HE’S ON A MISSION“Part of the reason I do what I do is that I’m the only one who can do it.”
ËHe was a virgin who’d
never had a drink when
he got to NYU, where he
studied dramatic writing
and did medical studies
for cash. He lost his
virginity to a trap song.ËIn high
school, he took
dance classes,
ballet, and tap.
Fellow students
assumed he
was closeted.ËHe formed a college
sketch group called Derrick
Comedy. Its most popular
YouTube video, with
11 million views, is a 2006
TV-newsmagazine parody
about “bro rape.”ËHe attended a
performing-arts high school
outside Atlanta. He
auditioned with Cameron’s
defiant closing monologue
from Ferris Bueller’s Day
Off and a Boyz II Men song.HIS BIG BREAK
He was hired as a writer on 30
Rock right out of NYU. “Donald
was our only African-American
writer at the time, but his real
diversity was that he was our only
‘cool young person’ who could tell
us what the ‘kids were listening
to these days,’ ” Tina Fey recalled
in her memoir. One line he wrote
for Kenneth the Page: “It’s hard
for me to watch American Idol
’cause there’s a water bug on my
channel-changer.”The File: Donald Glover
HIS
SCHOOL
YEARSYOU CAN SKIP
WRITING A JOKE
FOR HIM
In 2009, he starred as
ex-jock Troy Barnes
on Community,
where he proved such
a reliable improviser
that the show’s
scripts would simply
state “Donald says
something funny.”ËPitchfork called his debut
album “one of the most
uniquely unlikable rap
records of this year.”
He says the pan “put a lot
of people on my side.”ËBy the
standards
of awards
ceremonies, his
music career
(five Grammys)
is more than
twice as
successful as
his television one
(two Emmys).ËHis favorite
karaoke song
is Seal’s “Kiss
From a Rose.”ËHe credits
drugs with
making him
a better rapper.ËHe performs
under the name
Childish Gambino
(which comes from
an online Wu-Tang
“name generator”) to make it clear
he isn’t doing comedy raps. He calls
his early efforts “decrepit Drake”
and early on described his female
fans as “pretty girls who try to
be geeks but obviously aren’t.”ËHe spent
three years
tinkering with
the song that
became “This Is
America.” It was
finally released
in May 2018,
in part because
of his SNL-
hosting gig.BECAUSE HE WAS RAISED A JEHOVAH’S WITNESS, MOST POP
CULTURE WAS FORBIDDEN (EXCEPT STAR WARS, WHICH HIS
FATHER, WHOM HE’S CALLED A “BLACK NERD,” OKAYED)He would secretly tape the audio
of Simpsons broadcasts and re-create
them with his brother Stephen.
(In high school, he was voted “Most Likely
to Write for The Simpsons.” )This July, Donald McKinley Glover Jr.—actor, writer, comedian, rapper,
showrunner, idealistic musician boyfriend of Rihanna in the recent anti-capitalist
diaspora fable Guava Island and non-swole fashion icon who looks great
in Gucci—plays Simba in the live-action remake of The Lion King. by nate jonesËHe was born on September 25,
1983, on Edwards Air Force Base
in California, the oldest of a brood
including three biological children,
two adopted children, and one foster child. (His
mother also ran a day-care out of the garage.) He grew
up in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where the KKK was
refounded in 1915 and which is home to an enormous
Confederate monument carved into said mountain.
He’s called it “a pimple on the ass of the earth.”WHERE’D
HE COME
FROM?Illustration by Bráulio AmadoHIS
MUSICËHe has spoken
periodically of his intent
to retire from music.SOURCE PHOTOGRAPH: RICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES FOR IHEARTMEDIABUT THERE’S ONE PERSON WHO CAN INTIMIDATE HIMBeyoncé, his co-star on The Lion King.
ËHe has two
children with his
partner, Michelle.
Parenthood, he
says, is “like
ayahuasca.”ËWhen he was a
child, he dreamed of
becoming a wedding
planner. He does
not currently
believe in marriage.HIS NON-
WEDDING
PLANS