Barry Sobel


Barry Sobel is an American actor and comedian.

Life and career

Sobel grew up in Brooklyn, New York. During the 1980s, he toured the comedy circuit heavily. In 1987, he appeared in Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedians special.
Sobel had a part in and 1987's Blind Date. He adopted his hip-hop comedy rap in 1987 when he was featured on HBO's Uptown Comedy Express.
In the 1987 film, Punchline, he had a small part, but played a more prominent off screen role as comedic advisor to Tom Hanks. According to Sobel, Hanks caught his act which stylistically was considered 'dangerous' as was the character Hanks was to play in Punchline.
Sobel was a series regular on ABC's The Ellen Burstyn Show in 1986, and was added to the cast of 227 in its fourth season. In the 1990s, he did voice-over work as himself on Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. From 1998 to 2000, he co-starred with Wayne Brady on the VH1 series Vinyl Justice, a parody of Cops in which both played police officers who raided citizens' private music collections and made wisecracks about them. Around this time, Sobel also guest starred as an angel on The Parent 'Hood.
Sobel voiced the character of Chico on the series The Boondocks.
In 2008, he appeared in commercials in scenes from Comedy Central's then-new show, Chocolate News, starring David Alan Grier. That show debuted on October 15, 2008.