Scott Martin Brooks

Scott Martin Brooks
Scott Martin Brooks in 2004
Born	Scott Martin Brooks (1972-04-06) April 6, 1972 (age 45) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Other names	Dookie
Website	[1]

Scott Martin Brooks (born April 6, 1972) is an American actor, best known for his appearance in the "Whassup?" series of television commercials for Budweiser brand of beer, as the character "Dookie."

Brooks was born Scott Martin Brooks on April 6, 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was adopted at birth. Brooks has described himself on his old MySpace page as "a poor black child from the mean streets of West Philly...the REAL West Philly, not that suburb Fresh Prince was from." Brooks' father died when he was 12, he was then raised by his mother and two older sisters. In June 2008, his mother also died. Growing up, Brooks studied classical piano from age 5 to 15, performing in many recitals, was heavily involved in his local church, and throughout his teens he was a competitive swimmer, ran track, and lettered in JV baseball. From ages 11 to 18 he acted in many plays for a neighborhood theater group, and when he was 19 he studied acting at the John Barth acting studios in Philadelphia.

Brooks received several academic awards during high school (Art, English, History), and after graduation, he attended college as a business management major. But after one year he left school, and he and his best friend borrowed money from their parents and opened their own business - a popular neighborhood video rental store. After 4 years and 2 stores, Brooks and his partner sold the business. It was soon after this that he took his first job as a bouncer at a local "gentleman's club", which turned into a ten-year career as a well-known doorman/head of security in the Philadelphia bar/nightclub scene. Also during this time, along with several co-workers, Brooks became a partner in an infamous underground, after-hours nightclub.

While Brooks was working in the nightclub scene, his childhood friend Charles Stone was becoming famous as a director of music videos. Starting back when they were in high school, Stone would often cast Brooks in his art projects, short films and music videos. In 1998, Stone came up with the original "Whassup" concept; a three-minute film entitled True. When he decided to make the film, Stone told Brooks, "It’s based on us, and something we used to do back in the day."

"True" was a huge hit on the independent film festival circuit, which led to it becoming a popular "party tape"...it was being dubbed and bootleg copies were being passed around all across the country. One such bootleg was shown to Vinny Warren, an ad exec at the DDB-Needham advertising agency. Budweiser was a client of DDB, so, Vinny approached August Busch IV, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, and sold him on the idea of turning True into a series of TV commercials.