Keegan-Michael Key

Keegan-Michael Key learned his craft in sketch, first across five seasons of Mad TV and then on Key & Peele, which he created and starred in with Jordan Peele and which earned him one Primetime Emmy from ten nominations. Sketch comedy rewards a particular skill, the ability to establish a whole person in about eight seconds and then destroy him in ninety, and Key is unusually good at the destruction half. His signature is escalation: he plays men losing their composure by visible degrees, and the pleasure is in watching the control slip one notch at a time rather than all at once.

The screen career has followed a strange path for someone with that ability. He appeared alongside Peele in the first season of Fargo, had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation from 2013 to 2015, led the sitcoms Playing House and Friends from College, joined Reboot, and starred in the musical comedy series Schmigadoon!. Film, meanwhile, has mostly hired his voice: Toad in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Ducky in Toy Story 4, Kamari in The Lion King, Murray across the Hotel Transylvania films, and roles in Transformers One, Migration and Wonka.

That is a mismatch worth naming. He is one of the most physically inventive comic actors working, and a large share of his most visible credits give him a microphone and a booth. The exceptions are the interesting ones. Keanu, which he wrote and led with Peele, and Don't Think Twice, an improv-troupe drama that asks him to be quietly unlikeable, are where his live-action ability actually gets used.