Profile Text
Diaz attends the premiere of “Grudge Match” at the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 16, 2013 in New York City. Debby Wong /bigstock.com
Birth Name: José Antonio Díaz
Place of Birth: Havana, Cuba
Date of Birth: February 19, 1963
Ethnicity: Cuban [Spanish, small amounts of African and Taíno, possibly other]
Joey Diaz is a Cuban-American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and podcaster. He is also known as Joey “CoCo” Diaz. He has appeared on the show My Name Is Earl , in the films The Longest Yard (2015), Grudge Match , and The Many Saints of Newark , and in the made-for-tv movie The Dog Who Saved Christmas . He has hosted the podcasts The Church of What’s Happening and Uncle Joey’s Joint .
He was born in Havana, and moved with his family to the U.S. at a young age, living on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, and then settling in North Bergen, New Jersey. His mother ran a bar in Union City, NJ, and a numbers operation. Joey was raised Catholic.
On The Church of What’s Happening Now , he stated that he took a 23andMe DNA test, which listed most of his genetic ancestry as coming from “the Fort” in Spain, likely referring to Andalusia, with smaller traces of African, Chinese, Russian Jewish, and Indigenous American.
Joey is married to Terrie Clark. He has two children, including a daughter with Terrie.