Reed grew up in Oakland, California, and attended Fremont High School. Additionally, he attended Chabot Junior College in Hayward, California before being recruited to UCLA for intercollegiate Speech & Debate competition where he became a National Champion in competitive events: Speech to Entertain, Poetry, and Dramatic readings. In the fall of 1988, Don Reed was performing stand-up comedy at NACA and impressed a major Hollywood player[who?] so much he signed Reed for two episodes of a televi