*fourth wall breaks*
YOUR SILLY TROPES CANNOT DESCRIBE TERRY CREWS' TV TROPING POOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!
Terry Alan Crews (born July 30, 1968) is an American actor, voice actor and former American football player. After several years playing pro football, Crews retired and pursued an acting career, which took flight on the big screen in the 2000s The 6th Day. Many film roles have followed, among them those in White Chicks, Idiocracy, The Expendables (2010), and its sequels and Bridesmaids. Crews has also found success on the small screen, having roles in Are We There Yet? and Arrested Development. He might be best known for playing Julius in Everybody Hates Chris and Lt. Terry Jeffords on the police Work Com Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
But his most famous work among the Internet users is a series of Old Spice commercials (directed by Tim & Eric), where Crews goes full Large Ham, proving that Awesomeness Is Volatile by appearing in more and more bizarre commercials. As an actor, Crews has undeniable comedic talent, which, coupled with his tough-guy appearance, makes him one of the most hilarious actors in Hollywood, but Terry has some serious roles to his credit, such as portraying a Scary Black Man in Gamer, giving one of the most chilling performances in his entire career.
Between 2016 and 2017, Crews gained another view on the net when he was seen appearing in Blizzard Entertainment headquarters, expressing that he loves playing their games, especially Overwatch and was hoping that he will become one of the voice cast members, in particular for the character Doomfist. He has given hints and questions if the fans want it to happen (receptions are positive) and also does mock-auditions for it.
Unfortunately, due to Blizzard's vision that the character is African and needed to have African VA, Crews did not get the role, but it already left a mark within the fandom of Overwatch. Though you may also notice that Doomfist does end up having a face and body build similar to Crews as a result.
AND REMEMBER: TERRY CREWS IS SO POWERFUL HE CAN APPEAR ON THE OTHER PEOPLE'S PAGES, BUT HE DOESN'T DO SO BECAUSE HE'S A NICE GUY!
Filmography
Film
- Training Day (2001) as Gang Member
- Malibu's Most Wanted (2003) as 8-Ball
- Starsky & Hutch (2004) as Porter
- White Chicks (2004) as Latrell Spencer
- The Longest Yard (2005) as Cheeseburger Eddy
- Harsh Times (2005) as Darrell
- Click (2006) as Singing Driver
- Idiocracy (2006) as President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho
- Norbit (2007) as Big Black Jack Latimore
- Balls of Fury (2007) as Freddy
- Street Kings (2008) as Detective Terrence Washington
- Get Smart (2008) as Agent 91
- Gamer (2009) as Hackman
- The Expendables (2010) as Hale Caesar
- The Expendables 2 (2012)
- The Expendables 3 (2014)
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) as Earl Devereaux
- Draft Day (2014) as Earl Jennings
- Blended (2014) as Nickens
- The Ridiculous 6 (2016) as Chico
- Sorry to Bother You (2018) as Sergio
- Deadpool 2 (2018) as Jesse Aaronson / Bedlam
- The Willoughbys (2020) as Commander Melanoff
Television
- Everybody Hates Chris (2005-09) as Julius Rock (88 episodes)
- The Boondocks (2005-07) as Various voices (3 episodes)
- Are We There Yet? (2010-12) as Nick Kingston-Persons (73 episodes)
- The Real Husbands of Hollywood (2013) as Himself (episode: "Auf Weidersehen, Mitches")
- Arrested Development (2013) as Herbert Love (5 episodes)
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2013) as Blade (2 episodes)
- Regular Show (2013) as Brock Stettman (episode: "The Thanksgiving Special")
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-21) as Terry Jeffords (151 episodes)
- Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (2014) as Blade (episode: "Hulking Commandos")
- Portlandia (2018) as Border Guard Crews (episode: "Riot Spray")
- Craig of the Creek (2018-present) as Duane Williams
- America's Got Talent (2019-present)
- Tales of the Walking Dead (2022) as Joe (episode: "Evie; Joe")
Video Games
- Saints Row IV (2013) as Benjamin King
- Crackdown 3 (2019) as Commander Isaiah Jackson
Other
Tropes associated with Terry Crews' roles:
- Approval of God: He gave a shoutout to the Voice Clip Song "The Power of Terry" on Twitter.
