Tone Bell

Tone Bell
Bell in August 2018
Born
Michael Anthony Bell II

Occupation(s)Stand-up comedian, actor
Years active2004–present
Websitetonebell.com

Michael Anthony Bell II, known professionally as Tone Bell, is an American stand-up comedian and actor.[1][2]

Early life

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Bell was born in Decatur, Georgia.[1][3] He taught first grade before working on the production of HBO's Warm Springs and doing other various promo work.

Bell took a job in San Francisco as a brand manager with Swivel Media for a year, before moving back to Atlanta. There he started doing promotion work for a beer company that eventually transferred him to Dallas where he started doing open-mics at various comedy clubs.

Career

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Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Bell won the NBC Stand Up For Diversity Talent Search in 2012 and was awarded a development deal from the network. He was cast as "RJ" the bartender in the NBC sitcom Whitney and later as "Tedward" in NBC's Bad Judge. Bell also appeared in other TV shows, including VH1's Single Ladies, E!'s Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings, Comedy Central's Key & Peele and Game Show Network's Mind of a Man and hosted the first season of hidden camera show Jerks with Cameras on MTV.

Bell also has a web series on Russell Simmons' YouTube channel All Def Digital called The Green Room.

In March 2018, Bell was cast in a lead role for the CBS comedy pilot Fam after having starred in the Netflix multi-camera comedy Disjointed.[4]

Bell is the host of the new Netflix reality show Drink Masters, which premiered October 28, 2022, He stars as Khalil in the 2023 Netflix comedy series, Survival of the Thickest written by Michelle Buteau.

Filmography

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Films

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Year Title Role Notes
2013 Solstice Bartender #1 Short film
2013 Implanted Philip
2013 To My Future Assistant Davis Television film
2016 My Time Your Time Parker Television film
2017 Woman Child Michael Abby Short film
2018 Dog Days Jimmy
2018 The Weekend Bradford Collins
2018 It’s A Party Cool Breeze
2019 Little Preston
2020 Sylvie's Love Dickie Brewster
2021 The United States vs. Billie Holiday John Levy
2024 Trigger Warning Spider

Television series

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Year Title Role Notes
2012 Single Ladies Parker 2 episodes
2012–13 Whitney RJ Main role, 13 episodes
2013 Creepy Caress Tom 1 episode
2013 Key & Peele Friend #1 1 episode
2014–15 Bad Judge Tedward Mulray Main role, 13 episodes
2015 Truth Be Told Russell Main role, 10 episodes
2016 The Flash Scott Evans 2 episodes
2017 9JKL Luke 2 episodes
2017–18 Disjointed Carter Main role, 20 episodes
2019 Fam Nick Main role, 13 episodes
2020 BoJack Horseman Voice 1 episode
2020 American Soul Richard Pryor Recurring role
2022 Nailed It! Himself (Guest judge) 1 episode
2022 Drink Masters Himself (Host) 10 episodes
2023 Survival of the Thickest Khalil Main Cast

References

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  1. ^ a b "Tone Bell". cbs.com. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  2. ^ "Tone Bell Interview". clichemag.com. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  3. ^ Ho, Rodney. "Decatur native Tone Bell stars in CBS sitcom 'FAM' with Nina Dobrev". Radio & TV Talk Blog (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  4. ^ Otterson, Joe (2018-03-13). "'Disjointed' Alum Tone Bell to Star in CBS Comedy Pilot 'Fam'". Variety. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
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