# Donald Glover
**Donald McKinley Glover** (born 1983) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, comedian, rapper, singer, and songwriter who performs music under the stage name Childish Gambino and, as a disc jockey, under the name mcDJ.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover) He was born at [Edwards Air Force Base](https://www.edgepedia.org/edwards-air-force-base), California.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover) He first came to attention through the sketch group Derrick Comedy, was hired at age 23 as a writer for the NBC sitcom *30 Rock* with [Tina Fey](https://www.edgepedia.org/tina-fey)'s help, played Troy Barnes on *Community*, and created and starred in the FX series *Atlanta*, for which he won two [Emmy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/emmy-awards) in 2017.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1983, Edwards Air Force Base, California[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover) • [2](https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tfg/2021/249143/DelgadoLopezAndrea_TFG2021.pdf) |
| Break | Hired at 23 as a writer for NBC's *30 Rock* after Tina Fey saw his comedy videos; stayed three seasons[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover) • [3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) |
| Music name | Childish Gambino, a moniker produced by an online Wu-Tang Clan name generator[4](https://time.com/collections/american-voices-2017/4465184/donald-glover-atlanta-childish-gambino/) |
| *Atlanta* | Debuted September 6, 2016 on FX; ran four seasons and 41 episodes[5](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-11-10/atlanta-fx-hulu-finale-donald-glover-hiro-murai) • [6](https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2026/09/21/atlanta-donald-glover-fx-tv-show-10th-anniversary) |
| Emmy record | 14 nominations and 2 wins; in 2017 he won Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for *Atlanta*, the first Black actor to win the directing category[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover) |
| Signature song | "This Is America" (2018), a single whose video turned it into a cultural phenomenon addressing race and police brutality[7](https://time.com/5455058/best-songs-2018/) |
## Early life and education
Glover grew up in [Stone Mountain, Georgia](https://www.edgepedia.org/stone-mountain-georgia), about 20 miles east of Atlanta. His mother ran a day care center, and his father, a Postal Service worker, played music ranging from [Hall & Oates](https://www.edgepedia.org/hall-and-oates) to [Funkadelic](https://www.edgepedia.org/funkadelic) to the Police. Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, he had no television at home and performed puppet shows for the foster children his parents took care of; he has said the upbringing amplified a feeling of alienation.[3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) A Guardian profile adds that his parents adopted and fostered other children, and that Glover credits the sadness and humor he absorbed at home for his creativity.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/08/donald-glover-childish-gambino-camp)
He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts as a drama major, graduating in 2006, and joined an improv comedy group there.[3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) • [9](https://alumnimagazine.nyu.edu/issue18/pdf/NYU18_Classclowns.pdf)
## Derrick Comedy, 30 Rock, and Community
While still a student, Glover formed the sketch troupe Derrick Comedy with classmates, whose videos became viral hits on early YouTube; the group later made a feature film, *Mystery Team*.[10](https://www.thewrap.com/evolution-donald-glover-derrick-comedy-community-atlanta/) • [9](https://alumnimagazine.nyu.edu/issue18/pdf/NYU18_Classclowns.pdf) Producer David Miner found his work at NYU, and Tina Fey hired him for the *30 Rock* writing staff, where he crafted jokes for [Tracy Morgan](https://www.edgepedia.org/tracy-morgan)'s character, including "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah".[10](https://www.thewrap.com/evolution-donald-glover-derrick-comedy-community-atlanta/) • [4](https://time.com/collections/american-voices-2017/4465184/donald-glover-atlanta-childish-gambino/) He had never written for television before.[3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/)
Glover left *30 Rock* after three seasons to pursue stand-up and acting, with no new job lined up, and quickly joined the cast of [Dan Harmon](https://www.edgepedia.org/dan-harmon)'s NBC sitcom *Community* as ex-high-school jock Troy Barnes; the show premiered in 2009, the same day he released an independent rap album under the Childish Gambino name.[11](https://www.biography.com/actors/donald-glover) • [12](https://thegrio.com/2011/02/01/2011-donald-glover/) • [10](https://www.thewrap.com/evolution-donald-glover-derrick-comedy-community-atlanta/) He also performed stand-up, winning a Rising Comedy Star award at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival in 2010, and [Comedy Central](https://www.edgepedia.org/comedy-central) later aired his first hour-long comedy special.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-19-la-et-glover-20100719-story.html) • [9](https://alumnimagazine.nyu.edu/issue18/pdf/NYU18_Classclowns.pdf) In 2010 he ran a Twitter campaign, #donald4spiderman, to be cast as [Spider-Man](https://www.edgepedia.org/spider-man) in the rebooted film franchise; the role went to Andrew Garfield.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-19-la-et-glover-20100719-story.html)