- Family Man: Happily married. Also, Terry really loves his son. His current obsession with Blizzard games actually started because his son was into Overwatch and he decided to get into gaming so he and his son can have something to bond over.
- Gentle Giant: He's huge, incredibly muscled, and can extremely effectively play a Scary Black Man. But more often than not that trope is subverted and he plays incredibly friendly characters. He's also incredibly nice in real life.
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Germans Love David Hasselhoff: His Old Spice commercials are surprisingly popular in Japan, where he has been given the affectionate nickname "Body Soap Fairy" thanks to his character's energetic product pitch and Reality Warper antics. - Hidden Depths: According to this interview, he had an art scholarship before his football scholarship, and got invited by a furniture company to manufacture his designs. The result: a mutant swivel-chair-cum-coffee-table that somehow works.
- He's also done a 24-hour painting live stream that's surprisingly Bob Ross-like — if Bob Ross were a Scary Black Man.
- And he managed to assemble a computer for his son that, while apparently not working at first, turned out to be fine because he only forgot to connect the cable for the power button to the motherboard. He did a really good job for someone who's building a computer for the first time!
- He's also done a 24-hour painting live stream
- Large Ham: The man certainly acts like he enjoys his work, and contrary to the fact that he looks like a serious, imposing man he generally plays loud, fun-loving characters whose favorite food is the scenery.
- Made of Explodium: He tends to blow up a lot in the Old Spice commercials.
- Mr. Fanservice: If you search around the internet for pictures of Crews, more than often the images returned will be him flexing his muscles.
- Older Than They Look: He's currently in his 50s, but could easily pass for being twenty years younger.
- Old Shame: Playing an (imaginary) prison rapist in The Boondocks, since he's been trying to help put an end to jokes about them.
- His Twitter response to a New York Times Op-ed, where he made unfortunately-worded comments about same-sex parents. Almost immediately after, he took the comments down and apologised for how he chose to word what he was saying, and later made a conscious effort to understand the subject by speaking with Stephanie Beatriz (his co-star in Brooklyn Nine Nine, and an out-bisexual woman). Since then he's spoken about regretting the incident and trying to be more self-aware about such topics.
- One of Us: Admits to be a PC Gamer who enjoys many of Blizzard’s titlesnote , and he even gained geek cred for trying his hands at building a PC for his sonnote , although for his own PC he went and contracted a (rather famous) custom PC shop for the job.
- After playing Dungeons & Dragons for the first time on an episode of Geek & Sundry's CelebrD&D, he threw himself into the game headfirst and has apparently is glorying in his 'Inner Dungeon Master."
- Pec Flex: Terry Crews is the master of it.
- Papa Wolf: Do not ever be mean to his kids, particularly his son. One obsessed fan found out the hard way that Terry will be tough to you if you're rough to his kids note No the scariest thing i saw was you RUDELY PUSHING THROUGH MY KIDS LIKE A ZOMBIE to ask for one - Terry Crews, responding to the fan's tweet.
- Playing Against Type: In a way, his whole career is this. He's a former pro athlete, built like a tank on steroids, and can play a Scary Black Man with the best of them. You would think that he would primarily play action roles or be a serious character. Instead, his best-known roles are comedic and hammy.
- Real Men Wear Pink: After Large Ham, probably one of his most recurring tropes. His characters are usually In Touch with His Feminine Side in one way or another, and completely unafraid of letting others know about it. This bleeds into his real life as he's genuinely comfortable being sensitive.
- Scary Black Man: He has played one on occasion, and certainly looks the part, but more often than not this is a subverted trope with him playing a friendly character despite his scary black appearance. Brooklyn Nine-Nine in particular gets a lot of mileage with this trope, with scenes of him In-Universe invoking it by playing "Scary Terry" in police lineups or undercover.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Most of his roles. He rarely spends an entire work without yelling and/or ripping his shirt off.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Most of his roles show off his physique at one point or another. Or the whole time. Exaggerated with the Old Spice commercials, where he doesn't wear a shirt at all.
