Craig Phillip Robinson (born October 25, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. The accolades he has received include nominations for five Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award.
Robinson is best known for portraying Darryl Philbin on The Office (2005–2013). He also portrayed Ray Heyworth on Mr. Robot (2016), LeVar "Freight Train" Brown on The Cleveland Show (2009–2013), and Doug "the Pontiac Bandit" Judy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021). He also frequently collaborates with Seth Rogen, including the films Pineapple Express (2008), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and This Is the End (2013). Robinson has appeared in numerous other television shows and films, including Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Get On Up (2014), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), and Dolemite Is My Name (2019), as well as voicing characters in films such as Cookie in Shrek Forever After (2010), Mr. Grits in Sausage Party (2016), Mr. Shark in The Bad Guys film franchise (2022–present), Baloney Tony in In Your Dreams (2025), and Atlas in Toy Story 5 (2026). He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Morris from America.
From 2020 to 2021, Robinson hosted the reality dancing show The Masked Dancer. Robinson also starred in and executive produced the Peacock series Killing It (2022–2023), which had two seasons on the service.
Contents
Early life
Robinson was born on October 25, 1971, in Chicago, Illinois, to a music teacher mother and an attorney father. He was raised on the South Side of Chicago, and was brought up Methodist. He attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Illinois State University in 1994, and his Master of Education from Saint Xavier University. He was a music teacher at Horace Mann Elementary School in Chicago, and H. W. Eggers Middle School in Hammond, Indiana and East Chicago Central High School in East Chicago, Indiana.
Career
Acting and comedy
Robinson began doing stand-up and taking classes in improv and acting at The Second City in Chicago while still in college. He was on Def Comedy Jam season 7, episode 2. After doing open-mic sessions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere and winning regional comedy competitions, he began to get spots on late night TV shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live. 2004 saw him cast in bit parts, including episodes of Friends, The Bernie Mac Show, LAX and Arrested Development. Those led to small film roles in Knocked Up, Pineapple Express and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Beginning in 2005, he portrayed Darryl Philbin on the American version of The Office, appearing first in "The Alliance", the fourth episode of the first season. Robinson was promoted to a starring role in the fourth season and continued until the show ended in 2013.
In 2010, he hosted season seven of Last Comic Standing with judges Greg Giraldo, Natasha Leggero, and Andy Kindler.
He has appeared on other television shows, including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Lucky, Halfway Home, and Reno 911!. He appeared in the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Hump de Bump". He voiced Cookie in Shrek Forever After (2010) and played Reg Mackworthy on the HBO hit series Eastbound & Down (2009–2012).
Robinson is a frequent collaborator with Seth Rogen, starring alongside Rogen in the films Knocked Up (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), This Is the End (2013), Sausage Party (2016), as well as the miniseries Santa Inc. (2021).
Robinson performed at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in 2008.
In addition to Shrek Forever After and Sausage Party, Robinson has also provided his voice for the films Escape from Planet Earth (2013), Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013), Henchmen (2018), Dolittle (2020), and Toy Story 5 (2026).
He also appeared in the Korean film D-War (Korean: 디워), released in North America as Dragon Wars: D-War in 2007.
Music
For a number of years, Robinson and comedian Jerry Minor had a comedy act where they performed as musical duo L. Witherspoon & Chucky, with Minor as smooth singing L. Witherspoon and Robinson as Chucky, the keyboard player and back-up singer. They performed the act on HBO's Sketch Pad, several stand-up shows on Comedy Central, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!
He occasionally performs with his band, The Nasty Delicious, alongside his brother and musical director Chris Rob on keyboards, Ethan Farmer on bass, Asa Watkins on drums, David Sampson on guitar, Lakecia Benjamin and Reggie Hines on saxophones, Winston Byrd on trumpet, and Bendji Allonce on percussion. They were featured as his band in an episode of The Office, and on the season finale of the seventh season of Last Comic Standing. He has also performed in character in multiple episodes of The Office, and was featured on the Hot Tub Time Machine soundtrack, singing "Jessie's Girl" and "Let's Get It Started". He was in the film Miss March, playing the role of the hit rapper Phil, also known as Horsedick.MPEG. Robinson produced two songs from that same film. In the film Dolemite Is My Name, playing the role of musician Ben Taylor, he performed the title theme of the Rudy Ray Moore blaxploitation film Dolemite.
He has performed with his band in the 2018 stand-up comedy special Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity.