## Childish Gambino
Glover began releasing music under the name Childish Gambino around 2008 to 2010, first with mixtapes and the independent album *Sick Boi*, which critics received coolly.[14](https://depts.washington.edu/uwmcnair/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2014-McNair-Journal_revised_final.pdf) • [15](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/childish-gambino-rapper-writer-actor-joker-9000905.html) His 2011 studio album *Camp* earned mixed reviews but a new audience, and his second album received two Grammy nominations.[3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) Reviewers compared him to [Kanye West](https://www.edgepedia.org/kanye-west), Lil Wayne, and Drake, noting that he, like Drake, had acted on television before launching a music career.[16](https://archives.nd.edu/observer/v45/2011-11-15_v45-054.pdf)
His style shifted across albums. *Because the Internet* (2013) was described by a Guardian review as dark and abrasive, with lyrics reflecting on internet-age anxieties such as the 3D printing of guns.[17](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/08/childish-gambino-because-the-internet-review) *Awaken, My Love!* (2016) moved toward the sound of [James Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-brown) and [Sly and the Family Stone](https://www.edgepedia.org/sly-and-the-family-stone), an evolution Glover connected to fatherhood and to the soul music his father had played.[3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) In 2018, "This Is America" swung from trap to gospel while commenting on race and police brutality, and its video dominated the cultural conversation for weeks.[7](https://time.com/5455058/best-songs-2018/) The album *3.15.20* followed in 2020, released in two forms, one without track breaks credited to Donald Glover and one with breaks credited to Childish Gambino.[18](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/28/childish-gambino-31520-review-a-deep-dive-made-for-self-isolation) His album *Bando Stone & the New World* (2024) accompanied a film project and drew reviews noting its genre-hopping range.[19](https://metacritic.com/music/bando-stone-the-new-world/childish-gambino/critic-reviews)
A long creative partnership runs through this work. In the early 2010s the music-video director [Hiro Murai](https://www.edgepedia.org/hiro-murai), then working with the [Odd Future](https://www.edgepedia.org/odd-future) collective, received from Glover what Murai called the weirdest prompt of his career: a "semi-documentary" short film about the making of *Because the Internet*, which became *Clapping for the Wrong Reasons*. Murai, who had no television credits at the time, went on to direct much of *Atlanta* and several Childish Gambino videos.[20](https://time.com/6180758/hiro-murai-interview-atlanta/)
## Atlanta
*Atlanta*, which premiered on FX on September 6, 2016, stars Glover as Earn, a college dropout managing the rap career of his cousin Alfred, known as Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry). Glover pitched it as a show with drama, comedy, and music that would also deal with mass incarceration, poverty, drug use, and fatherhood in the Black community.[5](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-11-10/atlanta-fx-hulu-finale-donald-glover-hiro-murai) • [3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) He recruited an all-Black writing staff, several of whom had never written a television script before, a move one executive called practically unheard of in Hollywood.[3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/)
The show's structure departed from conventional serial storytelling; many scenes do not advance plot in the classical sense, relying instead on mood, and episodes range from a BET parody to a horror-tinged critique of the "black excellence" narrative.[21](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/12670/7/Capo2022PhD_Redacted.pdf) • [22](https://time.com/5722419/best-tv-shows-2010s-decade/) It won Peabody Awards, Emmys, and Golden Globes, and at its debut had one of television's only all-Black writing rooms.[6](https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2026/09/21/atlanta-donald-glover-fx-tv-show-10th-anniversary) At the 2017 Emmys Glover won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the episode "B.A.N.", becoming the first Black actor to win the directing category; he collected 14 Emmy nominations and 2 wins across his career, with later nominations for *Atlanta*, *Swarm*, and *Mr. & Mrs. Smith*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover) The series ended in 2022 after four seasons and 41 episodes.[5](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-11-10/atlanta-fx-hulu-finale-donald-glover-hiro-murai)
