Howie Mandel

Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian comedian, television personality, actor, and producer.

He was a stand-up comedian at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, and by September 1978 he had a week-long booking as a featured act, which was billed as "a wild and crazy borderline psychotic."

On a trip to Los Angeles, Mandel performed a set at The Comedy Store, which resulted in his being hired as a regular performer.

A producer for the syndicated comedy game show Make Me Laugh saw him there, and booked Mandel for several appearances during the show's run in 1979 and 1980.

He was booked to open for David Letterman at shows in the summer of 1979.

CBC-TV's head of variety programming saw his performance in October 1979 and immediately signed him for a TV special.

In 1980, he won the lead role in the Canadian movie Gas, co-starring Susan Anspach and Donald Sutherland.

Mandel was one of the first "VeeJays" to appear on Nickelodeon's music video series PopClips.

Mandel came to national attention in the United States during a six-year run on St. Elsewhere, starting in 1982 and playing the role of Dr. Wayne Fiscus, opposite Ed Flanders and Norman Lloyd.

Mandel is known for voicing Gizmo in the 1984 film Gremlins and the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, playing rowdy ER intern Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, and creating and starring in the Fox children's cartoon Bobby's World.

He also appeared on a week's worth of episodes of the short-lived NBC game show Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in March 1984.

While working as Dr. Fiscus and continuing to work as a comedian, Mandel also worked in films, including providing the voice of Gizmo in the 1984 hit Gremlins and its 1990 sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

In 1985, Mandel made a cameo in the Michael J. Fox directed short "The Iceman Hummeth," which was subsequently broadcast on Late Night with David Letterman in November 1985.

In 1986, he starred in A Fine Mess alongside Ted Danson.

He performed his stand-up comedy act in several cities (the Watusi Tour), which was followed by his Watusi music video in 1987.

For the first two seasons of Muppet Babies, he voiced Bunsen Honeydew, Animal, and Skeeter.

He starred alongside Amy Steel in the 1987 comedy film Walk Like a Man.

He was also "Maurice" in the 1989 movie Little Monsters.

In 1990, he starred in the short-lived sitcom Good Grief on Fox.

He was also the creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated children's animated series Bobby's World (1990–1998) to which he supplied the voices of the title character and his father.

Bobby's World ran for seven seasons on Fox and was later syndicated.

1992 saw the weekly airing of his self-titled comedy show Howie, with multiple guest stars such as Gilbert Gottfried and Little Richard and Lita Ford as the in-house band guitarist.

His character Bobby made a regular appearance on the show.

In 1994, Mandel voiced the lead character, Little Howie, of the video game Tuneland.

He starred in the sketch comedy series Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies in 1995 on Showtime.

Mandel appeared in the 1995 Clint Black music video "Summer's Comin'."

He played the lead role of the professor in the short-lived TV series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys, and he guest-starred on a 1996 episode of the ABC TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as DC Comics supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk.

In 1998, he hosted his syndicated talk show, The Howie Mandel Show, which was canceled after one season.

From 1999 to 2000, he played Jason in the film Apocalypse III: Tribulation, was the voice of Jack in the movie The Tangerine Bear in 2000, and 2002 he played the Sand Man in the movie Hansel and Gretel.

In 2006, he appeared as himself as a guest host in a parody of Deal or No Deal in the show-within-a-show of the TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

In 2007, he guest-starred as himself in an episode of NBC's Medium and made a dream cameo of himself on Deal or No Deal.

In that episode, he booted the nighttime drama's protagonist off for "cheating" since in the show, he is a psychic medium and appeared to "know" the contents of the cases.

He has also been a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent since 2010, and Citytv's Canada's Got Talent since 2022.

He hosted the American NBC and later CNBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts.

Mandel was born in Toronto and raised in the Willowdale area of Toronto, Ontario.

He is Jewish, and his ancestors emigrated from Romania and Poland.

Mandel is a distant cousin of Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman.

His father was a lighting manufacturer and a real estate magnate.

Mandel attended William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, where he was expelled for impersonating a school official and hiring a construction company to build an addition to the school.

Afterwards, Mandel worked as a carpet salesman.