Eddie Steeples was born and raised in Spring, Texas, and was the oldest of eight children. His mother Delores (Steeples) Phillips is an evangelist as his stepfather Raymond Phillips. He spoke of it so often, that his mother was prepared for the blow when, at the age of 18, he confirmed his plans.
Steeples is the nephew of late boxer Lemeul Steeples who died on a plane crash in 1980 with the rest of his United States Olympic boxing team By the age of four, he knew that he wanted to be an actor. After graduating from Klein Oak High School in 1992, Steeples moved to Santa Cruz, where he took acting classes at a community college and sought fame and a starring role opposite Tom Cruise.
When the Cruise co-starring role didn’t happen, Steeples moved eastward, making a stop at the Saint Louis Black Repertory Theatre and another pit stop at Howard University in District of Columbia to hone his craft, before finally landing in New York City.
There Steeples joined the experimental film group Mo-Freek, and a hip hop group, Number Surrender. Among the Mo-Freek productions he has starred in are Lost in the Bush, Caravan Summer, and People Are Dead.
He also starred in the short film Whoa and appeared as a guest on The Chris Rock Show. Steeples became nationally known when he was cast as the "Rubberband Manitoba" in a series of award-winning commercials for OfficeMax.
He has also appeared in the feature film Torque, starring Ice Cube, Faison Love, and Jaime Pressly.
Steeples appeared in the film Akeelah and the Bee, starring Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, released in April 2006. An independent film written and directed by Steeples, entitled Robbers, is now in post-production. Steeples played the role of Darnell Turner on the National Broadcasting Company comedy series My Name Is Earl, which premiered on September 20, 2005 and ran for four seasons.
Steeples on the show was known as Darnell Turner (witness protection name) aka Harry Monroe (real name) aka "Crab Manitoba".
