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Paul Mooney was born in Louisiana, and later grew up in Oakland,California. Mooney became a ringmaster with the Charles Gody Circus. During his stint as ring master, he always found himself writing comedy and telling jokes, which would later help Mooney land his first professional work as a writer for Richard Pryor.

Paul Mooney wrote some of Richard Pryor’s routines for his appearance on “Saturday Night Live”, co-wrote his material for the “Live on the Sunset Strip”, “Bicentennial Nigger”, and “Is It Something I Said” albums, and Pryor’s film “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling”. As the head writer for “The Richard Pryor Show”, he gave many young stand-up comics, such as Robin Williams, Sandra Bernhard, Marsha Warfield, John Witherspoon, and Tim Reid, their first break into show business.

Mooney also wrote for Redd Foxx’s “Sandford and Son”, “Good Times”, acted in several cult classics including “Which Way is Up?”, “Bustin’ Loose”, “Hollywood Shuffle”, and portrayed singer/songwriter Sam Cooke in “The Buddy Holly Story”.

He was the head writer for the first year of Fox’s “In Living Color”, creating the character of Homey D. Clown, played by Damon Wayans. Mooney later went on to play Wayan’s father in the Spike Lee film, “Bamboozled” as the comedian Junebug.

Paul Mooney initially appeared in the sketches “Ask A Black Dude” and “Mooney On Movies” on Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show”, which he later replaced with “Negrodamus”, the African American version of Nostradamus. As Negrodamus, Mooney ad-libbed the “answers to life’s most unsolvable mysteries” such as “Why do white people love Wayne Brady?” ( Answer: “Because Wayne Brady makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X.”) Mooney was planning to reprise his role as Negrodamus in the third season of the “Chappelle’s Show”, before its abrupt hiatus.