X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

10 Things You Might Not Know About Key & Peele

What did they originally want to call their show?

liz-raftery.jpg
Liz Raftery

Sure, you've seen their Super Bowl special and can recite every "Liam Neesons" sketch word for word. But how much do you really know about Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, the hilarious brains behind Comedy Central's Key & Peele? Here are 10 random facts about the comedic duo:

The 7 most essential Key & Peele sketches

1. Peele came thisclose to playing President Obama on Saturday Night Live.

Around the 2008 election, Peele auditioned to play Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live (after he appeared as the then-candidate in MADtv's "Hillary vs. Obama" sketch that went viral). He was offered the part but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts with MADtv. In a 2013 interview with NPR, Peele called having to reject the role "the biggest blow in my career."

2. They like funny ladies.

Peele and comedienne/Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Chelsea Peretti have been an item since 2013. Meanwhile, Key has been married to Cynthia Blaise, an actress and former voice and speech teacher, since 1999. Blaise has acted alongside her husband on Key & Peele and in other sketch videos. Check out the Second City short "Meditations on Yoga," in which she stars as "The Cougar."

3. Both struggled with being biracial.

Key and Peele are both biracial (both have white mothers and black fathers, and Peele was also raised by a mixed-race couple who adopted him), and both say they faced issues growing up because of it. While race plays a major role in the duo's brand of comedy, Peele told CNN in 2012 that he only began self-identifying as biracial in recent years, and said that "this whole thing has felt almost like a coming out as biracial."

4. They became comedy partners almost by accident.

Key and Peele met in 2003 when they were both auditioning for MADtv. As the story goes, Fox was only looking to add one black cast member to the show for its ninth season, but once executives noticed the chemistry between Key and Peele, they decided to offer parts to both of them.

5 ways Key & Peele's Super Bowl Special was better than the actual game

5. They're rappers in their own right.

Key and Peele have appeared in two"Epic Rap Battles of History" videos, Gandhi (Key) vs. Martin Luther King Jr. (Peele) in Season 2, and Michael Jordan (Key) vs. Muhammad Ali (Peele) in Season 3. Check them out here:

6. Peele is an aspiring horror filmmaker.

It's safe to say he's got comedy down pat, but Peele told Playboyin 2014 that his real dream is to write and direct a horror movie. And he's already got one in the works: It's called Get Out, and Peele describes it as "one of the very, very few horror movies that does jump off of racial fears ... specifically, the fears of being a black man today."

7. They originally considered calling their show Beige.

With many sketches playing off of their mixed-race backgrounds, and off of racially tinged humor in general, Key and Peele originally considered calling their show Beige, among other titles, but abandoned the idea because "it felt stupid, because we were trying too hard." They went the simpler route of just using both of their names, because, as Peele told The AV Club in 2012, "You don't want to try to get a laugh in the title."

8. They have a cameo in a Weird Al music video.

Key and Peele appear briefly (as disgusted gangsters) in Weird Al's music video for "White & Nerdy."

9. Key suffered from epilepsy as a child.

When he was younger, Key toyed with the idea of becoming a veterinarian, an actor or a football player when he grew up. His family steered him towards acting after childhood epilepsy derailed his aspirations of becoming a professional athlete. (He has a masters of fine arts degree in theater from Penn State.)

10. Peele once dreamed of being a puppeteer.

Peele originally intended to become a puppeteer, but switched to studying comedy after joining an improv troupe while he was in college at Sarah Lawrence.