There's no shortage of affection for Morgan in the New York area.
"When I'm on stage, I like to let people know where I come from," said the former "30 Rock" star who grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Morgan told ABC's Barbara Walters last year that his comedy began as a defense mechanism.
"When you're funny in that environment that's so rough, most people don't have $100 to go to Madison Square Garden to see Eddie Murphy so I was their Eddie Murphy and they protected me."
He was a high school drop-out, a father of three, living on welfare and dealing drugs when at the age of 23, Morgan got serious about making people laugh.
He gained attention opposite comedian Martin Lawrence 20 years ago. Fame folllowed a couple of years later when he became a caste member of "Saturday Night Live."
His gallery of impressions matched some of the best in the show's long history
And when the show's head writer got her own show, morgan scored; he starred in "30 Rock," opposite creator Tina Fey by playing caricature of himself.
Despite troubles with alcohol, he found sobriety. "My wife wanted a divorce, and I put the alcohol down and walked away from all of it."
Morgan has battled diabetes and received a kidney transplant, but none of this has kept him quiet -- or kept him from making us laugh for very long.
Morgan and his first wife, Sabina, have three sons together in their 20s. His fiance, Megan Wollover, gave birth to their first child together in 2013. Their daughter, Maven, turns 1 July 2.