Kevin Darnell Hart was born on July 6, 1979 to Nancy Hart, a single mother, and brought up in one of the toughest sections of the City of Brotherly Love. Kevin Hart serves up laughs and brick oven pizza from the comfort of his home, and dishes on male group chats, sex after 40 and life with COVID-19. A computer analyst at the University of Pennsylvania, she told her sons to set goals and achieve them. When Hart performs stand-up, he treats his father as a jester, arriving coked up to cheer his son at spelling bees or giving his kids another family’s dog when they wanted a puppy. “He’s a king of the industry. “He’s going to build companies and invest in companies and do the things that Oprah and LeBron James do, where they don’t just do their craft — they create industries.”. Growing up in a gritty section of Philadelphia wasn't easy. As if he didn’t have enough going on, Hart is also about to become a published author. He hands the plate to the bodyguard sitting at a nearby table, but each time the waitress walks by, she plops more savory potatoes in front of him. He has been married to Eniko Parrish since August 13, 2016. He rises every morning at 5:30 to hit the gym, and last August he ran 35 miles in a relay that took him from Mount Hood to the Oregon coast. Yes, I do. That's my mindset you dad's on the road a lot I do miss him when he's not around. The comedian, 40, has two children – Heaven, 15, and Hendrix, 13 – from his first marriage to actress Torrei Hart. My dad stood up punched me in the back of the head. Full transcript of "Seriously Funny", Kevin Hart's second solo stand-up performance. My dad stood up punched me in the back of the head. “My dad’s fine now,” Hart tells Stern. It was an impulse order. The first piece that clicked centered on a fight he’d had with his girlfriend. “When you jump into that political realm you’re alienating some of your audience,” he says. Murphy, still in his 20s, would glide across the stage with a rock-star swagger in a tight leather suit. “We come from a f—ed-up situation,” says Robert Hart, Kevin’s older brother. © Copyright 2021 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. By Antoinette Bueno 11:16 AM PDT, June 21, 2017 Instagram Comedians have feasted on President Donald Trump, lampooning everything from his comb-over to his fractured syntax, but Hart won’t pile on. He has been married to Eniko Parrish since August 13, 2016. A single mom’s efforts Hart and his older brother were raised by single mom Nancy. Born in 1979 in Philadelphia, Hart and his older brother were raised by Solo Mom Nancy in a tough neighborhood while his father descended into a life of drug addiction. “‘Officer, I called you here because she put her hands on me and you guys need to do something about it.’ It was funny because all the things a woman would say, I was saying.”. In an age when superhero franchises have supplanted well-known actors as the main driver of box office success, Hart’s is one of the rare names above the title that guarantees ticket sales. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hart began his career by winning several amateur comedy competitions at clubs throughout New England, culminating in his first real break in 2001 when he was cast by Judd Apatow for a recurring role on the TV series Undeclared. The Atlanta Exes star recently slammed Kevin's current girlfriend … “She was religious,” Hart says. “This is a story that can be told, and I chose to tell it. “I’ll take a year break between specials, and during that year I’m traveling, I’m a family man, I’m going out, I’m putting myself in position to soak up what could be material,” Hart says. Though she’d supported her son’s show-business ambitions, Nancy Hart never came to see him onstage. Inspired by how comic Dane Cook had become a Twitter juggernaut, Hart set about building his own social-media Rolodex. In the book, Hart recounts how his father broke into his mother’s house to steal money. Robert Hart remembers his mother swearing him to silence by saying, “I need him to be able to go forward because I see him doing great things.”. “People get to see the comedic persona, but there’s more to me,” Hart says. “We come from the worst living conditions.”. Comedian Kevin Hart has welcomed his reformed drug addict father back into his life by handing him the keys to a new home and car. Where is Kevin Hart from? In return, Witherspoon makes an effort with the children. Kevin Hart was born on July 6, 1979 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA as Kevin Darnell Hart. The animated film “Captain Underpants,” featuring Hart’s voice, debuts in theaters June 2, and in December he headlines “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” alongside Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black. With a spouse lost in a life of drug addiction, Nancy had to remain strong for her boys. No. Right now, the actor and comedian is arguably the hardest-working person in show business. He’s befriended the talk-show icon and Kevin Hart definitely got it from his momma. Most of the new hour will be stories about raising his children in the cocoon of celebrity, a cloistered world far removed from North Philly. Working with Hart on the “Jumanji” sequel motivated Black to step up his own acting. “That’s how you stop yourself,” he declares. About Kevin Hart’s mother: Nancy Hart is Kevin’s mom. His father