Chi McBride

Chi McBride
McBride in April 2009
Born	Kenneth McBride (1961-09-23) September 23, 1961 (age 55) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present

Kenneth "Chi" McBride (born September 23, 1961) is an American actor. He starred as high school principal Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, Detective Laverne Winston on the Fox drama Human Target, and more recently Detective Don Owen in the short-lived CBS crime drama Golden Boy. He currently plays in a main role as Captain Lou Grover of the Five-0 taskforce in the CBS drama Hawaii Five-0. He has also appeared in films such as Gone in 60 Seconds, The Terminal, I, Robot, Roll Bounce, and Draft Day.

McBride was born in Chicago, Illinois, from which his nickname, Chi, derives. He was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist religion and attended Shiloh Academy, now known as Chicago SDA Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist school. He graduated from high school at the age of 16. McBride originally planned to pursue a career in music. After studying several instruments and singing with gospel choirs in his native Chicago, he relocated to Atlanta, Georgia in 1986 to work for AT&T as a billing clerk.

His first success in show business came with the hit song "He's the Champ", which parodied the marriage of boxer Mike Tyson and actress Robin Givens. Based on the tune's success, McBride was signed by Esquire Records and he joined the rhythm and blues band Covert. Convinced he should try his hand in front of the camera, the singer moved to Los Angeles and, billed as "Chi", landed guest spots on Fox's In Living Color and NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as well as a featured role in the TV movie Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation.