Faizon Love

Actor

Project Details

Rock Star EntertainmentActor@FaizonLove

Project Description

Langston Faizon Santisima, professionally known as Faizon Love, is a Cuban-born American actor and comedian. He is perhaps best known for roles in the films Friday, Elf, The Replacements, Made, and Couples Retreat. Also, he is known for his role as Wendell Wilcox on The Parent ‘Hood from 1995-1998 and Maurice Starr on BET’s The New Edition Story.

Life and career

Love was born Langston Faizon Santisima in Santiago de Cuba and grew up as a “military brat”; he was raised in San Diego, California and Newark, New Jersey because of his father’s career in the United States Navy.

Love got his start as a stand-up comedian at age 15 and made his acting debut in an Off-Broadway at the age of 19. His motion-picture debut, Bebe’s Kids, had him providing the voice of comedian Robin Harris, who died before production began on the film; Love offered a close vocal impression of Harris. He then had a role in The Meteor Man, starring Robert Townsend. Townsend then cast Love in a co-starring role on his sitcom The Parent ‘Hood.

He followed up this role with a breakout performance as the drug supplier Big Worm in the 1995 film Friday. Follow-up films have included 3 Strikes, Elf, Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, Money Talks, Wonderland, The Fighting Temptations, and Idlewild. In 2001, Love guest-starred in the Ludacris single “Freaky Thangs” from the album Word of Mouf. The same year, he made a cameo appearance as a bus driver, in the music video for Lil Jon & The East Side Boys’ single “Put Yo Hood Up”.

Love co-starred in Couples Retreat (2009), a comedy film chronicling four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort.[6]In 2011 Love starred in a theatrical production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder, alongside Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Etan Thomas.

In 2012, he played the role of Stringer Bell in the satirical trailer for The Wire: The Musical. In June of that year, Love started to appear in a series of commercials for the pre-paid wireless provider Boost Mobile, promoting its new 4G phones.

In 2014 Love made a series of controversial Twitter comments in the wake of the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby. Defending Cosby against the charges, Love used profanity and racial slurs against Cosby’s accusers as well as comedian Hannibal Buress, who had alluded to the allegations in a stand-up routine. In 2015 Love once again took to Twitter to defend Cosby, dismissing those African Americans who believed the allegations as “spineless monkeys”.

Filmography

Bébé’s Kids (1992) – Robin Harris
The Meteor Man (1993) – Maurice
Fear of a Black Hat (1994) – Jam Boy
Friday (1995) – Big Worm
The Parent ‘Hood (1995–1998) – Wendell Wilcox
Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) – Rufus
A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) – Manny
B*A*P*S (1997) – Tiger J
Money Talks (1997) – Cellmate
The Players Club (1998) – Officer Peters
3 Strikes (2000) – Tone
The Replacements (2000) – Jahmal Abdul Jackson
The Luau (2001) – Hustle
Made (2001) – Horrace
Mr. Bones (2001) – Pudbedder
Play’d: A Hip Hop Story (2002) – Domino Breed
Blue Crush (2002) – Leslie
Wonderland (2003) – Greg Diles
The Fighting Temptations (2003) – Luther Washington
Elf (2003) – Gimbel’s Manager
Ride or Die (2003) – David Rabinawitz
That’s So Raven (2004) – Cyrus
Torque (2004) – Sonny
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) – Sean “Sweet” Johnson
The Big House (2004) – Warren Cleveland (5 episodes)
Animal (2005) – Double T
Just My Luck (2006) – Damon Phillips
All You’ve Got (2006) – Coach Harlan
Idlewild (2006) – Ace
Who’s Your Caddy? (2007) – Big Large
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2007) – Coach (1 episode)
The Perfect Holiday (2007) – Jamal
Of Boys and Men (2008) – Roman
Days of Wrath (2008) – Cash Flow
G.E.D. (2009) – Bro. Hakeem
My Name Is Earl (2009) – Reverend Greene
A Day in the Life (2009) – “Black” Ike Smith
Couples Retreat (2009) – Shane
Life as We Know It (2010) – Cab Driver (uncredited)
Zookeeper (2011) – Bruce the Ape (voice only)
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011) – Kurtis Kool (uncredited)
Budz House (2011) – Big Shitty
White T (2013) – Anthony
Real Husbands of Hollywood (2013–2016) – Himself
Matthew 18 (2014) – Lifton Tyler
Tell (2014) – Dwight Johnson
Brotherly Love – Uncle Ron
Black-ish (2015–2017) – Sha (2 episodes)
Grow House (2017) – Rollin Reg
New Edition Story (2017) – Maurice Starr
Ripped (2017) – Reeves
Step Up: High Water (2018) – Al
The War with Grandpa (2018)