Early career and comedy Harvey has been a boxer, an autoworker, an insurance salesman, a carpet cleaner, and a mailman. 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 car when not performing shows that provided a hotel, and showered at gas stations and swimming pools. Rich and Becky Liss helped Harvey during this time with a contract for carpet cleaning and credit at a travel agency.
1990–2009: Move to television and film Harvey was a finalist in the Second Annual
Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search performing on April 16, 1990, eventually leading to a long stint as host of ''
It's Showtime at the Apollo'', succeeding
Mark Curry in that role. Harvey's success as a
stand-up comedian led to a starring role on the short-lived
ABC series
Me and the Boys in 1994. He would later star on
The WB network show
The Steve Harvey Show, which ran from 1996 to 2002. In 1997, Harvey continued his work in stand-up comedy, performing on the Kings of Comedy tour along with
Cedric the Entertainer,
D.L. Hughley, and
Bernie Mac. The tour became the highest grossing comedy tour in history, grossing $18 million its first year and $19 million its second. The comedy act would later be put together into a film by
Spike Lee called
The Original Kings of Comedy. That title was also used as the name of Harvey's comedy and variety television show (later renamed ''
Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge''), which aired on
The WB network from 2003 until 2005. Harvey is the host of
The Steve Harvey Morning Show, a weekday morning radio program he has hosted since 2000. It was originally syndicated through
Radio One, Inc. from September 2000 to May 2005. As of 2019, the show is syndicated throughout the United States. The same year, he played the role of Clarence Johnson in the film ''
Love Don't Cost a Thing. In 2004, Harvey had roles in the films Johnson Family Vacation and You Got Served; in 2005, he co-starred in the movie Racing Stripes'' as the voice of Buzz. In 2006, Harvey released the stand-up special ''Steve Harvey: Don't Trip... He Ain't Through with Me Yet'' directed by
Leslie Small. The special was filmed at MegaFest with Harvey not using profanity during the show. He hosted the Disney Dreamers Academy, a teen-focused personal and professional enrichment event that took place January 17–20, 2008, at the
Walt Disney World Resort in
Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Harvey released the book
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man in 2009. The book is about how men think about women and relationships. Based on the book, the 2012 film
Think Like a Man is an ensemble romantic comedy depicting characters taking advice on dating from the book. The hardcover version spent 64 weeks on
The New York Times best-seller list, 23 of those weeks at No. 1.
2010–2016: Family Feud and other ventures Harvey started hosting
Family Feud in September 2010. The show has seen improved ratings under him, and Harvey holds the longest tenure of any
Family Feud host. He also hosts
Celebrity Family Feud, where celebrities compete for a chance to donate up to $25,000 to their favorite charity. The show airs during the summer on
ABC. In August 2011, on his radio show, Harvey called
Cornel West and
Tavis Smiley "
Uncle Toms" because of their criticism of President
Barack Obama. Harvey later apologized for using the phrase but maintained his criticism of West and Smiley. On August 2, 2012, Harvey performed his final stand-up act at the
MGM Grand in
Las Vegas, ending a 27-year career as a stand-up comedian. The two-hour performance was broadcast live on
pay-per-view. The same year, Harvey debuted a
self-titled syndicated talk show produced by
Endemol and distributed by
NBCUniversal Television Distribution at the
NBC Tower in
Chicago. In 2013, Harvey became the first double host nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, receiving nominations for both Outstanding Talk Show Host and Outstanding Game Show Host. He was also honored with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. The following year, Harvey launched a new dating website called Delightful. It is a joint venture with
IAC with Harvey supplying articles and videos for the site. In December 2015, Harvey hosted the
Miss Universe 2015 pageant in
Las Vegas. Upon announcing the final results, he mistakenly named the first runner-up,
Miss Colombia (
Ariadna Gutiérrez) as the winner, as Harvey apparently mistook the envelope as the name of the final runner-up for that of the winner. A few minutes after she was crowned, Harvey announced that he had read the results incorrectly and that
Miss Philippines (
Pia Wurtzbach) was the new Miss Universe. Harvey apologized to Wurtzbach outside the venue and later
tweeted an apology to both contestants. He also hosted the
Miss Universe 2016 pageant in the Philippines on January 30, 2017, telling the
Miss Universe Organization that he wanted to personally apologize to the Filipinos for the incident that occurred during the last Miss Universe pageant he hosted. Harvey returned as host for the
Miss Universe 2017 pageant in Las Vegas on November 26, 2017, the
Miss Universe 2018 pageant in
Thailand on December 17, 2018, the
Miss Universe 2019 pageant in
Atlanta, Georgia on December 8, 2019, and the
Miss Universe 2021 pageant in
Israel on December 13, 2021. During the 2019 pageant, he correctly announced Miss Philippines (
