Owen was born Gary Owens in Cincinnati, Ohio to Barb and Gary Owens. He later dropped the s from his surname, adopting the stage name Gary Owen, to avoid confusion with television announcer Gary Owens.[1]
Owen's parents had been high school sweethearts and his mother was 18 years old at the time of his birth. Owen's parents separated a few years after his birth, and his mother remarried shortly after.[1]
Owen's family struggled financially during his childhood. His mother worked in a factory making electrical connectors and his stepfather was chronically unemployed. Owen spent the majority of his childhood in a trailer park in Oxford, Ohio along with mother, stepfather, step sister and three younger half-siblings.[1] He graduated from Talawanda High School in Oxford, Ohio in 1991.[4]
He joined the U.S. Navy at age 18. He served for six years as a Master-at-Arms and was in the Presidential Honor Guard.[5]
Career
Owen began doing standup in 1995 while stationed with the Navy in San Diego, California. The following year he started driving to Los Angeles on weekends to perform standup in the city. According to Owen, his stand up was initially not well-received by audiences. In 1996 he was invited to perform at a comedy club in front of a majority black audience. Recalling the experience in 2015, Owen told Buzzfeed News that when he first performed for a majority black audience, "I was shocked when I walked onstage and told the exact same fucking joke and it worked. [...] And that was when I knew."[1]
After a year of doing stand-up, Owen was named "Funniest Serviceman in America".[6] He continued doing stand-up in San Diego and developed a large African-American fan base. He went on to win the "Funniest Black Comedian in San Diego" contest. That led to his first gig at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. In July 1997, he auditioned for BET's Comic View. Two appearances on the multicultural comedy showcase won him his own one-hour Grandstand show. At the end of the season, he was selected from the year's four "Grandstanders" to be the host. Owen was the only white man to have ever hosted Comic View.[7]
In April 2011, Ebony dubbed Owen "Black America's Favorite White Comic".[8]
Owen has produced two stand-up DVDs: Breakin' Out The Park, which is now available nationwide, and Urban Legend. He was also one of the headliners on Martin Lawrence Presents: 1st Amendment Stand-Up on Starz.
He has released the comedy specials Gary Owen: True Story (2012) and Gary Owen: I Agree with Myself (2015), and Gary Owen: I Got My Associate's (2017), all directed by Leslie Small, as well as Gary Owen: #DoinWhatIDo (2019), directed by Brian Volk-Weiss. In 2021, Owen released his comedy special Gary Owen: Black Famous on Showtime cable network that was also directed by Volk-Weiss.
Personal life
Owen met Kenya Duke in 1997. The couple was married from 2003 to 2021 and have two children together, a son and a daughter. Owen was stepfather to Kenya's son from a previous relationship.[10]
According to posts made to her Instagram, Owen is currently engaged to Bri Johnson. [11] Following their engagement, Johnson gave birth to their twin sons in July 2023. [12]
