Godfrey is one of the hottest young comedians on the horizon. In fact, Ben Stiller cast him to play himself in "Zoolander," a performance that has since achieved cult status. His more recent film roles in "Johnson Family Vacation", MGM's "Soul Plane", "The Cook Out" starring Queen Latifah, soon to be released "Phat Girlz" starring Monique highlight his comedic range, "Virginia" costarring with Parker McKenna Posey of the Damon Wayons ABC series/"My Wife & Kids" and "Short Fuse" highlighting Godfrey's dramatic and comedic skills. He is fresh off filming his fourth appearance on BET's "Comicview" and is also best known as the National spokesman for the 7UP campaign bringing his comedic portrayal as the 7UP Guy in the national 7 UP commercials . With his own half-hour comedy special for Comedy Central airing this February 18th 2005 Godfrey clearly is on the verge. It was in Bravo's weekly show called "The It Factor" that the start of Godfrey's career was documented. The story of nine people, who have what "it" takes to make it big in the entertainment industry, Godfrey was the only standup comic in the documentary. The show filmed him successfully booking a recurring role on NBC's "Third Watch"; doing voice over work on several commercial spots, headlining for the second time on the TV show "Comedy Factory"; a spot on BET's "Comicview"; turning down two regular hosting positions for two different cable networks; being offered and then working as a series regular on a new show VH1's "Undercover", and booking a career breaking commercial campaign for 7 Up, all in the span of 120 days. "You know how in every college catalogue there is a picture of an African foreign exchange student standing in front of a computer?" Godfrey says in his standup routine. "Well, that's my father." His parents fled the Nigerian/Biafran Civil War for Nebraska, where they went to school and soon had Godfrey. Later, the family settled in Chicago. "I was raised in Chicago's North Side," Godfrey says. "No matter where I go to pursue my career and where I may end up in my life, in my heart, Chicago will always be home." Upon finishing high school, Godfrey received an academic scholarship to the University of Illinois in Champagne, where he majored in psychology. As a lark, he tried out for football and made the varsity squad. "It's funny how things work out, but I had to be a walk on for a half back position on a Big Ten team before I would get the opportunity to finally discover what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life." he says. It is tradition that all new members of the varsity squad perform in a talent show for the team and the staff. For his performance, Godfrey did impressions of his coaches and fellow teammates and ended up not only stealing the show, but also discovering his true comedic talents. After graduating, Godfrey returned home to Chicago where he worked steadily as a standup comic. It was in the fall of 1995 that Godfrey made his New York debut at Caroline's Comedy Club and The Comic Strip and was immediately signed by the prestigious William Morris Talent Agency. Soon there after, Godfrey moved to New York to continue to fine tune his comedic skills. "It was tough at first, having to work my way into the comedy clubs, and learning to audition," Godfrey says. But, as soon as he arrived, he began to work regularly in television. First behind the camera doing the demanding work of warm-up comedian for CBS's "Cosby Show" and Dan Akroyd's vehicle for NBC, "Soulman". Then, he moved in front of the camera with his first network appearance doing stand-up on NBC's "Friday Night Videos." He went on to work as the roving reporter, doing street interviews for VH-1's "Rock of Ages" and then as the series host of "30X30 Kid Flicks, " the highest rated show on HBO's Family Channel. He also began to work in movies landing his first leading role with In the Weeds. He next played the role of a bouncer in Paramount's Coyote Ugly, had a supporting role in "30 Years to Life" starring Tracy Morgan and was featured in Jerry Seinfeld's documentary, "Comedian." The beginning of the 2000 marked a major turn in Godfrey's career, beginning with his first appearance in the "Aspen Comedy Festival" and on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend." Coming out of Aspen, MTV featured him as the comedian to watch in their special, "True Life: I'm A Comic." He went on to host MTV's Spring Break and MTV's "I Bet You Will." In addition to his film and television work, Godfrey is one of the most dominant comedic presences on the New York comedy scene where he is often in demand as both a host and standup guest star. Godfrey can regularly be seen performing in the hottest comedy clubs in New York including The Comedy Cellar, Comic Strip and Caroline's Comedy and in Los Angeles at The Laugh Factory and The Improv.
American Music Awards show is one of several annual major American music awards shows (among the others are the Billboard Music Awards, the Grammy Awards, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony). The AMA's (in current chronological order, the first of the "Big Three" music awards) were created by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete with the Grammys after the move of that year's show to Nashville, Tennessee led to CBS picking up the Grammy telecasts after its first two in 1971 and 1972 were broadcast on ABC. Michael Jackson and Donny Osmond co-hosted the first award show with Rodney Allen Rippy and Ricky Segall. While the Grammys are awarded based on votes by members of the entertainment industry, the AMAs are determined by a poll of music buyers. The "big three" established awards shows (AMAs, Billboard Music Awards, and Grammys) compete for prestige and television ratings, with the Grammys nominally rewarding quality and both the AMAs and Billboard Music Awards rewarding popularity. Stories of artists being pressured to participate in one awards show over the other have been fodder for tabloid gossip and controversy. The only other major difference between the Grammys and Billboard Music Awards is that the AMAs do not currently have an award for Best Single/Record but the Grammys and Billboard Music Awards do. In 1996, the AMAs instituted a new award, Favorite Artist of the Year, which was awarded to Garth Brooks. Brooks gave a short speech essentially saying he didn't deserve the award in a year he didn't do anything, and left the award on the podium. The category was discontinued. Since the establishment of the Billboard Music Awards in 1989, there have been instances where artists (such as The Dixie Chicks and Céline Dion) have won all of the "big three" major music awards (including the AMAs). But the need for a unified music awards system (on the mold of horse racing's Triple Crown) only complicates the competition between the AMAs and the other awards shows. Although the American Music Awards is held in United States, few British artists, like Elton John and George Michael, have also won awards on the show. For the first decade or so, the AMAs had multiple hosts, each representing a genre of music. For instance, Glen Campbell would host the country portion (Campbell, in fact, has co-hosted the AMAs more times than any other host or co-host), while other artists would co-host to represent his/her genre. In recent years, however, there has been one single host. From its inception in 1973 until 2003, the AMAs have been held in mid- to late-January, but were moved to November beginning in 2003 so as not to further compete with other major awards shows (such as the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards) and allows for ABC to have an well-rated awards show during November sweeps.