## Later television and film
Glover's screen work beyond *Atlanta* includes roles in *The Martian* (2015), *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018) as Lando Calrissian, and the self-produced short film *Guava Island* (2019).[2](https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tfg/2021/249143/DelgadoLopezAndrea_TFG2021.pdf) • [3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) He co-created the Amazon horror-comedy limited series *Swarm* (2023) with Janine Nabers, a satire of toxic pop-music fandom built around a fictional megastar modeled on Beyoncé, and co-created *Mr. & Mrs. Smith* (2024) with Francesca Sloane, a reimagining of the 2005 film in which he also stars as John Smith; both projects earned him Emmy nominations.[23](https://time.com/6262304/swarm-review/) • [24](https://time.com/6588667/mr-and-mrs-smith-review-donald-glover/) • [1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover)
His brother Stephen Glover is his closest collaborator, writing for *Atlanta* and collaborating musically with Childish Gambino, and since 2012 a management team Glover calls Royalty, including manager Chad Taylor and Fam Udeorji, has shaped most of his career moves.[25](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/donald-glover-cant-save-you) • [3](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/) In 2025, Glover told the audience at Tyler, the Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles that he had had a stroke.[26](https://apnews.com/article/ba19ef86d53deccb8547cc796d1f3541)
## References
1. [Donald Glover, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/donald-glover)
2. [Introduction: The Success of Childish Gambino and his Music Video "This Is America" (UAB undergraduate thesis)](https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tfg/2021/249143/DelgadoLopezAndrea_TFG2021.pdf)
3. [Childish Gambino. Atlanta. Lando Calrissian. Inside the Weird, Industry-Altering World of Donald Glover, WIRED (2017)](https://www.wired.com/2017/01/childish-gambino-donald-glover/)
4. [Donald Glover on Atlanta, Spider-Man, Star Wars and Pharos, TIME](https://time.com/collections/american-voices-2017/4465184/donald-glover-atlanta-childish-gambino/)
5. [How 'Atlanta' FX forever changed what a TV show could be, Los Angeles Times (2022)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-11-10/atlanta-fx-hulu-finale-donald-glover-hiro-murai)
6. [The strange, brilliant Atlanta of "Atlanta" turns 10, Axios Atlanta (2026)](https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2026/09/21/atlanta-donald-glover-fx-tv-show-10th-anniversary)
7. [The 10 Best Songs of 2018, TIME](https://time.com/5455058/best-songs-2018/)
8. [Donald Glover: how Childish Gambino faces down rap stereotypes, The Guardian (2011)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/08/donald-glover-childish-gambino-camp)
9. [Class Clowns, NYU Alumni Magazine](https://alumnimagazine.nyu.edu/issue18/pdf/NYU18_Classclowns.pdf)
10. [The Evolution of Donald Glover, From YouTube Star to Lando Calrissian, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/evolution-donald-glover-derrick-comedy-community-atlanta/)
11. [Donald Glover: Biography, Childish Gambino, Actor, Rapper, Biography.com](https://www.biography.com/actors/donald-glover)
12. [TheGrio's 100: Donald Glover, young comedian in a class by himself, TheGrio (2011)](https://thegrio.com/2011/02/01/2011-donald-glover/)
13. [Donald Glover, Renaissance man of comedy and rap, Los Angeles Times (2010)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-19-la-et-glover-20100719-story.html)
14. [2014 McNair Journal, University of Washington](https://depts.washington.edu/uwmcnair/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2014-McNair-Journal_revised_final.pdf)
15. [Childish Gambino: Rapper, writer, actor... joker?, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/childish-gambino-rapper-writer-actor-joker-9000905.html)
16. [The Observer, University of Notre Dame (2011)](https://archives.nd.edu/observer/v45/2011-11-15_v45-054.pdf)
17. [Childish Gambino: because the internet – review, The Guardian (2013)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/08/childish-gambino-because-the-internet-review)
18. [Childish Gambino: 3.15.20 review – a deep-dive made for self-isolation, The Guardian (2020)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/28/childish-gambino-31520-review-a-deep-dive-made-for-self-isolation)
19. [Critic Reviews for Bando Stone & The New World, Metacritic](https://metacritic.com/music/bando-stone-the-new-world/childish-gambino/critic-reviews)
20. [How Atlanta Director Hiro Murai Helped Bring Surrealism to Prestige TV, TIME (2022)](https://time.com/6180758/hiro-murai-interview-atlanta/)
21. [Chapter Two – Atlanta, PhD thesis, University of Birmingham (2022)](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/12670/7/Capo2022PhD_Redacted.pdf)
22. [The 10 Best TV Shows of the 2010s, TIME](https://time.com/5722419/best-tv-shows-2010s-decade/)
23. [Review: In Amazon's Swarm, Donald Glover Pokes the BeyHive, TIME (2023)](https://time.com/6262304/swarm-review/)
24. [Mr. & Mrs. Smith Reveals a Sweeter Side of Donald Glover, TIME (2024)](https://time.com/6588667/mr-and-mrs-smith-review-donald-glover/)
25. [Donald Glover Can't Save You, The New Yorker (2018)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/donald-glover-cant-save-you)
26. [Donald Glover says he had a stroke, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/ba19ef86d53deccb8547cc796d1f3541)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 2000s onward › Surnames G to Gl*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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