A mustachioed comic who has been a hit on the club circuit and given shots at sitcom stardom, Steve Harvey comes from a working class African American background and his humor tends to relate life around the kitchen table. Harvey first stepped on stage in 1985 at a Cleveland club where he won the amateur night contest. He then went on the road performing at clubs throughout the US and Canada and clocking more than 120,000 miles on his car. Harvey had early TV exposure on "The Comedy Concert Hour" (The Nashville Network, 1990) and on "Comedy From the Caribbean" (A&E, 1992). In 1993, he wowed 'em at the "Just for Laughs" comedy festival in Montreal and the following year was tapped to host "It's Showtime at the Apollo", a syndicated variety series from Harlem's famed theater. He starring on the ABC sitcom "Me and the Boys", playing a widowed father of three. While the show lasted a season, it gave Harvey additional exposure. He co-hosted "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve '95" on ABC, guested on "Russell Simmons Def Comedy All-Star Jam" (HBO) and headlined "HBO Comedy Half Hour: Steve Harvey" (1995).
Harvey also had a small role in the 1993 Sylvester Stallone film "Cliffhanger". In 1994, he was one of the hosts of the more serious "Diamonds in the Rough" on BET, which focused on teen-agers in housing projects. Harvey starred as a jazz musician working as a music teacher in "The Steve Harvey Show" (The WB, 1996-2002). In the 90s, he also headlined the wildly popular "Kings of Comedy" tour which Spike Lee filmed as the documentary "The Original Kings of Comedy" (2000), and which inspired his short-lived stand-up/sketch comedy series "Big Time" (2003). Harvey next appeared to good effect in the minor hit "The Fighting Temptations" (2003) opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Beyonce Knowles, and then appeared in a series of strategic supporting turns in "Love Don't Cost a Thing" (2003) and "You Got Served" (2004) before playing Cedric the Entertainer's successful and competitive brother in the otherwise uninspired comedy "Johnson Family Vacation" (2004). As the voice of the fly Buzz, Harvey provided many of the bigger laughs in the children's film "Racing Stripes" (2005) along with David Spade.