- Source of Wealth: Film, Television
- Age: 54
- Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
- Height: 5′ 7½” (1.71 m)
- Weight: 164 lbs (74.4 kg)
- Marital Status: Single
- Full Name: Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence
- Nationality: United States
- Date of Birth: April 16, 1965
- Ethnicity: African American
- Occupation: Actor, Film director/producer, Comedian
- Education: Friendly High School, (Fort Washington, Maryland)
- Children: 3 (Jasmine Page, Iyanna Faith, Amara Trinity)
American Actor/comedian, Martin Lawrence has an estimated net worth of $110 million. Lawrence started the 21st century off with a bang, starring and executive producing Big Momma’s House, the story of an FBI agent posing as a corpulent Southern matriarch, which went on to gross more than 100 million dollars, despite universally negative reviews. The success of this film pushed Lawrence ever closer to joining the much-coveted 20-million-dollar club, cementing his reputation as one of the biggest comic stars for years to come.
Lawrence was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on April 16, 1965, and eventually settled with his family in suburban Maryland around his sixth birthday. Soon after, his father left the family; Lawrence claims he got his start as a comedian by cheering up his mother, who was forced to support her six children by cashiering in various department stores. He attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Landover, MD, dabbling in sports and sticking with comedy, even agreeing to stop acting up in an art class in return for performing his stand-up routine in front of the other students.
Soon after graduating, the bug-eyed performer earned a chance to perform on Star Search, which led to a role in 1985’s What’s Happening Now! Lawrence kept honing his frenetic schtick and by 1989, won two big breaks — a supporting role in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and MCing HBO’s Def Comedy Jam. Lawrence continued to rack up scene-stealing roles throughout the early ’90s, including parts in House Party, House Party 2, and Boomerang, eventually landing his own series on Fox in 1992, appropriately named Martin. The show became a huge success, its risqué humor making it a ratings stalwart for more than five years and winning two NAACP Image Awards in the process, although some detractors criticized Lawrence for promoting the image of an oversexed, insensitive black man.
On July 10, 2010, Lawrence married longtime girlfriend Shamika Gibbs at his Beverly Hills home.