Mad TV In 2004, Key joined the cast of
Mad TV midway into the ninth season. He and
Jordan Peele were cast against each other, but both ended up being picked after demonstrating great comedic chemistry. Key played many characters on the show. One of his most famous characters is "Coach Hines", a high school sports coach who frequently disrupts and threatens students and faculty members. On the penultimate episode of
Mad TV, Hines revealed that he is the long-lost heir to the
Heinz Ketchup company and only became a Catholic school coach to help delinquent teenagers like Yamanashi (
Bobby Lee). During seasons 9 and 10, Key appeared as "Dr. Funkenstein" in
blaxploitation parodies, with Peele playing the monster. Key also portrayed various guests on
Real **********ing Talk like the strong African Rollo Johnson and blind victim Stevie Wonder Washington. He often went "backstage" as Eugene Struthers, an ecstatic water-or-flower delivery man who accosts celebrities. There was also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a
jheri curl and a shower cap who interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by
Ike Barinholtz), annoying him with rapid-fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!" Celebrities that Key impersonated on the show include
Ludacris,
Snoop Dogg,
Al Roker,
Terrell Owens,
Tyler Perry,
Eddie Murphy,
Tyson Beckford,
Barack Obama,
John Legend,
Kobe Bryant, and
Robin Antin.
Key & Peele Key and his
Mad TV castmate
Jordan Peele starred in their own
Comedy Central sketch series
Key & Peele, which began airing on January 31, 2012, and ran for five seasons until September 9, 2015. Key was introduced by President
Barack Obama at the 2015
White House Correspondents' Dinner as Luther, Obama's Anger Translator, one of Key's characters from
Key & Peele.
Friends from College Key played the most prominent male character, Ethan Turner, on the Netflix ensemble comedy
Friends from College, about a group of Harvard University graduates and friends now in their late 30s living in New York City. He plays an award-winning fiction writer who is being encouraged to start writing for young adult fiction audiences.
Other work and Keegan-Michael Key at
White House Correspondents' Association Dinner 2015 Key was one of the founders of
Hamtramck, Michigan's
Planet Ant Theatre, and was a member of the
Second City Detroit's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago. Key co-founded the Detroit Creativity Project along with Beth Hagenlocker,
Marc Evan Jackson, Margaret Edwartowski, and
Larry Joe Campbell. The Detroit Creativity Project teaches students in Detroit improvization as a way to improve their communication skills. Key performed with The 313, an improv group formed with other members of Second City Hollywood that appears around the country. The 313 is made up primarily of former Detroit residents and is named for Detroit's area code. He made a cameo in
"Weird Al" Yankovic's video "
White & Nerdy" with Peele. Key also hosted
Animal Planet's ''The Planet's Funniest Animals''. In 2009, Key hosted
GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has co-starred in
Gary Unmarried on CBS. Key was a panelist on the NPR comedy quiz show ''
Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me...
on March 27 and July 24, 2010. Key has been in several episodes of Reno 911!'' as the "Hypothetical Criminal". Key and Peele were featured on the cover and in a series of full-page comic photos illustrating
The New York Times Magazine article "Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?" on March 31, 2013. A live-action video version was also featured on the
Times' website. Key co-stars in the horror-comedy
Hell Baby. Key is one of the rotating "fourth chair" performers in the 2013 revival of
Whose Line Is It Anyway?. In addition to
Key & Peele, he also co-starred in the
USA Network comedy series
Playing House, which began airing in April 2014. Together with Peele, Key played an FBI agent in a recurring role in the 2014 FX crime drama
Fargo. Key and Peele starred in an episode of
Epic Rap Battles of History, with Key playing
Mahatma Gandhi and Peele playing
Martin Luther King Jr. The pair returned to
Epic Rap Battles of History with the "
Muhammad Ali versus
Michael Jordan" battle, with Key portraying Jordan. Key was involved in audio episodes for the marketing campaign, "
Hunt the Truth" on the website for the video game
Halo 5: Guardians, voicing a fictional journalist and war photographer named Benjamin Giraud, who investigates the
Master Chief's background. Key has had roles in numerous films, including 2014's
Horrible Bosses 2, ''
Let's Be Cops and the animated The Lego Movie, as well as Pitch Perfect 2, Tomorrowland, and Wonka'' in 2023. Key is one of several hosts of the podcast
Historically Black by
American Public Media and
The Washington Post. Key voices the character
Murray the Mummy in
Hotel Transylvania 2,
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. The character was originally voiced by rapper
CeeLo Green in
the first movie. In the summer of 2017 Key returned to the theater after what he characterized as a "19-year detour into sketch comedy" for a production of
Hamlet at New York's
Public Theater, playing
Horatio opposite
Oscar Isaac in the title role. Key, who is a Shakespearean-trained actor, fulfilled his lifelong dream to play Horatio and received rave reviews for his performance.
The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney noted that Key's comedic skills were on full display, "...but his ease with the verse and stirring sensitivity [was] a revelation." Key voice acted in
The Star, the animated film based on the
Nativity of Jesus. He later went on to voice Ducky in
Toy Story 4 and Kamari in
The Lion King. Key voiced
"Honest John" Worthington Foulfellow in the
live-action film adaptation of Disney's
Pinocchio, which stars
Tom Hanks,
Cynthia Erivo and
Luke Evans, as well as
Toad in
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, with
Chris Pratt,
Jack Black,
Anya Taylor-Joy,
Charlie Day and
Seth Rogen, and a scarlet macaw Delroy in
Migration both from
Illumination. In 2024, Key voiced
B-127 / Bumblebee in the animated prequel film
Transformers One, sharing cast with
Chris Hemsworth,
Scarlett Johansson,
Brian Tyree Henry and
Jon Hamm. In 2017, Key made his
Broadway debut in
Steve Martin's comedy
Meteor Shower. His hosting stint on
Saturday Night Live on May 15, 2021, marked the first time a
MADtv cast member has hosted
SNL. Key hosted the science show
Brain Games on
National Geographic for its eighth season. On May 14, 2020, he hosted an online event by the
Jazz Foundation of America to support its emergency fund for
COVID-19. In 2026, Key reprised the voice of Toad in
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. ==Personal life==