Beyond “Everybody Hates Chris”: 10 Interesting Facts About Terry Crews

“Unplug that watch, boy, you can’t tell the time in your sleep. It’s 2 cents an hour!”, “Do you accept food stamps?”, “If I don’t buy anything, the discount is bigger”. These are some of the many phrases immortalized by Julius, father of the show’s protagonist Everybody hates Chris🇧🇷

Known for his angry, tight-fisted look and, at the same time, very affectionate and considerate with his family, the character made actor Terry Crews known in several countries. But before being part of the cult series, Crews went through a few good times, and became an example of how talent, charisma and determination are crucial to tread a path of solid success. His life story is full of episodes of difficulties, obstinacy and overcoming, always counting on the support of his family.

we, from awesome.clubwe are fans of Terry Crews, which is why we prepared a post to tell you curious and little-known facts about the actor’s life.

Terry Crews was born in the US city of Flint, Michigan. He spent the first few years of his life watching his mother (who was religious and very strict with her son) being abused by his father. On one occasion, the actor said that the situation was so stressful that he had bedwetting until he was 14 years old.

Still at this stage, Terry received from an aunt a gift that would serve to awaken his interest in the arts: a flute. The then young man spent eight years taking lessons to learn to play the instrument.

As revealed in an interview, the passion for the arts was strengthened when Terry got a rare permission from his mother to do something that was not related to religion: in 1977, he was allowed to go to the cinema, to watch a film from the saga Star Wars.

Subsequently, the future TV and movie star won a scholarship to study arts, and showed a lot of talent for drawing and painting, activities to which he is dedicated to this day, surprising many people by making illustrations in a few minutes, even while giving interviews.

At a very young age, Terry won, in the 1980s, a scholarship to play football at the University of West Michigan, in the USA. That would be the beginning of a professional career in the National Football League (NFL). In the 1990s, the now-actor played for teams like the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins, but Terry’s stint in American football was considered average. There were only 32 matches played within five years.

As Terry couldn’t stand out in the sport, he even spent periods working only on training teams, he needed to find ways to supplement his income, and he did that by making drawings for his teammates.

Faced with a not very successful career in American football, Terry Crews decided to bet on the entertainment industry, moving to Los Angeles with his family. With no opportunities, he came to work cleaning factory floors and also as a security guard.

He learned about a selection process to choose the members of the TV show battle dome, which mixed wrestling and scenic acting. Thanks to his physique and endearing personality, Terry Crews landed the role of “T-Money,” which he now considers the weirdest job he’s ever done in his life.

Subsequently, Crews worked as a security guard on the film’s set. Another Friday in Trouble, produced by actor and rapper Ice Cube. There, he was noticed by the team, which led to an invitation to join the cast of the sequel, entitled Craziest Friday in Trouble🇧🇷

It didn’t take long for Terry Crews, with his remarkable physique, charisma, and undeniable gift for comedy, to catch the attention of Hollywood producers, both movies and series. From then on, he joined the cast of productions such as CSI: Miami, Me, the Mistress and the Kids and Starsky & Hutch — Double Justice.

It was during this period that the chance to play Julius in Everybody hates Chris, a role that made Terry Crews world-renowned. The series, which tells stories lived by comedian Chris Rock during his childhood, was produced between 2005 and 2009 and became an audience phenomenon.

Since then, Terry has been collecting works very well received by critics and the public, as in the films The Whites, Idiocracy🇧🇷 The Ridiculous 6 and The Expendables, he is also well remembered for having spent almost 10 years working as a poster boy for a line of deodorants for men.

Now considered one of the most recognizable faces in the world, Terry decided to venture into a completely different field for him: furniture design. The opportunity arose from the invitation made by a friend who works in the field, and who asked the actor if he was interested in creating his own line.

“On the list of things I wanted to conquer, there was no furniture, but there was art. I thought: wait a minute, furniture is an art form, and what you make is art!”, said the star.

And anyone who thought that the actor would simply lend his name to the furniture line was wrong. He insisted on participating in the creative process of the pieces, produced by Bernhardt Design.

Since 2019, Terry has hosted the reality show, a competition of artists from the most diverse areas. He is seen as a separate attraction on the show, making humorous comments and even surprising the audience by showing off his own talents. On one occasion, he left everyone with their jaws dropped by “invading” the presentation of a candidate playing that instrument that is so familiar to him since childhood: the flute.

Currently, Terry can be seen on the show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is in its seventh season. In production, he lives the agent Terry Jeffords, a man dedicated to the family who begins the plot with an intense phobia of being forced to work on the streets, for fear of being killed and leaving his children orphans.

And the fact that the actor and character have the same name is no coincidence, as the work was designed especially for him. Michael Schur, one of the show’s creators, said: “We created the role for Terry, and we named the character after him as a way of saying how much we wanted him to take the job. Everything about Terry is impressive: his talent, his work ethic, his courage, his activism, everything. In fact, his biceps are the least impressive thing about him.”

Just looking at his posts on social media, you can tell that Terry Crews is a man dedicated to his family. Married since 1989 to Rebecca King, he has five children: Ariel, Naomi, Isaiah, Wynfrey and Tera. Oh, and he’s also a grandfather.

Recently, Terry Crews once again demonstrated the versatility of his talents on two occasions. In one of them, he played on the flute a snippet of the opening song of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. And in the face of that, it didn’t take long for fans to make a request, promptly answered by the actor: use the flute to play the hit A Thousand Mileswhich is part of the iconic film The Whites🇧🇷 See below:

What did you think of Terry Crews’ life story? Did you already know that the artist had so many talents? In your opinion, what other artist is as versatile as he is? Comment!