Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician. He was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984 and has worked as a stand-up comedian. He has received four Golden Globe Award nominations and won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of soul singer James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls.

Murphy grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. His mother, Lillian, was a telephone operator, and his father, Charles Edward Murphy, was a transit police officer and an amateur actor and comedian. His parents divorced when Murphy was a toddler, and his father was murdered, allegedly by an angry girlfriend, when Murphy was eight years old. Murphy and his older brother, Charles, were placed in foster care for a year, when their mother became ill and was hospitalized. In 1970, his mother remarried to Vernon Lynch, a foreman at an ice cream plant, and moved the family to Roosevelt, Long Island.