Alex Thomas is acclaimed for his hysterical stand-up comedy and appearances on classic tv shows and films, but did you know he started out on Soul Train? Watch as Alex recaps his journey on this episode of I Was A Soul Train Dancer.
Thomas first broke into the entertainment business as a teenage dancer on the hit long running TV show Soul Train. While on Soul Train he became great friends with one of the stars of the show, Rosie Perez. After High school Rosie Perez became the choreographer on the hit TV show In Living Color. Alex soon after became her Asst. choreographer for the first two seasons of the show. While working on the show Alex met Keenan Ivory Wayans and his brother Damon Wayans who were the producers of the show. The brothers talked Thomas into doing stand-up comedy and the rest was history. After being influenced by the brothers, two years later Thomas began to appear on every comedy show on TV. These shows included: BET’s ComicView, Russell Simmons Def Comedy Jam, Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Jay Leno Show and eventually the star of his own one-hour comedy special on Showtime entitled Straight Clownin. His comedy special had a plethora of guest stars including Tyra Banks, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Dr. Dre.
In 1994, Will Smith, star of the hit TV show: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air found Thomas as an amateur comedian at the world famous Laugh Factory in Hollywood, California and added him to the hit sitcoms writing staff. As a member of the staff, Alex wrote on the sitcom for its remaining last three seasons. While touring around the country as a successful stand-up comedian opening up for stars like Daman Wayans, Mark Curry and Bill Cosby, Thomas also starred in several motion pictures such as: Don’t be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, BAPS, The Players Club, Two Can Play that Game, The Wash, Just Married, Women Thou Art Loosed, Why Do Fools Fall in Love and several other films. With film being his passion, Thomas was no stranger to TV.
He did several guest appearances on shows such as: Moesha, Martin, The Parkers, All of Us, Hangin with Mr. Cooper and then finally got his own shot as a series regular on The Jamie Foxx show, where he played the role of “Phil” aka “Phino”. Alex was also a reoccurring character on the hit show, Family Guy, as well as other popular animated series including: Batman Beyond, King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show.
In 2001, Alex Hosted the biggest Tour in hip hop history. This legendary tour was the Up in Smoke Tour. The tour was with artist such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Eminem. On this tour Thomas hosted in all 49 cities as a stand-up comedian. In 2009-10 Alex was voted “College Comic of the Year”, with this Alex performed at over 100 colleges in that period of time. Today Thomas is one of the stars of Mr. Box Office on the CW Network. The show also stars Bill Bellamy, Jon Lovitz, Tim Meadows, Viveca Fox, Essence Atkins, Rick Fox, Tony Roberts and Gary Busey.
He has four brothers: Jelani, Omari, Shomar and Iman. Alex was raised by his parents Mary and Alex Sr. His mother Mary was a classical pianist and his father was an accomplished R&B musician and producer with the famous band Earth Wind & Fire in the early days of the band. As a child Alex went to an all-white private school called Berkeley Hall in Beverly Hills. His parents bused him out of the tough South Central neighborhood so that he wouldn’t get caught up into the gang lifestyle and the streets. One of Alex’s first jokes as a stand-up comedian was “By 13 I had been to more Bar Mitzvahs than Bar-B-Q’s!!” Alex graduated from Fairfax High school in Los Angeles. He gave college a shot at Santa Monica College and Cal State Northridge, but the college life just didn’t work out for him. Thomas dropped out of college after one year and pursued a career in entertainment.
Alex has a pediatric cancer foundation called “The Alex Thomas Foundation”. Thomas does a huge golf tournament every summer in Los Angeles called “The Alex Thomas celebrity Classic”. This tournament goes directly to benefiting pediatric cancer research. Alex is an avid 15 handicap golfer and has played courses all over the world including St. Andrews, Scotland, Pebble Beach, California and Beth Page in New York.
