Rise to Fame
Happy Endings was the lab. He played Brad Williams across all 58 episodes of the critically praised ABC comedy, building his rep as the scene-stealer in an ensemble that already had plenty of competition. The catch: he'd already filmed the New Girl pilot before ABC renewed Happy Endings, so Fox swapped him out for Lamorne Morris. When ABC finally cancelled Happy Endings in 2013, New Girl brought Coach back. Losing a role he'd earned, then getting it back after the job that took it ended, is his career in miniature.
In the Spotlight
He's been betting on volume. Poppa's House paired him with his actual father Damon Wayans on CBS in 2024, a sitcom loosely based on their real dynamic, but CBS pulled it after 18 episodes. Now he's pivoting to drama: an NBC pilot called Puzzled, where he plays a former athlete whose traumatic brain injury gives him a gift for solving crimes. Scary Movie 6 (June 2026) meanwhile keeps the Wayans franchise connection alive. His production company, Two Shakes Entertainment, has a deal at CBS Studios, the same network that just cancelled him.
Side Notes
Growing up in the family that built In Living Color and the Scary Movie franchise, the interesting thing isn't that he became a comedian but that he carved out his own register. He did his early stand-up under a pseudonym, Kyle Green, so the Wayans name couldn't do the heavy lifting. At 20, he was one of the youngest staff writers on TV, working on My Wife and Kids. His voice work as Wasabi in Big Hero 6 is a credit that might outlast every TV show with his name on it.