The self-dubbed title "The Entertainer" comes from his early days as a comedian when he also sang and danced.

Cedric spent his early years as a comedian and was voted "most popular" and "most humorous" by his highschool classmates. He began his career doing stand-up comedy, winning several comedy contests and performing at various comedy clubs nationwide. In 1992, he made his first TV appearance on It's Showtime at the Apollo. Soon after, he appeared on HBO's Def Comedy Jam and BET's ComicView. In 1994, Cedric won the Richard Pryor Comic of the Year Award from BET.

In 1996, played Steve Harvey's friend, Cedric Jackie Robinson, on his sitcom, The Steve Harvey Show. His acting career grew and he began appearing in several movies, including Big Momma's House, Dr. Dolittle 2, Barbershop, Barbershop 2, Serving Sara, Johnson Family Vacation, Intolerable Cruelty, Man of the House,Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Be Cool.

However, while his acting career grew, Cedric stuck with his stand-up comedy, travelling the country as one of the Kings of Comedy headliners, with Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac. The comedy act would later be put into a film by Spike Lee called The Original Kings of Comedy.

He was the voice of Maurice the Lemur, King Julien's assistant, in the 2005 animated film Madagascar.He will appear in the upcoming movie Charlotte's Web movie as the voice of Golly the gander.

His most recent HBO Comedy Special was entitled Cedric "The Entertainer" Talking Special. Cedric has been accused by up-and-coming comedian Katt Williams of stealing four of his jokes in this special.