Chris Rock: Newest Movie, SNL History, Kids, Will Smith Status

The night Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, is one of the most replayed moments in awards-show history. The verified aftermath — a public apology, a 10-year Academy ban, and Rock’s on-stage response a year later — is easier to pin down than the question fans still ask: are they friends now? This status check separates confirmed facts about Rock’s career and family from what remains genuinely unresolved.

Born: February 7, 1965 · SNL tenure: Cast member, 1990–1993 · Children: Two daughters · Oscars slap: March 27, 2022 · Public apology: Will Smith apologized in 2022 · Notable film: Top Five (2014)

Eight rows, one pattern: Rock’s biography is settled, the incident is precisely dated, and the only blank column is the current Smith status.

What this file makes visible: the known facts form a complete biography, and the one missing entry — the current status with Smith — is the only part anyone actually argues about.

What is Chris Rock’s newest movie?

Recent movie roles

• Top Five (2014) is the anchor of his film career — the comedy-drama he wrote, directed, and starred in as a comedian trying to be taken seriously.
• His animation credits include voicing Marty the zebra in the Madagascar films, a role that introduced him to a younger audience.

Since Top Five, Rock’s most visible new releases have been stand-up specials rather than theatrical features. Selective Outrage was the biggest of them, broadcast live on Netflix and positioned as his first on-stage answer to the Oscars slap.

Upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. biopic status

Until a studio formally announces the project, the accurate label is “reported,” not “upcoming.” Treating unconfirmed talks as a scheduled release is how rumors outrun facts.

The implication: if you’re asking for Rock’s newest movie, the verified answer is that his newest released project is a comedy special, and the next feature depends on a deal nobody has confirmed on the record.

Does Chris Rock have kids?

Chris Rock’s two daughters

• Rock has two daughters: Lola Simone Rock and Zahra Rock.
• He was married to Malaak Compton-Rock, a philanthropist and the girls’ mother.

His daughters have stayed out of his act and out of his press tours. That silence is deliberate: Rock gives audiences the work, not the family album.

Family privacy

For a family that has spent decades around fame, Rock’s household has remained strikingly out of the frame. The verified public record holds his daughters’ names and little else — exactly how Rock has structured it.

The pattern: Rock’s family is a deliberate blind spot in his public record, and the only family statement in this file comes from his mother.

When did Chris Rock host Saturday Night Live?

The wording of this question hides a useful correction: the years most people remember — 1990 to 1993 — were his cast-member years, not his hosting years.

SNL cast member years

• Rock joined Saturday Night Live in 1990 and left after the 1992–1993 season.
• His cast tenure overlapped with fellow comic David Spade, another SNL alum whose career moved from sketch comedy to stand-up and film.

Rock’s post-SNL breakthrough came fast: Bring the Pain aired on HBO in 1996 and reset the template for modern stand-up specials. For a related look at another SNL alum’s career, see David Spade: Career, Personal Life, FAQs & 2026 Tour.

Later hosting appearances

• After leaving the cast, Rock returned to the SNL stage as a host on multiple occasions.
• Those hosting appearances are separate from his original cast-member run and are documented in the show’s episode archives.

The distinction matters because “host” and “cast member” carry different weight in an SNL career. Rock’s legacy at the show rests on the cast years; his later guest returns were exactly that — guest returns.

The takeaway: if someone asks when Chris Rock hosted SNL, the fact-first answer is a gentle correction — he was a cast member from 1990 to 1993, and he later returned as a host.

Is Chris Rock still friends with Will Smith?

Neither man has confirmed the current status of their relationship. What is documented is a precise sequence: the joke, the slap, the apology, the ban, the special.

What did Chris Rock say about the Oscars slap?

• The joke that preceded the slap referenced Demi Moore’s shaved-head role in G.I. Jane, aimed at Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head (BBC News (UK public broadcaster))
• Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia, a condition that became central to coverage of the incident (The New York Times (US newspaper))
• Rock did not file a police report over the slap — a documented choice that kept the matter out of the legal system.

Rock’s first extended public response came on stage in Selective Outrage in March 2023, nearly a year after the incident. He processed the slap as comedy material rather than as a grievance, which is consistent with how he keeps his stage persona separate from his private life.

Will Smith ever apologize to Chris Rock?

• Yes. On March 28, 2022, Smith issued a public statement calling his behavior “unacceptable and inexcusable” and saying he was “out of line and wrong” (Associated Press (US news agency); The New York Times (US newspaper))
• Smith did not apologize to Rock during his Oscar acceptance speech later that night (CBC (Canadian public broadcaster))
• In July 2022, Smith released a video apology. He said he had contacted Rock, who was not ready to talk, and he apologized to Rock’s mother and younger brother (NBC News (US news network))
• Smith added that Jada Pinkett Smith was not involved in his decision to confront Rock (USA Today (US national newspaper))

Smith later called the night “horrific” and said he lost it, while making clear he was not excusing himself (The Daily Star (English-language news daily)). The apology record is unusually complete: a written statement, then a video, then a late-night interview. The institutional response was equally fast — the Academy banned Smith from its events for 10 years.

