Donald Glover is currently enjoying enormous success with the excellent Atlanta on FX, and he’s just been cast as Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Star Wars standalone movie about young Han Solo.
I really can’t wait to see his performance as Lando. Hopefully, it’s more than a small part. Cameo appearances, however, are a Glover trademark. And they’re “absolutely beautiful,” just as Lando would say. Here are a bunch of them…
First TV Credit: Late Night with Conan O’Brien
I’m starting off with a deep cut from back in 2005, which I think is even before Derrick Comedy started uploading videos on YouTube. There’s not a lot of Donald Glover in this sketch, he only appears for 10 seconds (at around 2:45). Honestly, I’m kind of amazed I even found this. This is for all you completionists out there or just anyone who’s ever wanted to see Donald Glover threaten Conan O’Brien and then get murdered by Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
Every 30 Rock Cameo
Donald Glover’s first huge break was getting hired by Tina Fey as a writer on 30 Rock, and throughout the show, he did several small cameos. They are each little treasures.
Who could forget his career-making role as “Unnamed P.A.”?
The energy and pathos he brought to the role of “Gay Kid” still brings a tear to my eye.
Donald Glover’s stand-up routine where he does an impression of Tracy Jordan is awesome and I love that they found a way to include it canonically on the show.
Sesame Street
I still can’t believe this one exists. Like I read that Donald Glover guest starred on Sesame Street so I had to check it out, but I assumed it would be a cute video of him talking to Grover or whatever. This weird pseudo-parody of LMFAO that seems to praise the abstract concept of using your brain to solve problems is better than anything I could’ve hoped for. I love that they brought him on as a musician instead of a comedian and then didn’t even have him do the kind of music he is known for.
The Muppets
Why is Donald Glover in this movie? It’s only for like 20 seconds and there are no jokes. The Muppets came out in 2011 and Community had already been on the air for like 2 years, so he was not a total unknown. Was this just a random paycheck? I don’t know, but I still shrieked with glee when I saw him, so congratulations on that The Muppets.
Robot Chicken
I love how subtle this Robot Chicken cameo is, like, you can barely even tell it’s Glover voicing Mace friggin’ Windu.
Regular Show
Yes, that is Childish Gambino and Tyler the Creator doing a rap battle on Cartoon Network, because Regular Show is perfect and nobody can convince me otherwise.
Adventure Time
The gender-swapped world of Fionna and Cake on Adventure Time has a lot of great cameos. They got Neil Patrick Harris as Prince Gumball which is also pretty great. Donald Glover as Marshall Lee is the one that has made me squeal the most though.
Ultimate Spider-Man
This one just makes me so happy. Most people who know Donald Glover remember the #Donald4Spiderman campaign where people tried to get him an audition for the Amazing Spider-Man reboot. That role ultimately went to Andrew Garfield, but comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis saw Glover in Spidey-pajamas on Community and was inspired to create a new character. Miles Morales became the second Spider-Man after the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Universe (separate from regular Marvel continuity). The whole thing finally came full-circle when Miles Morales was slated to appear on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon and they got Donald Glover to voice him. It also looks like we’ll be getting even more of this! Thanks in part to Atlanta, Donald Glover is unquestionably a hot talent right now, and he’s landed an unspecified part in the upcoming movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. I don’t have the first clue what that’s going to be, but I can’t wait to find out!