Donnell Rawlings
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Donnell Rawlings is an American actor and comedian.
[edit] Career
Notable roles include appearing in Chappelle's Show, as well as making a guest appearance in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 and a cameo appearance in the music video for Jim Jones' We Fly High (Ballin' Remix).
He also hosted the third season of Chappelle's Show along with Charlie Murphy. His catch phrase from Chappelle's Show is "I'm rich, biaaaaach!" (which is played at the end of every episode as part of Dave Chappelle's vanity card) as well as yelling "Son!" at the end of each sentence. He also played the character Ashy Larry.
Rawlings learned to speak broken Korean while serving in the United States Air Force when he was stationed in South Korea. He demonstrates the language in the Chappelle's Show sketches "Player Hater's Ball" and "The Time Haters", the latter of which was featured in the "Failures" episode. Rawlings reprises his role as the hater "Beautiful", known for wearing a Jheri curl and a suit similar to ones that Little Richard has worn.
In the sketches, he responds to the comments of Korean hater "Mr. Roboto" with insults in Korean.
Rawlings also made an appearance on the HBO drama The Wire playing Damien Lavelle 'Day-Day' Price, an ex-convict who is hired as a legislative aide and driver for corrupt state senator Clay Davis. Price's character appears unrefined on several occassions contemplating heists in public and stating things in the court room such as "Y'all tryin' to 'criminate me" while on the stand. Davis coincidentally enough is played by Chappelle's Show co-star Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Rawlings stars in a series of sketch comedy clips portraying his character Ashy Larry, from Chappelle's Show, on heavy.com called "From Ashy to Classy". Ashy Larry dreams of how his life would be if he were classy, and dreams up a character who he calls Ashford Lawrence, a supposed reporter for heavy.com. Ashy Larry goes to different high class establishments posing as a reporter, where eventually his girl comes and pulls him out at the end of each clip.
In the Summer of 2007, Rawlings was featured on the cover of the one-year anniversary issue of Beyond Race magazine.
[edit] Personal life
Attended T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA.
He was working with New York's hit radio station Power 105.1 in the morning on The Ed Lover Show with Egypt & Ashy. Donnell was removed from his morning show post at Power 105's Ed Lover Show with Egypt and Ashy for a controversial comment the comedian made during the aftermath of the Don Imus controversy.
He speaks fluent Korean.
