Keegan-Michael Key, the Anger Translator

Keegan-Michael Key is one half of the comedy team Key & Peele, whose eponymous sketch show on Comedy Central won the Peabody Award, among other honors. The show ran for five seasons and produced sharp and ambitious sketches that often focussed on popular culture, politics, and race. In the now classic “Anger Translator” sketch, Key played the character Luther, a physical embodiment of Barack Obama’s id, who lets fly all the pent-up rage the President kept in check. The New Yorker editor Henry Finder asked Key how he veered away from his dramatic training into comedy, and about the meaty theatrical roles he yearns to play.