Donald Glover
Glover has appeared in several films, including the supernatural horror The Lazarus Effect (2015), the comedy-drama Magic Mike XXL (2015), and the science fiction film The Martian (2015). He played Aaron Davis in the superhero film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), as well as Lando Calrissian in the space western Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).
He produced the short film Guava Island (2019), in which he starred. He co-created the comedy thriller television series Swarm (2023). Glover is also credited as a principal inspiration for the creation of the Marvel Comics superhero Miles Morales / Spider-Man, whom Glover himself briefly voiced in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man.
In 2024, he created and starred in the Prime Video series Mr. & Mrs. Smith. He provided the voice of adult Simba in The Lion King (2019), and Yoshi in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026).
After a number of independently released projects, Glover signed with Glassnote Records in 2011, and released his debut studio album, Camp, in November of that year to critical and commercial success. His second album, Because the Internet (2013) was supported by the single "3005", which became his first Billboard Hot 100 entry.
His psychedelic funk-inspired 2016 single, "Redbone" peaked at number 12 on the chart, won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance, and preceded the release of his third album "Awaken, My Love!" (2016), which saw continued success. Glover's 2018 single, "This Is America" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, and won in all of the categories for which it was nominated at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance, and Best Music Video; it won a Guinness World Record as the first hip hop song to win in the first two categories.
His fourth album, 3.15.20, was released in 2020. In 2024, he released Atavista, a reworking of 3.15.20, and later his fifth album Bando Stone & the New World.
Early life
Donald McKinley Glover Jr. was born at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California, on September 25, 1983; he grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where his father was stationed. His mother, Beverly, is a retired daycare provider and his father, Donald Glover Sr., was a postal worker. His parents were foster parents for 14 years.
Glover was raised as a Jehovah's Witness but is no longer religious. His younger brother, Stephen, later became a writer and producer who collaborates with him. He has a sister named Brianne. In December 2018, Glover disclosed that his father had died.
Donald Glover attended Stephenson High School and DeKalb School of the Arts; he was voted "Most Likely to Write for The Simpsons" in his high school yearbook. In 2006, he graduated from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in dramatic writing. While at Tisch, he self-produced the independent mixtape The Younger I Get, which has not been released and has been disowned by Glover for being what he calls the "too-raw ramblings of...a decrepit Drake".
He began DJing and producing electronic music under the moniker MC DJ (later as mcDJ) remixing Sufjan Stevens' album Illinois (2005).
Writing and acting career
2006โ2010: Community, and "Rising Comedy Star"
In 2006, Glover caught the attention of producer David Miner after Glover sent writing samples including a spec script that he had written for The Simpsons. Miner and Tina Fey were impressed by Glover's work and hired him to become a writer for the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. Glover was shocked when he was hired as he didn't think he belonged in a room of seasoned executives.
From 2006 to 2009 Glover wrote for 30 Rock, in which he also had occasional appearances. He and his co-writers were presented with the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series in 2008 for his work on the third season.
In 2008, he unsuccessfully auditioned to play President Barack Obama on the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live; the role went to cast member Fred Armisen. While attending NYU, Glover became a member of the sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy, having appeared in their sketches on YouTube since 2006, along with Dominic Dierkes, Meggie McFadden, DC Pierson, and Dan Eckman.
The group wrote and starred in a feature-length film, Mystery Team, a comedy about amateur teenage detectives; it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. With a limited release, fans requested the film to be shown in their local theaters.
Glover starred as former high school jock Troy Barnes on Dan Harmon's NBC sitcom Community, which premiered in September 2009. He did not return as a full-time cast member for the show's fifth season, appearing only in the first five episodes. Despite speculation that Glover was leaving to pursue his music career, a series of hand-written notes which he posted to Instagram revealed that his reasons were more personal, citing a need for projects that offered him more independence as he worked through some personal issues.
Although Harmon approached Glover about returning to the show for its sixth season, Glover declined, feeling that his character's return would not serve the show, the audience, or himself as an actor, and that his career and he himself moved on from the show.
In May 2010, a fan suggested Glover for the role of Spider-Man/Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man film, encouraging his supporters to retweet the hashtag "#donald4spiderman". The campaign sparked a viral response on Twitter. The call for Glover to audition for the role was supported by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee.
