Steve Harvey (born January 17, 1957, Welch, West Virginia, U.S.) is an American comedian, actor, author, and television and radio personality who first gained fame for his observational humour and later became known for his self-help advice, especially about relationships.
Harvey grew up with his parents and elder siblings in Cleveland. He attended Kent State University but left without graduating. He returned to Cleveland and picked up what work he could, most often finding employment in sales. He was selling insurance when in 1985 he won an amateur night contest at a local comedy club and decided to focus on becoming successful in stand-up comedy. Harvey used observational humour drawn from situations in his own life and spent the next few years largely on the road playing in any club willing to book him. By the early 1990s he had become a headliner in well-known comedy clubs in big cities; he also appeared on TV on the 1990 Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search and in 1993 on cable TV network HBO’s Def Comedy Jam.
Harvey in 1993 became the host of the syndicated TV show It’s Showtime at the Apollo, a gig he maintained until 2000. In addition, he developed a TV comedy, Me and the Boys, in which he played the widowed father of three sons. Though the show won high ratings, it lasted only a single season (1994–95). A second TV series—The Steve Harvey Show (1996–2002)—attracted a large and stable audience; the sitcom, set in an inner-city high school, featured Harvey as a former funk musician turned music teacher and comedian Cedric the Entertainer as a gym teacher. Harvey later began hosting the game show Family Feud (2010– ) and its spin-off Celebrity Family Feud (2015– ). His uplifting talk show Steve Harvey debuted in 2012 and ran until 2017, when a new show, Steve, was launched. That program ended in 2019. From 2016 to 2019 he also hosted Little Big Shots, a comedy-variety series that showcased extraordinary child performers. His later series included Steve on Watch (2020– ) and the courtroom show Judge Steve Harvey (2022– ).
In 1996 Harvey began hosting a morning radio show on Chicago’s WGCI; he led other radio programs beginning in 2000 and started The Steve Harvey Morning Show in 2005. He continued his stand-up career as well and released a comedy album, Steve Harvey Live—Down South Somewhere (1997). During the late 1990s he participated in the Kings of Comedy tour with Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac; a performance from the tour was made into the Spike Lee film The Original Kings of Comedy (2000). Other movie credits included The Fighting Temptations (2003), You Got Served (2004), and Johnson Family Vacation (2004).
Harvey’s radio show, which included advice to callers about relationships and other life situations, inspired him to begin writing self-help books, beginning with Act like a Lady, Think like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment (2009), which became a best seller. His other books included Straight Talk, No Chaser (2010) and Act like a Success, Think like a Success: Discovering Your Gift and the Way to Life’s Riches (2014).
In 2015 Harvey made news as host of the Miss Universe beauty pageant when he mistakenly crowned the wrong contestant as the winner of the competition (but quickly corrected the error). From 2010 he helped head the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation, a philanthropic venture that provided mentoring to fatherless young people.