Born in Dayton Ohio, upon completing his high school education he was accepted into the University Of Cincinnati where he studied marketing. After college, moved to Atlanta and worked in telecommunications for 4 years as a customer service supervisor overseeing more then 200 customer service employees. While living in Atlanta, Kerry worked for superstar basketball player Dominique Wilkins as his personal assistant chief responsibilities handling all entertainment related business for the superstar this experience
is what prepared Kerry for his move to Hollywood were he began his career in the casting business and briefly partnered with the world renowned music producer Dr. Dre’. During this period casting over 300 music videos for artist such as Kelly Clarkson, Fergie, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg, and Madonna, just to name a few. He then started working with such hit TV shows like‘Martin’ and ‘Girlfriends’ and Real Husbands Of Hollywood. Kerry’s film credits include the Master P Biopic, “Beverly Hood” and “Set It Off”. Commercial credits include Domino’s Pizza, Burger King, Honey Nut Cheerios and numerous others. Over the years he has co-produced projects with Magic Johnson Enterprise and Babyface’s ex-wife Tracy. He has also been very instrumental the careers of stars like Chris Tucker, LisaRaye, Gabrielle Union and many others. Now let's add your name or company to that list.
An article published in YUSH Magazine 2015:
Former comic turned casting director Kerry Lee says Hollywood success is no joke
It wasn’t too long ago that Kerry Lee was sweating it out under the glare of stage lamps in Atlanta as a stand-up comic trying to break in. Now, as a casting director and owner of Calltime Entertainment - which produces and develops television shows, music videos and films – he works behind the camera, helping people get into the business. As one might have guessed, Lee says a working career in Hollywood is no laughing matter.
“It was a struggle,” a candid Lee said over the phone from his office in Los Angeles. “It started fast in terms of meeting people, but it didn’t start fast for me in trying to get the things going that I wanted to get going. Meeting people really doesn’t do anything, you still have to hustle.”
Kerry’s venture into show business was more luck than anything else, following some ladies into a club that happened to have an open-mic night. Motivated by the cash prize and some ribbing from his friends, he tried his luck onstage that night and the experience grew on him. “I went to the University of Cincinnati for marketing and moved to Atlanta from ’81 to about ’84-85,” he recalled to Yush Magazine. “I was in Atlanta for six or seven years until I moved to Los Angeles, Hollywood. I started doing stand-up in Atlanta, at a well-known comedy place that just opened up called the Comedy Act Theatre, which was owned by a gentleman named Michael Williams.
“What really gave me the ability to transcend Atlanta to Los Angeles was that the owner Michael Williams owned a comedy club in LA. He had just branched out to open one in Atlanta, so by doing that, it gave me the ability to have a direct Los Angeles connection. What he was doing was shuffling comics back and forth.
“This was around the times that most of the Black comedy was moving up,” he continued. “Robert Harris was the host of the Comedy Act, From Joe Torry to Jamie Foxx, because when comedy first came out, especially Black comedy, there wasn’t that many venues for us to go and perform. It was very hard being a brand new comic and headlining in a white comedy club. You couldn’t do it. Or not even headlining, but even just getting on the ticket. So we had to go to the places that we could get onstage, and really the only avenue that there was at that time was the Comedy Act theatre. So Michael Williams really had the market sowed up. All of the black comics were coming to him, from Jamie Foxx to newcomers like Cris Tucker, you could go to the Comedy Act theatre every night and see Eddie Murphy. You could see every black comic that there was performing through Michael Williams and the Comedy Act theatre hosted by the late Robin Harris. So when he moved out to Atlanta and opened that branch there, then he started shuffling comics to Atlanta to be headliners, but when he found a good comic that was in Atlanta, then he shot us out to Los Angeles.
“That was really how I was able to make the transition to Los Angeles and already having just a little something going because I was already running with a lot of the Los Angeles comics. Most people only do stand-up to really move them through the business. Not too many people get to be a 70-year-old stand-up comic. You use it to get yourself into acting; and now your one of the biggest Casting Director in Hollywood and thats the amazing story of Kerry Lee, comic turned actor turned Casting Director.
