Carlos Mencia

Ned Arnel "Carlos" Mencía (born October 22, 1967) is an Honduran-American comedian, writer, and actor.

His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race relations, Latin American culture, criminal justice, and social class.

Ned Arnel Mencía was born in San Pedro Sula on October 22, 1967, the son of Honduran parents Magdelena Mencia and Roberto Holness.

He has 16 older siblings and one younger sibling.

At the time of his birth, his mother was engaged in a domestic dispute with his father, and she subsequently refused to give Mencía his biological father's surname.

Out of respect for his father, he later began using the Holness surname anyway, and did so until the age of 18.

He moved to the U.S. as a child and was raised Catholic in East Los Angeles by his aunt Consuelo and uncle Pablo Mencía.

By his own admission, staying out of trouble was difficult while growing up, but his family helped him excel in school and stay out of gangs.

He dealt drugs and robbed a house when he was 19 years old.

He attended Garfield High School in Los Angeles County, and later majored in electrical engineering at California State University, Los Angeles; however, he dropped out to pursue a career in comedy after a successful performance at an open mic night at The Laugh Factory.

In 1988, at the suggestion of Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore, he began using the first name "Carlos" to appeal to Mexican audiences.

Mencia performed at venerated LA stand-up venues such as The Comedy Store and The L.A. Cabaret.

His success in these venues led to appearances on The Arsenio Hall Show and Buscando Estrellas, where he attained the title "International Comedy Grand Champion."

Then, in 1994, Mencia was chosen to host HBO's latino comedy showcase Loco Slam.

Mencia followed up Loco Slam by hosting Funny is Funny! on Galavision in 1998.

By the time his career began to take off in the early 2000s, Mencia was also working as an actor doing guest appearances in the television shows Moesha and The Shield, and starring in the film Outta Time and the animated show The Proud Family.

He would continue to do stand-up, including a successful tour in 2001 with Freddy Soto and Pablo Francisco, "The Three Amigos."

Mencia also did two half-hour specials on HBO, the second of which won him a CableACE Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. After the release of his first comedy album by Warner Records, Take A Joke America, Mencia performed his break-out performance on Comedy Central Presents in 2002.

In 2002, he performed on Comedy Central Presents.

He is best known for a controversy involving being a joke thief and therefore “Carlos Menstealia” and as the host of the Comedy Central show Mind of Mencia (2005–2008).

Around the time of the show's cancellation, several comedians accused Mencía of plagiarism and stealing jokes.

In March 2005, Comedy Central announced Mencia's own half-hour comedy show, Mind of Mencia.

The show mixed Mencia's stand up comedy with sketch comedy, much like Dave Chappelle's Chappelle's Show.

In 2005, comedian Joe Rogan wrote a post on his website publicly accusing Mencia of being a plagiarist, alleging that Mencia stole jokes from a number of comedians.

The show achieved moderate success in its first season and was brought back for a second season in the spring of 2006, becoming Comedy Central's second highest-rated program behind South Park.

He took part in the first Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour in 2006.

Mencia starred in a Super Bowl XLI commercial for Bud Light.

In 2006, Maxim named Mencia one of the worst comedians of all time.

Mike Byoff of Gawker said of Mencia, "Not only does he steal jokes from classic comedians but he's needlessly racist and had no sense of comedic timing whatsoever."

The show's third season premiered in early 2007.

On February 10, 2007, Rogan confronted Mencia on stage at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard and accused him of plagiarism.

Rogan posted a video of the altercation, along with audio and video clips from other comedians including George Lopez, Bob Levy, Bobby Lee, and Ari Shaffir, among others.

Rogan has also posted audio and video clips of Mencia's interviews and joke routines comparing Mencia's routines to those of other comedians on his blog.

The series ended in 2008 after four seasons when Mencia decided against filming a fifth season, explaining "It would have felt repetitive and redundant. There's a lot of different doors that are opening for me...I truly have no idea what's next."

Mencia was sometimes a guest on the Opie and Anthony radio show on XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio.

In November 2009, Mencia began appearing in commercials for a weight-loss product called Belly Burner.

A 2010 article in The Wall Street Journal noted that Mencia, Dane Cook, and Jay Leno were three of the most popular stand-ups that were hated by fellow comedians.

Mencia went on a 2011 stand-up comedy tour, including dates at the Improv in Schaumburg, Illinois, on June 24 and 25, and ending in Las Vegas at Treasure Island on September 16, 2011.

Mencia was a co-founder of the restaurant chain Maggie Rita's, and a co-owner of several locations.

By January 2013, Mencia's restaurants had closed amid poor reviews, though one franchised location continued to license the name.