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Chicago native Robert Townsend has done it all. He is all things writer, director, actor, comedian and producer, whose portfolio includes work with entertainment mainstays like Denzel Washington, Ruth Carter, Jenifer Lewis, the Wayans family, Halle Berry, Taye Diggs and Beyoncé in her debut acting role in MTV’s 2001 musical “Carmen: A Hip Hopera.” He was the director of the highest-grossing stand-up concert film of all time, “Eddie Murphy: Raw.” His prolific nature extends not just to films like the satiric “Hollywood Shuffle” and musical drama “The Five Heartbeats,” but television networks like HBO (“Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime” ) , Fox (“Townsend Television”) and the WB (“The Parent ‘Hood”).

Townsend, an uncredited extra in 1

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