However, Glover did not audition and the role went to Andrew Garfield. He later revealed that he was never contacted by Sony Pictures. Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, who announced Miles Morales, an African-American version of Spider-Man a year later, said he had conceived of the character before Glover's campaign went viral.
Bendis gave credit to Glover for influencing the new hero's looks for Spider-Man; Bendis said, "I saw him in the costume [on Community] and thought, 'I would like to read that book.'" Glover later voiced this incarnation of Spider-Man on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.
Glover received the Rising Comedy Star award at the Just for Laughs festival in July 2010, and was featured in Gap's 2010 holiday advertising campaign.
2013โ2017: Atlanta and Spider-Man
In 2013, Glover signed a deal to create a music-themed show for FX titled Atlanta, in which he would star, write, and serve as an executive producer. Although several networks were interested in picking up his half-hour comedy, he chose FX due to their willingness to work around his touring schedule. He had a supporting role in the romantic comedy The To Do List (2013), which performed below expectations, and guest starred in two episodes of the comedy-drama television series Girls in early 2013, as a Republican who is the brief love interest to Lena Dunham's character.
After being in development since August 2013, FX ordered the Atlanta series in December 2014, announcing a 10-episode season in October 2015, which premiered on September 6, 2016, to widespread critical acclaim. Glover writes, occasionally directs, executive produces, and stars in the series as Earnest "Earn" Marks, a Princeton dropout who manages his rapper cousin as they navigate through the Atlanta hip hop scene.
For his work on the show, Glover has earned various accolades, including Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series โ Musical or Comedy and Best Actor โ Television Series Musical or Comedy (becoming the fifth black person in Golden Globe history to win in the category) as well as Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, making him the first black person to win an Emmy for the latter category.
Due to the success of the series, FX signed Glover to an exclusive deal to write and produce more shows for the network. The first of these shows was an animated series featuring the Marvel Comics character Deadpool, which was set to premiere in 2018 but was later canceled due to creative differences. Glover later posted an unofficial and unproduced script to his Twitter account commenting that he was not "too busy to work on Deadpool", ending media speculation.
Glover appeared in three films in 2015. In The Lazarus Effect, he played a scientist working with a team of researchers who bring dead people back to life with disastrous consequences. Next, Glover played a singer in the comedy-drama Magic Mike XXL and performed a cover of the Bruno Mars song "Marry You" in the film, which was included in the soundtrack.
His third release that year was Ridley Scott's science fiction adaptation The Martian, featuring Glover as a Jet Propulsion Laboratory astrodynamicist who helps rescue an astronaut, played by Matt Damon, stranded on Mars.
In April 2017, Time named Glover in its annual "100 Most Influential People in the World". Tina Fey wrote the entry for Glover; she remarked that he "embodies his generation's belief that people can be whatever they want and change what it is they want, at any time". Later that year, Glover appeared as criminal Aaron Davis in the superhero film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
Davis is the uncle of the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man, whom Glover had voiced in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. The casting was described as "a surprise treat for fans" by the film's director Jon Watts, aware of his 2010 campaign to portray the superhero. He would later reprise this role in a live-action cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
2018โ2019: Star Wars, Lion King, and Atlanta second season
While filming Atlanta's second season, Glover portrayed a young version of Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), causing him to miss appearances in some episodes; Calrissian was previously played by Billy Dee Williams in two films in the original Star Wars trilogy. Despite the film's turbulent production and poor box office returns, Glover's performance was praised, particularly by critic Stephanie Zacharek for his "unruly, charismatic elegance".
In February 2018, Glover approached New Regency, without a script, about a project he wanted to work on while he had free time between Solo promotional duties and his This Is America Tour. Due to his previous success, they accepted his offer quickly and Amazon Studios agreed to distribute the film. Guava Island, the resulting film written by Stephen Glover and directed by Hiro Murai, was filmed in Cuba.
It stars Glover as a musician who decides to throw a festival on his homeland, with Rihanna co-starring as his partner and muse. It was released in 2019 through Amazon Prime Video to generally favorable critical appraisal after premiering at Coachella. Glover provided guest vocals to the track "Monster" on 21 Savage's 2018 album I Am > I Was, reflecting on his negative feelings toward the music industry and why he wants to retire from music.
