Cedric was born on April 24, 1964, in Caruthersville, Missouri, the son of Rosetta (née Boyce), a schoolteacher, and Kittrell Kyles, an employee of The Missouri Pacific Railroad. He has a younger sister, Sharita Kyles Wilson, a communications professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Cedric was raised in Caruthersville, Missouri, but after junior high school he moved to Berkeley, Missouri, a northern suburb of St. Louis. He is a graduate of Berkeley High School.
He earned a degree in communications from Southeast Missouri State University.