Gazini Ganados) as the winner of the National Costume contest but
Miss Malaysia (
Shweta Sekhon) mistakenly thought she won. In January 2016, Harvey gave a motivational speech to audience members after the taping of an episode of
Family Feud. The theme of the speech was for people to embrace the skills they were born with. He references embracing the gifts with jumping from a cliff and relying on the parachute (those gifts) to help you. The speech was the motivation for the book
Jump: Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance, published by Harvey in 2016. In October 2016, it was announced that Harvey would host two revival specials of
Showtime at the Apollo for Fox. The following month, the
Steve Harvey talk show was cancelled, and it was announced that Harvey had reached a deal with
IMG to produce a new syndicated talk show in Los Angeles with NBCUniversal. The new series,
Steve, premiered in September 2017, and was described as having more of a celebrity- and comedy-oriented format with a larger amount of creative control held by Harvey, as opposed to the previous program's larger focus on
human interest subjects. To facilitate the new series, production of Harvey's radio show and
Family Feud were relocated to L.A. Harvey is the co-creator of
Little Big Shots, a series launched in 2016; executive producers are Harvey and
Ellen DeGeneres. The series features children demonstrating talents and engaging in conversation with Harvey. He hosted the show until 2019. In 2016, during a commencement ceremony at
Alabama State University, President Dr. Gwendolyn Boyd awarded Harvey an honorary doctorate. Brands under SHG include East One Twelve, Harvey's in-house production company that is used to develop digital content, films, and television. The company also owns the rights for international versions of
Family Feud, of which an African version of the show was announced to begin in 2020. He also launched the Sand and Soul Festival in 2017. The event has been held yearly and features live music, comedy, and a question and answers session with Harvey and his wife Marjorie. He also launched Harvey Events, a special events company led by his daughter Morgan Hawthorne and son-in-law Kareem Hawthorne. It has produced events such as the FroRibbean Fest in Atlanta in 2018. In 2017, Harvey began hosting a
New Year's Eve special from
Times Square for Fox (which, like his talk show, would be produced in partnership with IMG). Two days before the broadcast, Harvey was
ordained in the state of New York so he could officiate an on-air wedding between
Keven Undergaro and
Maria Menounos during the special. The special was Fox's most-watched New Year's Eve broadcast to date. In January 2017, Harvey made jokes on
Steve Harvey about Asian men, ridiculing the idea that any white or black woman would want to date one. He said: "Excuse me, do you like Asian men? No, thank you." Harvey went on to add, "I don't even like Chinese food." The remarks brought criticism from
Asian Americans, including
New York politicians and
Fresh Off the Boat author
Eddie Huang. Huang called Harvey "hypocritical" for speaking about issues facing the black community while denigrating Asians. Harvey apologized on his talk show and Twitter, saying: "I offer my humblest apology for offending anyone, particularly those in the Asian community … It was not my intention, and the humor was not meant with any malice or disrespect whatsoever." However, he also earlier said, "I ain't been laughing that much over the past few days. They're kinda beating me up on the internet right now for no reason. But, you know, that's life, ain't it?" In response to a caller from
Flint, Michigan, who insulted the
Cleveland Cavaliers after their loss to the
Golden State Warriors in the
2017 NBA Finals, Harvey, a Cavaliers fan, told the caller to "go have yourself a nice glass of brown water!" in reference to the
city's water crisis. The joke was criticized by, among others,
Amariyanna Copeny and Flint Mayor
Karen Weaver, who demanded a public apology. Harvey responded by saying, "The caller and I were talking trash about our teams and cities. Simply trash talking about sports. I made a joke directed at him, as he is from Flint, a city for which I have great affection and respect. So much so that I devoted a full hour on my daytime talk show to raising awareness for the Flint water crisis … The caller laughed, as my joke was taken in the context it was offered." At the end of 2018, it was announced that Harvey would host the eighth annual
NFL Honors. He said that he had wanted to host it for a while, going as far as to say in his opening monologue: "What took y'all so long to ask me to host the show?" Harvey returned to host the ninth annual show the following season. In 2019, Harvey announced the launch of a learning hub called Vault. He also invested in the takeover of
HDNet along with
Anthem Sports & Entertainment. In January 2022, Harvey began hosting the arbitration-based court comedy
Judge Steve Harvey on ABC. On
International Day of Happiness 2022, Harvey, on behalf of the United States and the Vatican pavilions, held a talk in Dubai during
Expo 2020 to discuss the relations between happiness and religion. In March 2024, it was announced that Harvey would join
Merit Street Media, an upcoming multi-platform media outlet owned and created by his longtime friend
Phil McGraw, the former host of
Dr. Phil. ==Philanthropy==