He partnered with Adidas Originals to reimagine three pairs of classic Adidas sneakers, which were launched in April 2019 under the "Donald Glover Presents" line and were promoted by a series of advertisements starring comedian Mo'Nique.
Glover provided the voice for adult Simba, the titular protagonist and lion prince turned king in The Lion King (2019), a remake of the 1994 Disney film of the same name. Glover praised the director, Jon Favreau, for the way he constructed the timeless story and asked him to re-record his lines as he connected to the film's story line more personally after his father's death.
Glover sang on the film's soundtrack and on the curated album The Lion King: The Gift, featuring songs inspired by the film. Although it received mixed reviews, the film grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of all time.
2021โpresent
In 2021, Glover signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios. It was announced that he would be producing and starring in a television reboot of Doug Liman's 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, with Maya Erskine co-starring. In April 2021, Glover tweeted that he was in the midst of writing a trilogy of feature films.
In February 2022, both seasons 3 and 4 of Atlanta had completed filming, with season 3 premiering on March 24, 2022, and the final season on September 15, 2022. In March 2022, Glover announced that he was working on a Disney+ Star Wars series based on Lando Calrissian.
In December 2022, it was announced that Glover would star and produce a feature set in Sony Pictures' Spider-Man universe. The film currently has no title but is said to revolve around the Hypno-Hustler. He is also the creator of the television series Swarm, starring Dominique Fishback, Damson Idris, and Chloe Bailey. Serving as a director and executive producer on the show, the series is the first project from his deal with Amazon Studios.
In an October 2022 interview with Variety, Community creator Dan Harmon said that he believes Glover would be in the upcoming Sony Pictures and Peacock produced Community film. "I think that Donald is coming, based on word of mouth, but it's just the deal isn't official or wasn't official. It would be difficult to really commit to doing this thing without Donald," Harmon said. "So I believe he is coming back." In April 2023, Glover confirmed he would be returning for the Community movie.
In July 2023, it was announced that Glover and his brother Stephen would replace Justin Simien as the head writers of the upcoming Star Wars series Lando. On January 8, 2024, it was announced Donald Glover would star in the biopic of British-American rap artist 21 Savage, titled American Dream: The 21 Savage Story, alongside Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin and Savage; Glover was expected to play 21 Savage.
On January 24, Savage revealed that the biopic's announcement was actually a "parody", though he noted that "it could be [a real movie] one day". On March 9, 2026, it was announced that he would be voicing Yoshi in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Music career (as Childish Gambino)
Early career
Glover's stage name, Childish Gambino, which he used to start his musical career, comes from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator. In June 2008, he released the independent mixtape Sick Boi. In September 2009, he released his second mixtape Poindexter. A pair of mixtapes titled I Am Just a Rapper and I Am Just A Rapper 2, were released in close succession in 2010, and Culdesac, his third mixtape, was released in July of that year. In March 2010, Glover performed a 30-minute set on the stand-up showcase program Comedy Central Presents.
2011โ2012: EP and Camp
His first extended play, titled EP, was released as a free digital download in March 2011. A music video for the song "Freaks and Geeks" was released in that month and Glover hosted the MTVU Woodie Awards at South By Southwest. Glover commenced his nationwide IAMDONALD Tour in April. The tour was a one-man live show that consisted of rap, comedy, and video segments.
He appeared at the 2011 Bonnaroo Music Festival as both Childish Gambino and as a comedian, performing a set with Bill Bailey. His one-hour stand-up special, Weirdo, aired on Comedy Central in November 2011.
For his 2011 debut studio album, Glover approached Community's score composer, Ludwig Gรถransson for production assistance; Gรถransson has become his most frequent collaborator. Prior to its release, Glover signed with Glassnote Records and embarked on The Sign-Up Tour.
The album titled Camp, was released on November 15, 2011, backed by his debut single "Bonfire" and "Heartbeat", which peaked at number eighteen on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and number fifty-four on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Camp debuted at number eleven on the Billboard 200, selling 52,000 copies in the first week, and was generally well received by critics, with PopMatters writer Steve Lepore finding it to be "undoubtedly one of the best records of any genre to come out in 2011".
His Camp Gambino tour was scheduled to commence in March 2012, but was postponed to April after he fractured his foot.
๐ Source: Wikipedia
