Cedric Antonio Kyles was born April 24, 1964; he is known professionally by his stage name Cedric the Entertainer. He is an American actor, comedian and director. He is perhaps best known as the co-star of the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, as Eddie in the Barbershop films, and as one of the four comedians featured in the Spike Lee film The Original Kings of Comedy.

Cedric was born in Jefferson City, MO and is the son of Rosetta Boyce, a school teacher, and Kitrell Kyles, an employee of a railroad company.His only sibling, younger sister Sharita Kyles Wilson, is an adjunct communications instructor at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He was raised in Caruthersville, Missouri, but after junior high school moved to Berkeley, Missouri. Cedric is a graduate of Berkeley High School in the north east suburbs of St. Louis. He continues his involvement with his high school by awarding a scholarship each year to a graduating senior through his Cedric the Entertainer Charitable Foundation Inc. The foundation’s motto is, "Reaching Out...Giving Back.” Cedric majored in Mass Communication at Southeast Missouri State University and worked as State Farm insurance claims adjuster and substitute High School teacher before becoming a full-time comedian.

He is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He is married to Lorna Wells and they have two children, Croix and Lucky Rose, and an older daughter, Tiara, from a previous relationship.