Howie Mandel
Howard Michael Mandel is a Canadian comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel is known for voicing Gizmo in the 1984 film Gremlins and the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch; playing rowdy emergency room resident Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere; and creating and starring in the Fox children's cartoon Bobby's World. 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.
Early life and education
Mandel was born on November 29, 1955, in Toronto. He grew up in the Bathurst Manor neighbourhood of the city. His ancestors were Romanian and Polish Jews. 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. 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.
Career
Film and television
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. 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, 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 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.In 1992, his self-titled comedy show Howie was aired weekly with multiple guest stars including Gilbert Gottfried, 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 cancelled 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. Mandel plays his alter ego, Phil Skorjanc, in most of his comedy shows, which are a fan favourite. Bobby also made a cameo appearance in a February 2007 episode of Deal or No Deal. On a special two-hour Christmas episode, first aired on December 25, 2007, Mandel delivered one line with Bobby's voice, as requested by the contestant.
Mandel's signature stunt as a stand-up comedian was stretching a latex glove over his head, inflating it with his nostrils, and filling it until it suddenly propelled itself off his head. That trick also lent itself to the title and cover photo of his comedy album Fits Like a Glove. He eventually gave up the routine under doctor's orders after being diagnosed with a perforated sinus. However, in a cameo role as himself on My Name Is Earl, he did the routine. He guest-starred in two episodes of Monk.
Additional appearances
Mandel is known for his frequent appearances as a comedian and for his hidden camera segments on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has appeared in many television commercials for Boston Pizza as their hired spokesperson. In April 2004, he appeared as number 82 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. In October 2005, he was named to be the host of the American version of Deal or No Deal, which debuted on December 19, 2005, on NBC, and became a popular program in early 2006. Mandel also hosts Deal or No Deal Canada; originating from Toronto, Deal or No Deal Canada debuted in January 2007 on Global, which made him one of the few game show hosts to host both a domestic and an international version of the same game show. Mandel joins Alex Trebek, Jim Perry, and Geoff Edwards on the list of game show hosts who emceed one game show simultaneously in Canada and the United States.In 2007, Mandel made an appearance in an episode of Sesame Street 38th season. Also in 2007, he was parodied on the show as Howie Eats well, the Muppet host of Sesames game show segment "Meal or No Meal". Mandel has hosted the DVD game version of Deal or No Deal, "Fact or Crap Beat Da Bomb", and "Would You Rather" for Imagination Games. Mandel had a cameo appearance as himself on the NBC show My Name Is Earl in the episode where Earl's roommates robbed an Indian casino at which Mandel was performing. While stealing money, they also kidnapped Mandel. In the episode, Mandel performed his old routine of inflating a rubber glove over his head with his nostrils.
Mandel is a notable alumnus of Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am's Hebrew School in Toronto, as well as three other Toronto high schools. He performs a variety/comedy act at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas. Beginning in 2007, Mandel became a spokesperson for Internet retailer buy.com. He is sometimes featured in a section called "What's Shakin'?" with Mandel. On September 8, 2008, Mandel began hosting a five-day-a-week syndicated daytime version of Deal or No Deal, with a top prize of $500,000. On January 9, 2009, Mandel's reality show Howie Do It premiered on NBC.
On March 31, 2011, Mandel premiered a flash-mob show on Fox called Mobbed. Originally a presentation pilot, the ratings after American Idol prompted Fox to pick up the show for eight to ten episodes. On October 18, 2012, Mandel appeared on The Big Bang Theory as himself in the season 6 episode "The Re-Entry Minimization". On November 30, 2012, he hosted the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony. On December 10, 2012, his six-night special game show Take It All premiered.
He appeared in one episode of the animated series Fugget About It as the voice of FBI Agent Rick Chickmagnet in 2013. From 2013 to 2014, Mandel executive-produced the TBS hidden-camera show Deal with It. He also regularly made appearances and co-hosted the show along with main host Theo Von. In 2023, Mandel competed in season nine of The Masked Singer as "Rock Lobster". He was eliminated on "ABBA Night" alongside Debbie Gibson as "Night Owl".
''Deal or No Deal''
In 2003, while Mandel was deciding whether or not to quit show business, the executive producers at NBC asked him to host the show, but he declined many times. They then mailed him a tape of the overseas version and he finally accepted. In 2007, he hosted a five-episode run of the Canadian-English version Deal or No Deal Canada. The show then went to daytime with Mandel remaining as host, although Arsenio Hall was originally intended to host the show. In a January 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Mandel expressed mild, jovial frustration over how some of his contestants hold out during the game show, even though the grand prize is many times what they would make in a year.On March 12, 2018, it was announced that Mandel would host the 2018 CNBC revival of the game show and also become an executive producer. The show premiered on December 3, 2018. Mandel is one of three game show hosts to host the same game show in two different countries, the others being Donny Osmond for Pyramid in the United States and the United Kingdom and Anne Robinson for The Weakest Link in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In 2024, Mandel was credited as an executive producer on the reality game show spin-off of Deal or No Deal titled Deal or No Deal Island. In the finale of the first season, it was revealed that he is the secretive banker who made offers to the contestants over the course of the game. He did not return to be the banker for Season 2, as it was confirmed that the banker for that season would be a woman. The banker was later revealed to be celebrity and former Deal or No Deal briefcase model Chrissy Teigen.