Sulayman Chappelle is the oldest son of the world famous stand-up comedian, Dave Chappelle. Along with his parents and two siblings, he resides in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Early life and family
Sulayman Chappelle was born in the middle of 2007, an holds American nationality. His father, Dave Chappelle chose the name for him according to the Islamic traditions of name giving. Dave also shared in one of his interviews to Joshua Klein from The Onion A.V. Club in 2007: ‘It’s Arabic. It means Solomon, the Arabic version of Solomon. But it’s like, it was Biblical. I’m David, I figure, Solomon. David Jr. sucks, because then everyone is going to compare him to me all his life’. Dave stated that he didn’t want his son to become another ‘Freddie Prinze Jr. or George Foreman Jr.’, who are all the time compared to their fathers.
IBRAHIM AND SULAYMAN CHAPPELLE
Posted by Deb Davis on Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sulayman has two siblings: a younger brother named Ibrahim and a younger sister named Sanaa. The whole family resides at their own farm of 65 acres, located not far from Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Educational background and career
Sulayman is now a student of his local secondary school in Yellow Springs, and is set to matriculate in 2025. There is no information yet on his plans for his further education. Unlike other celebrities’ kids, Sulayman hasn’t appeared in any of his father’s shows, as Dave Chappelle consciously holds his children away from the social media and television. Dave doesn’t have any social media accounts at all, as his Twitter was once hacked back in 2012 the same year he started it,and he was so disappointed and upset that he eventually refused to use any social media platforms.
Sulayman’s father, Dave Chappelle
Early life and family
Sulayman’s father was born as David Khari Webber “Dave” Chappelle on 24 August 1973, in Washington D.C. USA. Sulayman’s grandfather, William David Chappelle III, was a statistician, who was later invited to work at Antioch College, located in Yellow Springs, which was when Dave moved to the town he doesn’t want to leave even today. Dave’s mother’s name is Yvonne K. Reed Chappelle Seon; she was also a professor, working at Prince George’s Community College. Dave’s parents were politically active people, so their house was often visited by Pete Seeger, Johnny Hartman and many politicians. It was Hartman who predicted Dave would become a famous comedian; Dave was also inspired by the success and talent of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Rise to prominence
Dave’s parents divorced, so he lived with his mother in Washington D.C., and spent his summers with his father in Yellow Springs. In 1991 Dave matriculated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts, being mostly focused on theatre arts. His acting career began on the stage of New York’s Apollo Theater in an “Amateur Night”, and was unfortunately booed off and hissed. Later Dave admitted it gave him the experience of overcoming his fear of stepping onto the stage once again.
Dave debuted in the movies in 1993, landing the role of Ahchoo in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, and the role of Ozzie in “Undercover Blues”. Dave’s career took a fortunate twist as soon after he appeared in the comedy “The Nutty Professor”, in the role of Reggie Warrington.
In 1996 Dave landed the lead role of Dave Carlisle in the popular TV series “Buddies”, and voiced over several characters in several of HBO’s animation series. He later had roles in such movies as “The Real Blonde” (1997), “Half Baked” (1998), “You’ve Got Mail” (1998), among others. After HBO launched his first stand-up special “Dave Chappelle: Killin’ Them Softly”, he was offered his own show, and Dave didn’t hesitate to agree.
Chappelle’s Show and latest works
From 2003 to 2006 he worked on his “Chappelle’s Show”, not only as the host, but also as executive producer, co-creator and writer. Along with his fellow comedian Neal Brennan, Dave released three season of the show with 28 episodes in total. Even before the show was cancelled, Dave launched another stand-up special produced by HBO, “Dave Chappelle: For What It’s Worth”.
In 2007 Dave focused on his family, as his wife gave birth to their first son, Sulayman. Dave wanted to focus on writing more, but complained that the good scripts don’t come to him often, so he couldn’t work on good movies even though he really wanted to: ‘If a script comes to me, it’s already gotten to Will Smith, Chris Tucker, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, and Martin Lawrence. And then it gets down to me. So if it’s a good script, five or six guys have to say no before I even get an option whether I want to do it’.
Since 2015 Dave has started coming back to movies and TV shows as an actor.
He landed the role of Morris in “Chi-Raq” (2015), then HBO launched four stand-up specials in 2017 with Dave: “The Age of Spin: Live at the Hollywood Palladium”, “Deep in the Heart of Texas: Live at Austin City Limits”, “Dave Chappelle: Equanimity” and “Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation”; all of these films saw Dave listed by Forbes as one of the highest-paid comedians in the world, as his net worth grew up to $47 million by the end of 2017. In 2018 Dave played Noodles in Lady Gaga’s biopic “A Star Is Born”, then in 2019 he released another stand-up special “Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones”, which he also promoted on his US tour.
Sulayman’s mother, Elaine Mendoza Erfe
Sulayman’s mother, Elaine Mendoza Erfe, was born on 31 August 1974, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, and is of Filipino descent.
Little is known about her life before she met Dave Chappelle in the late ’90, but Dave once mentioned that they first met in Brooklyn; the couple married in 2001. Elaine is said to have dreamt about become a professional chef, but her dream didn’t come true, as she is now a housewife, taking care of her three kids with Dave Chappelle.
Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts
Not much is known about Sulayman’s hobbies, except that he is keen on sports and enjoys playing basketball at school. He also likes swimming. He spends a lot of time in the fresh air, playing with his younger siblings, Ibrahim and Sanaa.
Appearance, clothing style
Sulayman has short black hair and dark brown eyes. His height, weight and vital statistics are not available at the moment. As to his clothing style, he rarely gets into the frame of the press and paparazzi, but when he does, he wears casual clothes, such as hoodies, jeans, wide T-shirts, etc.
Net worth and salary
As of 2020, it is too early to speak about Sulayman’s personal net worth, as he doesn’t work yet. As to his father, Dave Chappelle is one the highest-paid comedians in the world; his net worth is estimated to be around $50 million. However, he enjoys life on the farm, and doesn’t want to live in any other place, although he also owns several houses, located in Xenia, Ohio.