Prior to being an entertainer, de Leon earned his architecture degree from the
National University in
Manila. He was also a
disc jockey for 12 radio stations when he was starting out. De Leon started his showbiz career in the 1960s as a radio
disc jockey and announcer. He worked for 12 radio stations, including all seven radio stations owned by
ABS-CBN Corporation (including
DZMM) as well as other broadcasters like
KBS whose had acquiring several broadcasting facilities and channel frequencies formerly used by de Leon's first employers
ABS-CBN, such as Channel 9. His first big break on TV was
IBC 13's gag show
OK Lang.
Tito, Vic and Joey In 1975, de Leon became a co-host of
GMA Network's late afternoon variety show
Discorama hosted by Bobby Ledesma. He invited his former co-stars at
OK Lang, the Sotto brothers
Tito,
Vic and
Val, to join him at
Discorama. Only Tito and Vic accepted de Leon's invitation. The newly-formed trio began to do comedy newscast segments interspersed with Top 40 hit-song parodies. Originally, the trio's appearance was supposed to be a one-off invitation as
Discorama was set to be axed but after getting good feedback from the viewers and high ratings, the show was given a new lease on life by GMA management. The trio was later invited to become part of the noontime show
Student Canteen as they released 12 albums based on their
Discorama Tough Hits segment. The
sitcom Iskul Bukol gave them nationwide fame as comedians. Soon after, other TV and movie offers came knocking on the trio's door. In 1979, Tito, Vic and Joey began hosting the noontime show
Eat Bulaga!, which was pitted against the more established
Student Canteen. Not long after,
Eat Bulaga! toppled
Student Canteen from the ratings. The trio is still active on both Holy Week Dramas every Lenten Season and also on comedy variety show on
Eat Bulaga!.
Solo artist Although de Leon continued to do movies alongside his showbiz teammates Tito and Vic, he started doing solo performances for other TV shows. He top billed
Joey and Son in 1982, a sitcom on
RPN where he played father to a young boy named "Jeffrey Laperal" played back then by
Ian Veneracion. He was also one of the gag performers on
TODAS where his co-stars included
Jimmy Santos and
Val Sotto. Other TV shows included
Apple Pie, Patis, Atbp., the
Sharon Cuneta Show, and ''Let's Go Crazy
. He was launched by Viva Films as a solo comedian in She-Man: Mistress of the Universe
. He also tried his hand at directing films like Romeo Loves Juliet
and Small, Medium, Large''. De Leon's films include
Starzan. De Leon did several TV shows for
GMA Network and ABC. In 1995, he made a film comeback via the comedy
Bangers for
Viva Films as well as
Pipti-pipti,
Ang Tipo kong Lalake and
Takot Ako sa Darling Ko. He hosts
Eat Bulaga! which is now the longest-running TV program in the Philippines, and appears in other shows like
Mel and Joey,
Startalk,
Nuts Entertainment and started a new show for ABC, the now-defunct
Teka Mona, which replaced
Wow Mali, his long-running TV show on the same network. He started hosting ''
Takeshi's Castle with Ryan Yllana. He is also the resident judge of the annual reality-based star search StarStruck'' and writes the entertainment column "De Leon's Den" once a week in the Philippine broadsheet
Manila Bulletin. In December 2006, de Leon returned to recording with a
novelty song he wrote titled "Itaktak Mo" ("Shake It Off"). Seen by critics as his answer to the other wildly popular hit "Boom Tarat Tarat" (written by
Lito Camo and sung by de Leon's rival host
Willie Revillame), "Itaktak Mo" was softly launched on
Eat Bulaga! shortly before the
Christmas season. In January 2007, the song was launched on de Leon's album,
Joey to the World 2 and gained airplay in most FM stations. "Itaktak Mo" has also become part of
Eat Bulaga!s segment "Taktak Mo o Tatakbo" that replaced "
Laban o Bawi", and is also one of the official dances of the 4th batch of the reality talent search
StarStruck. After "Itaktak Mo" became one of the most requested dance tunes of 2007, de Leon followed it up with "Kagat Labi Song", which was launched on
Eat Bulaga! on September 22, 2007. The "Kagat Labi" dance craze was already sweeping the whole country by storm before de Leon wrote it. On February 24, 2008, de Leon released a song titled "Walang Daya" ("No Cheating") with lyrics comparing his love to his rival host Willie Revillame's misfortunes (Wilyonaryo, Ferrari and Ultra stampede). He first sang it on his own program
Mel and Joey. On July 31, 2008, de Leon tendered his irrevocable resignation as columnist ("De Leon's Den") for
Manila Bulletin, and he is currently with
The Philippine Star, and has a column, "Me, Starzan". In late 2009, de Leon wrote another hit
Eat Bulaga! song titled "Ba Ba Boom". Then in early 2010, he wrote another song, "Aalog-Alog". He also wrote the theme song for
Diz Iz It!. In 2011, he played as Pablo Apostol, the rock-star father of George Apostol/DJ Heidee played by
Sarah Geronimo in the romantic-comedy film ''
Won't Last a Day Without You''.
As a songwriter De Leon wrote most of the lyrics of
VST & Co. songs and some
Cinderella songs. He also co-wrote "Ilagay Mo Kid" with
Mike Hanopol which was performed by
Hagibis. He also wrote "Ang Labo Mo" for
Sharon Cuneta. ==Controversies==