faith Transformed Our Lives with Rebecca King.

Together with Unnar Helgi Danielsson, Dylan Sprouse, and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Crews co-founded the cultured dairy brand Thor's Skyr. He also announced the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency $POWER in 2021.

Crews became a public advocate against sexism and for women's rights. In 2017, he said that a Hollywood executive, later identified as Adam Venit, had groped him at a party in 2016. Crews filed a lawsuit against Venit and William Morris Endeavor, and was named among the "Silence Breakers" recognized as Time's 2017 Person of the Year. Prosecutors declined to file charges in 2018 after the city attorney's office said the statute of limitations had expired.