Broderick Stephen Biography

Broderick Stephen Harvey, Sr. (born January 17, 1957) is an American television host, actor, writer, producer, and comedian. He hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Family Feud, Celebrity Family Feud, the Miss Universe competition, Family Feud Africa, and the arbitration-based court comedy Judge Steve Harvey. Harvey began his career as a comedian. He performed stand-up comedy in the early 1980s and hosted Showtime at the Apollo and The Steve Harvey Show on The WB. He was later featured in The Original Kings of Comedy after starring in the Kings of Comedy Tour. His last standup show was in 2012.

Harvey is the host of both Family Feud and Celebrity Family Feud, holding this role since 2010. He also hosted Little Big Shots, Little Big Shots Forever Young, and Steve Harvey’s Funderdome. As an author, he has written four books, including his bestseller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, which was published in March 2009. In 2017, Harvey founded Steve Harvey Global, an entertainment company that houses his production company East 112 and various other ventures. He launched an African version of Family Feud and also invested in the HDNet takeover along with Anthem Sports and Entertainment. He and his wife Marjorie are the founders of The Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on youth education.

He is a six-time Daytime Emmy Award winner, two-time Marconi Award winner, and a 14-time NAACP Image Award winner in various categories.

Early career and comedy

Harvey has been a boxer, an autoworker, an insurance salesman, a carpet cleaner, and a mail carrier. He first performed stand-up comedy on October 8, 1985, at the Hilarities Comedy Club in Cleveland, Ohio. In the late 1980s, Harvey was homeless for three years. He slept in his 1976 Ford when not performing gigs that provided a hotel, and he showered at gas stations or swimming pool showers. Rich and Becky Liss helped Harvey during this time with a contract for carpet cleaning and credit at a travel agency.

How did Steve Harvey get famous?

Harvey began his career doing stand-up comedy in the mid-1980s. In 1997, he toured as one of the Kings of Comedy alongside Cedric the Entertainer, the late Bernie Mac and D.L. Hughley. The tour's immediate success led to the taping of one of the most successful comedy specials in history — The Original Kings of Comedy. Liss and his wife Becky helped get Harvey on his feet back when he was 26 years old. At the time, he was a struggling comedian running a carpet cleaning business. “I didn't have nothing,” Harvey said, choking back the tears. “These people took me in.”