Dewayne Perkins

CTL-E-5721 · Person · other · 1990–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-06996 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5721.

Dewayne Perkins, born November 5, 1990, in Chicago, Illinois, is an American comedian, writer, actor, and producer. Raised on the South Side near Marquette Park, he graduated from Curie High School as its first Black male student to earn an International Baccalaureate diploma, and took his bachelor's degree at DePaul University after an early cut from its Theatre School redirected him to film and animation. Trained at The Second City and iO Theater, he formed the improv trio 3Peat, whose sketch “The Blackening” became a viral Comedy Central digital short in 2018. Perkins joined the writing staffs of The Break with Michelle Wolf, Brooklyn Nine-Nine — its only Black writer in season seven — the Saved by the Bell reboot, and The Amber Ruffin Show, which brought him a 2021 Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. He co-wrote (with Tracy Oliver) and starred in the horror-comedy feature The Blackening, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022 and released in 2023, and has appeared on Wild 'n Out and The Upshaws.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Fill 500 Lists Wave 4, Tier 1 — 747 Program). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Dewayne Perkins entity in the live graph at 3,409 entities (exact/normalized/alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-5721 free. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Fill 500 Comedians gap #27. Vital status: LIVING — verified by his continuing writing, acting, and touring work through 2025–26 and no death report in any source consulted. Degree rule satisfied: the DePaul bachelor's degree is documented (Wikipedia; Third Coast Review), so the has_alumnus edge from DePaul University (CTL-E-1847) is staged; his Theatre School cut after the first year is carried in the description, not hidden — the degree that followed was in film and animation. STATISTICS (sourced, dated): The Blackening grossed $17.7M (Den Theatre biography); the originating sketch passed 15 million views (Third Coast Review) — accessed 2026-10-16. MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate named in the packet); chart FILLED; video HELD; audio HELD. Blocked edges documented in the packet: Tracy Oliver collaborated_with (no graph entity for Oliver); The Blackening (no Work entity). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Persons receive no maps (media-layer rule carried from the CULTGRAPH packets).) | visual_assets = HELD: No Commons file page could be read at file-page level in this pass, so the slot is HELD rather than cleared on | chart = FILLED (Built only from this record's own sourced, dated facts; data table printed in the packet.) | video = HELD (No CTL Short for this subject — checked against the CTL Shorts Link Map catalog (2026-10-15) by full name and ) | audio = HELD (No matching-entity audio with a verified rights basis located in this pass (no CTL-owned audio; third-party st)

Relationships

• The Second City — performed at
  Perkins trained and performed at The Second City in Chicago, where he and Aasia Lashay Bullock were hired after their original show was seen there.

Referenced by

• DePaul University — has alumnus → this record

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Dewayne Perkins” — born November 5, 1990, Chicago; raised near Marquette Park; Curie High School, first Black male IB diploma recipient there; DePaul University BA (Theatre School cut after first year; film and animation); Second City and iO training; writing staffs (The Break, Saved by the Bell reboot, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Amber Ruffin Show); Emmy nomination; co-writer and star of The Blackening — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewayne_Perkins (build store)
• Third Coast Review (2023 interview) — Chicago upbringing, Curie IB diploma, DePaul, Second City, 3Peat, the viral Blackening sketch (15M+ views), Brooklyn Nine-Nine's only Black writer in season seven — https://ThirdCoastReview.com/film-tv/2023/06/13/film-interview-dewane-perkins (build store)
• The Den Theatre (Chicago) event biography — 3Peat and The Blackening's path from sketch to feature; The Blackening grossed $17.7M; Just for Laughs New Face 2019; Comedy Central Up Next — tickets.thedentheatre.com, accessed 2026-10-16 (build store)

More person records

• Hugh Masekela
• Hymen Childs
• Ibtihaj Muhammad
• Ice Cube
• Ice Spice
• Iceman King Parsons

Browse the full directory: all entity records

Record CTL-E-5721 · Combined Graph record U-06996 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

Cite this record

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.