Nick Cannon

Nicholas Scott Cannon was born on October 8, 1980, in San Diego, California. He spent his early years in Lincoln Park’s Bay Vista Housing Projects, a challenging environment where he was largely raised by his paternal grandfather. Cannon initially engaged with the Lincoln Park Bloods street gang during his teenage years but disassociated himself after experiencing the loss of a close friend. He focused on his education, graduating from Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley in 1998, where he was president of the African Student Coalition and participated in track and field. His entertainment career began through stand-up comedy on his father’s local public access TV program.

Cannon’s career in television began as a teenager on Nickelodeon’s sketch comedy series “All That.” He then went on to host his own shows, including “The Nick Cannon Show,” “Wild ‘n Out,” “America’s Got Talent,” “Lip Sync Battle Shorties,” and “The Masked Singer.” His acting credits include films such as “Drumline,” where he played Devon Miles (2002), “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” as Alvin Johnson (2003), “Roll Bounce” as Bernard (2005), and appearing as the fictional footballer TJ Harper in “Goal II: Living the Dream” (2007). In music, Cannon released his self-titled debut album in 2003, featuring the single “Gigolo” with R. Kelly, which reached the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. He later founded NCredible Entertainment, his own record label.

His career progression also includes significant business ventures and production roles. In 2009, he served as chairman of the TeenNick channel, also functioning as its development and creative consultant. In 2012, he created and produced the sketch-comedy series “Incredible Crew.” Cannon was named “Chief Creative Officer” for RadioShack in December 2015, where he was involved in creating exclusive products and curating the in-store experience, leading to the launch of the NCredible line of consumer audio electronics in 2016. He further expanded his media presence by hosting a morning radio show on Power 106 in Los Angeles starting in 2019 and launched his own syndicated daytime talk show, “Nick Cannon,” in 2021.