was a serious drug addict: “heroin, coke, crack, you name it, he did it,” Hart says, “nothing else mattered [to him].” During one of his childhood birthdays, Hart says his dad even stole $20 someone had given him as a present. “He’s as good as he can be,” Hart says. Stop trying to get Kevin Hart to eat another french fry! He Facetimes. “In the beginning, I was trying to be versions of what I saw or what other people were doing,” he remembers. “Night School,” an upcoming comedy about a group of students studying for the GED, was co-written by Hart. Transcript for Kevin Hart talks becoming a dad for third time, reveals life lessons from book. Besides his own positive attitude, Hart credits his mom with helping the family survive his dad’s addiction. “I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons,” his first book, hits stores June 6. But despite that outsize, early success, Murphy hasn’t done stand-up for three decades. “Goddamn, don’t bring them back over here,” Hart cries in mock exasperation. When the star recollects in his mind his early years, he tells that his elder brother Robert, his mom Nancy and he were a real team. In his book, Hart reminisces about the thrill he got seeing Eddie Murphy’s “Raw” as a child. It took longer for Hollywood to catch on. “She never missed anything.”. He dropped his voice, his eyes narrowed, he read a few lines and Burger says he knew Hart could do the part. “He’s one of the few stars left that brings people into theaters.”. With two kids, hit movies and a burgeoning media empire, does Hart ever think about hanging up the microphone? As an actor, Hart wants to keep stretching. When Hart decided he wanted to do stand-up, his mother agreed to pay his rent for a year as he worked to get noticed. If you track his movements on social media — and with 32.7 million Twitter followers and 51.5 million Instagram fans, many do — you know he’s a physical fitness junkie. It left him shattered. “He’s very much in their lives. Despite the need to prove he has greater depths as an actor, Hart didn’t channel Daniel Day-Lewis. ... On a more serious note, you actually dedicate this book to your mom. His act eschews politics. She didn’t like to be in environments that were not conducive to her spiritual growth.”, Nancy Hart was so invested in her son’s success that she swore her family to secrecy after learning she had terminal cancer in 2007. Henry Robert Witherspoon (father) The Grudge Match star’s parent was a drug and alcohol addict who spent most of his lifetime in prison for various crimes. “He’s a legitimate, bankable movie star,” says Ron Meyer, vice chairman of NBCUniversal and a friend of the comic. They divorced in 2011 but Kevin Hart's former wife Torrei Hart can't quite move on. “I wouldn’t change it one bit,” he says on The Howard Stern Show Tuesday. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. He was previously married to Torrei Hart. I'm crying my mess. Kevin and Torrei tied the knot in 2003 but filed for divorce in February 2010. Kevin Hart: Drug Addiction Runs in The Family. Hart only knew his mother was gravely ill a few weeks before her death. The comedian was raised by Nancy Hart, a single mother who battled the cocaine addiction of Kevin’s father Henry Witherspoon. He’s spent the past four weeks developing material for a new act, during which he’ll pop up at random Henry spent time on and off in jail while Kevin was a kid, and Robert also caused some issues in the family. Hart whips out his iPhone and scrolls through a list of funny things he’s observed and thinks could be the genesis of new bits. The popular actor and comedian Kevin Hart was no different. I’ve done a lot of movies, but when someone is on fire, at the peak of their powers, you feel like you have to earn your spot.”. There's a high level of success that goes behind the brand of Kevin Hart. Yesterday, Kevin Hart celebrated Mother's Day by posting a photo of his mom on Instagram. The drugs, and escalating parental screw-ups, such as the time Witherspoon dropped Hart off at the wrong school, caused his mom to limit his visits. “I’d love to say I’m going to have this energy forever, but I may get tired.”, You will be redirected back to your article in. … As he opened up about his personal life, he could feel the audience leaning in and responding. That’s why he can command $10 million a film and why, as he did for his 2016 concert special “What Now?,” he can sell out a nearly 70,000-seat football stadium. The Jumanji: Welcome to the … Kevin Hart was born on July 6, 1979 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA as Kevin Darnell Hart. “The world today, it’s really not a laughing matter. “I don’t sit down, write stuff out and memorize it,” Hart says. Hart’s movies, which include the “Ride Along” series and “Central Intelligence,” have collectively grossed nearly $1.5 billion domestically. Dave Becky, Hart’s manager, remembers watching a tape of an early performance at Carolines Comedy Club and knowing that he had to sign the comic. It was she, Hart says, who gave him his work ethic. “It may have affected my mom, but my mom was such a strong woman she said, ‘Look, regardless of whatever your father’s doing and where he is, I have a job to do raising you, you’re going do what you’re supposed to do and you’re going to grow up to be two intelligent men, me and my brother.”, For his mom, a computer