Howie Mandel is a highly successful stand-up comedian, actor, and television personality. Born on November 29, 1955, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he began his show business career by chance while catching amateur night at the Comedy Store on the L.A. Sunset Strip during a vacation. Encouraged by friends to try out, he was spotted by a producer, hired for an appearance on a comedy game show, and the rest is history.
As a child, Mandel was a class clown in high school, and was even expelled for some costly antics. He soon found work as a carpet salesman while hitting the stage at night as a cut-up at Toronto's Yuk Yuk's comedy club. His routine, which included extremely bizarre sight gags, was favorably received.
In 1978, Mandel traveled to the States, visited the L.A. Comedy Store, and stayed. While a regular performer at the popular Sunset Strip club, a producer for the syndicated comedy game show "Make Me Laugh" caught his act and booked him for a series of appearances during its short-lived 1979-1980 series. This led to a big step as an opening act for David Letterman, a CBS comedy special in 1980, several late-night appearances on "The Alan Thicke Show," and a lead role in the wacky but poorly-received Canadian film comedy "Gas" (1981) also starring Susan Anspach.
Mandel's pleasing and agreeable personality quickly graduated him to TV talk shows and Vegas gigs. He earned household attention when cast in the critically-acclaimed medical TV drama "St. Elsewhere" (1982). Providing comic relief as bushy-headed Dr. Wayne Fiscus, he continued to work as a comedian and take a shot at 80's comedy film stardom.
In the 1990s, Mandel ventured into his own kid series with the Emmy-nominated "Bobby's World" (1990) serving as creator, executive producer, and title star vocals as Bobby Generic. He also starred in a short-lived "dark comedy" series "Good Grief" (1990) in which he fell into the funeral business. This was followed by his own failed talk show "The Howie Mandel Show" (1998) during the 1998-1999 season.
Throughout the decade, Mandel managed a near-full time schedule of concerts, tours, cartoon voiceovers, and TV comedy specials. In 2006, he found pay dirt as the host of the game show "Deal or No Deal" (2005). The show ran for four seasons, but returned for a season a decade later.
Mandel has also appeared in scores of TV commercials for Boston Pizza as their hired spokesperson. In 2004, he was selected as #82 on Comedy Central's list of the "100 Greatest Stand Up Comedians of All Time." On September 4, 2008, Mandel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Comedy Central listed him as #82 on their list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time.
In 2009, Mandel served as star and executive producer of his own "Candid Camera"-like practical joke reality show "Howie Do It" (2008). It lasted one season. Two years later, he premiered a flash-mob reality show called "Mobbed" (2011),which did even less well. For the past decade, he has enjoyed stability as a judge on the reality show "America's Got Talent" (2006).
Mandel is married to Terry (Soil) Mandel since 1980 with three children. He received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 2009. Mandel has written and published an in-depth OCD, ADHD-themed autobiography "Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me".
