<P> Donald McKinley Glover Jr. was born on September 25, 1983 at Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, California . He was raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia . His mother, Beverly (née Smith), is a retired daycare provider, and his father, Donald Glover Sr., is a retired postal worker . His parents also served as foster parents for 14 years . Glover was raised as a Jehovah's Witness . He attended DeKalb School of the Arts and was captioned "Most Likely to Write for The Simpsons" in his high school yearbook . </P> <P> Glover graduated from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Dramatic Writing (2006). While at Tisch, Glover self - produced the independent mixtape The Younger I Get, which was not released and was disowned by Glover for being "too - raw ramblings" of what he calls a "decrepit Drake". Glover also began disc jockeying and producing electronic music under the moniker MC D--later as mcDJ--remixing Sufjan Stevens' album Illinois (2005). </P> <P> In 2006, Glover was contacted by producer David Miner, to whom he sent writing samples including a spec script that he had written for The Simpsons . Miner and Tina Fey were impressed by Glover's work and invited him to become a writer for the NBC sitcom 30 Rock . Glover was a writer for 30 Rock from 2006 to 2009, where he also had occasional cameo appearances . He was presented the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Series at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the third season . Glover's musical stage name, Childish Gambino, came from the Wu - Tang Clan's name generator . In June 2008, he released the independent mixtape Sick Boi . In 2008, Glover unsuccessfully auditioned to play President Barack Obama on the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live; the role went to cast member Fred Armisen . Glover also became a member of the sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy, having appeared in their sketches on YouTube since 2006, along with Dominic Dierkes, Meggie McFadden, DC Pierson, and Dan Eckman . The group wrote and starred in a feature - length film, Mystery Team, released in theaters in 2009 . Bobby Moynihan and Aubrey Plaza also starred in the film alongside Glover . </P> <P> Glover became known to a wider audience with Dan Harmon's NBC sitcom Community, which premiered in September 2009 . Glover played Troy Barnes, a former high school star quarterback who quickly abandons his former jock mentality and embraces his nerdy, childish side as the result of his friendship with Abed Nadir (played by Danny Pudi). Glover did not return as a full - time cast member for the show's fifth season, appearing in the first five of the season's 13 episodes . Despite speculation that he was leaving to pursue his rap career as Childish Gambino, a series of hand - written notes that Glover posted to Instagram revealed that his reasons were more personal, citing a need for projects that offered him more independence as he worked through some personal issues . Although Harmon approached Glover about returning to the show for its sixth season, Glover declined, stating both show and audience would be better served by the closure of his character omitted from the story . In September 2009, he released his second mixtape Poindexter . A pair of mixtapes, titled I Am Just a Rapper and I Am Just A Rapper 2, were released in close succession in 2010 and followed that July by his fifth mixtape Culdesac . </P>

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