analyst at the University of Pennsylvania, “school was of the upmost importance” for her two children. Text us for exclusive photos and videos, royal news, and way more. He’s appeared in nearly a dozen movies since 2013, many of them in leading roles and most of them box office hits. “As a team we said, look we can get dad straight,” Hart says. There was the 2001 Judd Apatow-directed pilot “North Hollywood,” about a group of aspiring actors sharing a house, which never got picked up, and a series of other failed pilots. It’s part of a larger strategy that’s seen the comic retain the rights to all of his stand-up specials except 2009’s “I’m a Grown Little Man.” It’s why he’s developing more of his own projects through his Hartbeat Prods. Kevin's father, Henry Witherspoon, missed much of his childhood, as he struggled with drug addiction and was in and out of jail. If Hart has conflicted feelings about his father, there’s no ambiguity in his love for his mother. Credit: (Photo: Maury Phillips/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images) The Comedian and Hollywood actor Kevin Hart had a rough childhood, dealing with a drug addicted parent.Growing up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he experienced first-hand what it was like to cope … With my dad, I've had the feeling of absent father, I got to witness my mom want more and go after more. “He’s not a Method actor,” says Burger. He was in and out of jail, and an addict. Kevin Hart had a difficult childhood, but if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t change a thing. These Kevin Hart funny quotes and jokes will sure make you laugh. I don’t give a s— about his mistakes.”, Asked if he’s positive there’s no hard feelings about his dad’s past transgressions, Hart says, “I don t understand people who hold grudges. “The reason I am the way I am is because my mom was strong,” he explains. Hart is happiest doing stand-up and using the crowds of thousands as a confessional. Hart also uses his experiences with his dad to remind him how to be a better parent to his children. The two men have become friends as Hart’s star has ascended. He recently wrapped “Untouchable,” a dramatic comedy with Bryan Cranston that will open in 2018. “I get onstage and talk, and then I stumble into bits.”. There's a high level of success that goes behind the brand of Kevin Hart. As he relaxes in the Miami sunshine on that spring afternoon, nursing a Jack and Coke, Hart acknowledges that he has Oprah Winfrey-style ambitions. He shouldered the $10 million cost of producing “What Now?” and was rewarded when the concert film went on to gross $24 million. “When he was out on the road he was collecting those emails, he was getting those comment cards, and building a database,” says Becky. With my dad, I've had the feeling of absent father, I got to witness my mom want more and go after more. As he suffered professional setbacks, Hart turned to stand-up. “Anything I’d ever done, she had it,” Hart says. Onstage, stories about his alcoholic and drug-addicted father are played for laughs. He is a producer and actor, known for Ride Along (2014), Central Intelligence (2016) and Grudge Match (2013). It wasn’t until “Think Like a Man,” a romantic comedy with the comic as a wisecracking divorcee, opened to $33.7 million in 2012 that studios took notice. Nancy Hart raised Kevin and Robert on her own, as their father, Henry Witherspoon, was a cocaine addict. Kevin Darnell Hart is an American comedian and actor who has appeared in numerous films like ‘Paper Soldiers’ and ‘Scary Movie 3.’ Hart was born in Philadelphia, in the US, and had a difficult childhood as his father was a drug addict and a petty criminal. Kevin Hart was born and raised in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania. Recorded live at the Allen Theater, Cleveland, Ohio ... “dad, can I have a cookie ... My mom gave me permission to cuss one time. They have one child. As part of his empire building, he has gone into branding, signing an endorsement deal with Nike and becoming a pitchman for and investor in Tommy John underwear. “You can find a positive in every negative, or you can treat every negative with a negative response.”, For instance, he explains, “If my dad hadn’t been around and didn’t do drugs, I may be handling my success differently. Kevin’s dad was drug addicted and used all drugs he could ever find. “I never lost touch, that’s my dad. Starring: ... A mom and dad who usually say no decide to say yes to their kids' wildest requests — with a few ground rules — on a … To get to the top, Hart’s been investing in his own material. “She was always trying to get a new level within her education — a new master’s or a new degree. 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He’d like to do a straight action film and believes that “Untouchable,” a remake of the 2011 French hit “The Intouchables,” in which he plays an ex-convict who befriends a paraplegic, will prove he can do drama. Finally, he grabs a glass of water and dumps it on the fries. Kevin Hart talked about his dad having COPD and their current relationship in a teaser for his new docuseries. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. He wants to be a mogul. Kevin Darnell Hart was born on July 6, 1979 to Nancy Hart, a single mother, and brought up in one of the toughest sections of the City of Brotherly Love.