Has Chris Rock forgiven Will Smith yet?

• There is no public record of Rock saying he has forgiven Smith (Entertainment Tonight (celebrity news outlet))
• An Entertainment Tonight report cited an unnamed source who claimed Rock had no plans to contact Smith after the video apology. Rock has never confirmed that, which makes it an unnamed-source claim, not a fact (Entertainment Tonight (celebrity news outlet))
• Smith, for his part, said in 2022 that he had to forgive himself for being human — a statement about his own recovery, not about Rock’s response.

Absence of a forgiveness statement is not evidence of resentment; it is evidence of silence. Rock has not documented his private feelings for public consumption, and no reporting has produced a recording, a post, or an interview where he closes the question.

What this means: the friendship question is not answered by the apology record. Apologies are public; forgiveness is private, and Rock has kept it that way. For another award-season career profile built on verified film facts, see Kate Winslet: Biography, Oscars, Movies & New Netflix Series.

Is Chris Rock a nice person in real life?

No news file can grade a person’s character. What a public record can show is behavior under pressure, and Rock’s behavior through the slap aftermath is the closest thing to evidence.

Colleagues’ impressions

• The one family perspective on record after the slap is Rosalie Rock’s. Speaking to NBC News, Chris Rock’s mother said the incident wounded the entire family, not just her son.
• Rock’s career spans stand-up, sketch comedy, film, and animation, and none of those collaborations stalled after the Oscars night.

“Colleagues’ impressions” is exactly where the record runs out. There is no verified pile of celebrity quotes grading Rock’s kindness, because Rock has not built a public case for one. He has built a career.

Chris Rock on his own personality

• He addressed the biggest public humiliation of his career in Selective Outrage as comedy material — a choice that says more about his professional identity than any interview answer.
• He did not file a police report over the slap, and he has not turned the incident into a legal campaign or a media tour.
• The one alleged window into his private feelings — an unnamed source claiming he had no plans to contact Smith — remains an allegation, not a statement from Rock.

The line between public persona and private person is the whole story. On stage, Rock turns pain into material. Off stage, he does not confirm, deny, or explain. The absence of a media cycle around his personal life is itself the data point.

The paradox: “is he nice?” cannot be answered from the public record, but “does he keep his private life private?” is answered by everything he has done since the 1990s.

Timeline: from Brooklyn to Selective Outrage

Seven dates provide the skeleton of Rock’s public record and the slap aftermath.

• 1965 — Born in Andrews, South Carolina; raised in Brooklyn, New York.
• 1990–1993 — Cast member on Saturday Night Live.
• 1996 — Breakthrough HBO special Bring the Pain aired.
• 2014 — Released Top Five, which he wrote and directed.
• March 27, 2022 — Will Smith slapped Rock at the Academy Awards after the G.I. Jane joke (BBC News (UK public broadcaster))
• March 28, 2022 — Smith issued a public apology to Rock (The New York Times (US newspaper))
• March 4, 2023 — Rock addressed the slap in the Netflix special Selective Outrage.

The pattern: Rock’s career dates are low-drama and consistent — one breakthrough, one signature film, a long stand-up run. The single rupture in the timeline is 2022, and everything after it reads as a response to that night.

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

This is the practical core of the dossier: facts with paper trails versus claims that depend on inference or anonymous sourcing.

Confirmed facts

• The Oscars slap happened on March 27, 2022.
• Will Smith issued a public apology to Chris Rock on March 28, 2022.
• Chris Rock has two daughters.
• Chris Rock was an SNL cast member from 1990 to 1993.
• Chris Rock’s real name is Christopher Julius Rock.

What’s unclear

• Whether Rock and Smith are friends now; neither has confirmed it publicly.
• Whether Rock has fully forgiven Smith; no explicit statement from Rock exists.
• Whether Rock will direct the reported Martin Luther King Jr. biopic.
• Whether future public contact between Rock and Smith has occurred outside official statements.
• An unnamed-source claim that Rock had no plans to contact Smith after the video apology — unrepeated and unconfirmed by Rock.

The balance tips toward the open questions for a reason: the apology record is public, but the friendship record is private. Confirmed facts stop exactly where Rock’s own statements stop.

In their own words

Two voices matter most in the aftermath: the man who apologized and the mother of the man who was hit. Both are on the record.

“My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. I was out of line and I was wrong.”

Will Smith, public statement, March 28, 2022, as reported by Associated Press (US news agency)

“When Smith slapped Chris, he slapped the entire family.”

Rosalie Rock, Chris Rock’s mother, as reported by NBC News (US news network)

The gap between those two statements is the whole story: one is a public apology, the other is a family’s wound. Nothing on the public record since then has closed that gap.

The state of play

The verified record is complete on the facts and precise about the limit: the slap happened, the apology happened, the ban happened, and no statement from Chris Rock says he has accepted that apology. Rock’s career has moved on — specials, films, reported projects — while the friendship question remains exactly where he left it. For Chris Rock, the trade-off is concrete: staying silent on the friendship keeps the focus on comedy, but it also guarantees that every new interview will re-open the question he declined to answer — a question that will follow him until he addresses it directly.

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