Cedric spent his younger years as a comedian as well, voted "most popular" and "most humorous" by his high school 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 would appear on HBO's Def Comedy Jam and BET's ComicView, which he would later host for the 1994-95 season. In 1994, Cedric also won the Richard Pryor Comic of the Year Award from BET.

In 1996, Cedric moved into acting, playing 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, and Be Cool.

He has experienced notoriety for his remakes of classic films; the majority of them have been poorly received and have garnered criticism for miscast roles (usually race-related roles).

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.

Cedric briefly had his own sketch comedy show called Cedric the Entertainer Presents, but it never caught on and was cancelled after two seasons.

He voiced Maurice the Lemur, King Julien's assistant, in the 2005 animated film Madagascar.

In October, 2005, Cedric joined the HVM team in the Champ Car auto racing series, as a part owner.