Kenneth "Chi" (pronounced "shy"[1]) McBride (born September 23, 1961) is an American actor. On television, he is best known for his roles as High school principal Steven Harper on Boston Public, Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and Captain Lou Grover in the reboot of Hawaii Five-O.
On Married... with Children, he appeared as Dexter, co-shoe salesman at Gary's Shoes in the Season 8 episode titled "Nooner or Later".
Early life[]
Chi is a Chicago native, from which his nickname, Chi, derives. He was raised in the Seventh-Day Adventist church[2] and attended Shiloh Academy, now known as Chicago SDA Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist school. He graduated from high school at the age of 16. McBride originally planned to pursue a career in music. After studying several instruments and singing with gospel choirs in his native Chicago, he relocated to Atlanta in 1986 to work for AT&T as a billing clerk.
Career[]
Chi's first success in show business came with the hit song "He's the Champ", which parodied the marriage of boxer Mike Tyson and actress Robin Givens. Based on the tune's success, McBride was signed by Esquire Records and he joined the rhythm and blues band Covert. Convinced he should try his hand in front of the camera, the singer moved to Los Angeles and, billed as "Chi", landed guest spots on Fox's In Living Color and NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as well as a featured role in the TV movie Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation (which also starred MWC actor Ted McGinley).
In 1998, he was a co-star of Mercury Rising, alongside Bruce Willis. He was later given the role of Principal Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, a character that he played again in The Practice and Boston Legal (as all three series were created by David E. Kelley). Much of McBride's work sees him playing right-hand man to the hero, as in the films Mercury Rising and The Terminal. Chi is unusual among actors in that he did not begin his acting career until the age of 30. He is notable for his television roles on Boston Public, The John Larroquette Show, House, The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, Killer Instinct and Pushing Daisies.
McBride's film credits include Cradle 2 the Grave, The Distinguished Gentleman, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Frighteners, Narc, The Terminal, I, Robot, Roll Bounce, Annapolis, Hoodlum, Undercover Brother, Let's Go to Prison and The Brothers Solomon. McBride portrayed eight different characters in the play Nagataki Sake, directed by Robert Downey, Sr. Chi also starred in Human Target as Winston, business partner of Christopher Chance (the protagonist). The show premiered on January 17, 2010, on the Fox Broadcasting Company and ran for two seasons.
Chi has also appeared on an episode of "Celebrity Ghost Stories", depicting an incident during 1988 before his acting career in which he was subconsciously led to the Lorraine Motel while stopping over in Memphis, and experienced psychic visions of Martin Luther King's assassination on the 20th anniversary of the event.
He has had runs on Golden Boy as Detective Don Owen. Most recently, he played Captain Lou Grover in the CBS reboot police procedural series Hawaii-Five-0 from 2013 to 2020. He also provided voice work in the 2022 animated film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe and in the second reboot of the Beavis and Butt-Head series on Paramount+.
References[]
External links[]
Chi McBride at the Internet Movie Database
- Chi McBride at MTV.com