He is named after his father Ronnie Butler, Senior, a calypso singer, songwriter, and recording artist. As a child, Butler sometimes performed with his father. Butler grew up partly in the United States (Washington, District of Columbia, Virginia, and the suburbs of Syracuse, New York) and partly in the Bahamas.
He attended high school in the Bahamas and graduated magna cum laude from Trinity International University near Chicago, Illinois, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in History and Economics in 1985. While in Washington, Butler studied acting privately with Vera Katz of Howard University and performed in regional theatre around Washington.
He often portrays President Barack Obama in comedy sketches. He has performed with the Atlantic Theater Company for over 20 years. Butler is originally from the Bahamas.
Butler worked as an economic consultant for a law firm based in Washington, District of Columbia, before beginning his acting career.
Later, he studied with David Mamet, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Scott Zigler and Robert Bella of the Atlantic Theater Company. With Atlantic, he has performed in, among other works, Once in a Lifetime.
Among other Office-Broadway and regional theatre roles, he played Bunker and other roles in a revival of Merrily We Roll Along (and on the cast recording) with the York Theatre Company in 1994. He then sang in a swing band, The Solicitors, in Europe for some years.
In 2007, he played Henry in the concert production of South Pacific at the Hollywood Bowl with Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell.
He also appeared in the films Smother (2007) and "Rain" (2008). He played Oscar, the clever receptionist for Mad Style, on the television series True Jackson, VP, from 2008 to 2011. He was in the Hollywood Bowl production of South Pacific.
He plays Vice Principal Lewis on the web series First Day.
Butler also writes and performs sketch comedies. President Barack Obama is one of his most noted characters.
In October 2010, he released a YouTube video, as Obama, singing a pastiche of the "Major-General"s Song" that affectionately lampooned the President. The video was widely distributed on the internet.
Butler became a member of the Office-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company in New York City in 1991, the same year that he appeared in the film Homicide.
