Lil Rel Howery

Lil Rel Howery (birthname: Milton Howery Jr.) is a busy performer on the big and small screen, having made a notable jump from the stand-up circuit to a role in Jordan Peele’s groundbreaking, Oscar-nominated horror/black comedy, Get Out (2017), starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, and Catherine Keener, and grossed an astounding $255 million (on $4.5 million costs) after premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Howery joined the lively ensemble of the Jeff Tomsic-directed comedy, Tag (2018), with Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Annabelle Wallis, Hannibal Buress, Isla Fisher, Rashida Jones, Leslie Bibb, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner, and then Howery had his first co-starring role (opposite NBA star Kyrie Irving) in the comedy, Uncle Drew (2018), with Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Lisa Leslie, and Tiffany Haddish, under Charles Stone III’s direction, returning good returns ($46.7 million) for distributor Lionsgate.

Howery played a supporting role in the Sundance hit and box office dud, writer-director Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019), starring Jillian Bell, and then followed up with a supporting role in the far more successful comedy, Good Boys (2019), co-written and directed by Gene Stupinsky and starring Jacob Tremblay.

Howery had his first animation voice role in Sony Pictures Animation’s sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), with Jason Sudeikis leading a voice cast including Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Awkwafina, Sterling K. Brown, and Peter Dinklage, and then Howery joined the intimate ensemble of his first dramatic feature, writer-director Stella Meghie’s The Photograph (2020), co-starring Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield, released to poor box office ($21 million on a $28 million budget) for Universal Pictures.

Lil Rel Howery played an undercover FBI agent in his second movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, director-writer-producer Shaka King’s extraordinary Black Panther drama, Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) co-starring Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, and Martin Sheen, earning six Oscar nominations and released to the low box office ($7.4 million) by Warner Bros.

Howery’s second voice performance in an animated movie was Warner Animation Group’s Tom & Jerry: The Movie (2021), directed by Tim Story, and then Howery’s next appearance in a theatrically released movie was director-producer Shawn Levy’s action comedy, Free Guy (2021), starring Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, and Taika Waititi, and delivering $331.5 million for 20^th Century Studios.

Howery portrayed the co-starring character of Marcus in director/writer Clay Tarver’s comedies for 20^th Century Studios, Vacation Friends (2021) and Vacation Friends 2 (2023), with John Cena and Yvonne Orji, but Howery also kept his hand in dramatic material as a co-star in the football saga, National Champions (2021), with Stephan James, J.K. Simmons, Alexander Ludwig, Tim Blake Nelson, Andrew Bachelor, Timothy Olyphant, and Uzo Aduba, under Ric Roman Waugh’s direction.

Howery was cast in director/writer James Morosini’s comedy, I Love My Dad (2022), with Patton Oswalt and Morosini, and premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival, followed by a supporting role in Jeff Baena’s and Alison Brie’s comedy, Spin Me Round (2022), also a South by Southwest premiere before being picked up for release by IFC Films.

Lil Rel Howery’s busy lineup of feature releases continued with writer-director Minhal Baig’s little-seen drama, We Grown Now (2023), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and then released to miniscule box office by Sony Pictures Classics and Stage 6 Films, and then continued with another voice role in the highly successful Canadian-produced kiddie animated sequel, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023), with Howery joining a voice cast including Mckenna Grace, Taraji P. Henson, Kim Kardashian, Chris Rock, Serena Williams, James Marsden, and Kristin Bell, and released by Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures outside of Canada.

Howery’s next theatrical feature (after a string of movies released on major streaming platforms) was the live-action/animation movie, Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024), in which he co-starred with Zachary Levi, Jemaine Clement, Alfred Molina, and Zooey Deschanel, under Carlos Saldanha’s direction and released by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Howery followed with another live-action/animated hybrid, Animal Friends (2025), starring Ryan Reynolds (who also produced), Jason Momoa, Vince Vaughn, Aubrey Plaza, Addison Rae, Dan Levy, Joaquim de Almeida, and Maya Rudolph, directed by Peter Atencio and released by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Howery joined Rainn Wilson, Aimee Carrero, and Yvette Nicole Brown for the action comedy, Code 3 (date to be announced), co-written and directed by Christopher Leone, and then Howery was cast opposite Jermaine Fowler and Keith Lucas in the comedy, The Come Up (date to be announced), directed by Matthew A. Cherry and Michael Starrbury.