Comedian? Yes. Actor? Yes. Writer? Yes. Musician? An emphatic yes. Donald Glover seems to have a finger in every aspect of entertainment. The renaissance man of entertainment can be seen everywhere. You may know him as Troy, a loveable athlete in the TV show Community. Maybe you know him as the writer and star in his new acclaimed TV show Atlanta. Or, quite possibly you know him as his stage name, “Childish Gambino,” who just released his third studio album Awaken, My Love!

Glover has had his fair share of success, but where did this man full of immense talent come from? Glover hails from Stone Mountain, Georgia, where he grew up with his biological parents and foster siblings. Glover’s future was predicted by his fellow classmates in highschool when he was voted “Most likely to write for the Simpson’s”.

Glover attended New York University’s (“NYU”) Tisch School of the Arts, a top school for performing and media arts. From there, Tina Fey hired Glover as a writer on the award winning TV show 30 Rock. Glover even made some guest appearances on the show.

Glover also met DJ Pierson and Dominic Dierkes at NYU, where they formed the comedy team, “Mystery Team,” for which they received millions of views on Youtube and a movie. Videos such a “Jerry”, “National Spelling Bee”, and “Girls Are Not To Be Trusted” are just some of the very popular and hilarious videos the three collaborators put together. Click here to view some of the “Mystery Team’s” skits. 

In 2009 Glover released his first mixtape Poindexter under the stage name, “Childish Gambino”. You may be wondering where Glover got such an odd name from. He got it from the Wu Tang name generator. Glover then released multiple mixtapes in the coming years such as I Am Just A Rapper, I Am Just A Rapper 2, and Culdesac.

Glover returned to his comedy career and had a one hour special on Comedy Central entitled Weirdo, in which he discussed his music career, the “Donald for Spiderman” campaign, and his life. That same year Glover released his first album Camp.

Camp reached number 11 on the Billboard charts in America, adding to Glover’s success with the album. His single Heartbeat went certified gold. As Glover’s music career began excelled, his acting career began to slow down. He only appeared in 5 episodes of Community’s fifth season.

Glover released his second studio album Because the Internet  in December of 2013. The album featured singles “3005”, “Crawl”, “Sweatpants”, and “Telegraph Ave”. The album features Chance the Rapper, Lloyd, and Jhene Aiko. The album received a grammy nomination for Best Rap Album and Glover was nominated for Best Rap Performance for the song “3005”. The song “3005” went gold in 2014 while the album went certified gold in February of 2016.

Glover’s TV show Atlanta premiered on September 6th, 2016. James Poniewozik, Mike Hale, and Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times say, “I didn’t number my list. (The best show of the year, if you’re asking, was “Atlanta,” but beyond that the order would have been arbitrary.) Atlanta has received enormous praise as being a top show of the year. Glover has also now been chosen to play the role of “Lando Calrissian” in the upcoming Star Wars movies.

This summer Glover held a concert in Joshua Tree, a park in California, to allow a limited amount of fans experience his new album live. All recording devices were banned from the concert. The audience was encouraged to simply experience the music.

Glover released “Me and Your Mama” and “Redbone” in advance of the scheduled December 2nd drop date as singles. A fan who was expecting Glover’s new album to be rap like his previous albums and mixtapes would be sadly mistaken. The two singles previewed an album that would be filled with funkadelic vibes. The songs are full of soul and less lyrics. Glover’s third album has been well received by websites such as Pitchfork and Fader.

Glover has certainly succeeded in the many fields he has pursued. From having a comedy special on Comedy Central, being a writer on an Emmy winning TV show, to being a grammy nominated artist. Glover truly is a renaissance man of entertainment. The future looks increasingly bright for Glover, who is still under the age of 35.