Steve Harvey's Real Name: Broderick Steven Harvey

Quick answer: Steve Harvey's documented full name is Broderick Steven Harvey. Encyclopaedia Britannica and BlackPast both record that form and date his birth to January 17, 1957, in Welch, West Virginia (Encyclopaedia Britannica; BlackPast).

Real name and early life

He is known professionally as Steve Harvey. Britannica says he grew up with his parents and elder siblings in Cleveland. BlackPast names his parents as Jesse, a coal miner, and Eloise Harvey, and says he was the youngest of five children and graduated from Glenville High School in Cleveland. Accounts of his college years differ. Britannica and Encyclopedia.com say he attended Kent State University, with Encyclopedia.com specifying two years, then left without a degree and worked in sales, including insurance. BlackPast instead says he attended the University of West Virginia and was a member of Omega Psi Phi. He won an amateur comedy contest in the mid-1980s—Encyclopedia.com dates a contest to 1984 and his decision to go on the road to 1985; Britannica dates the contest to 1985—and then spent years on the stand-up circuit.

Career highlights

By the early 1990s he was headlining major comedy clubs and had appeared on HBO's Def Comedy Jam. He hosted It's Showtime at the Apollo from 1993 to 2000, Britannica says, starred in the sitcom Me and the Boys (1994–95), and then in The Steve Harvey Show (1996–2002). He joined Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac on the Kings of Comedy tour; Spike Lee's film The Original Kings of Comedy followed in 2000. Radio work begun in Chicago in 1996 led to The Steve Harvey Morning Show, nationally known from 2005. He has hosted Family Feud since 2010 and later programs including Celebrity Family Feud, Little Big Shots, and Judge Steve Harvey. Film credits cited by Britannica include The Fighting Temptations (2003) and Johnson Family Vacation (2004). His 2009 book Act like a Lady, Think like a Man became a best seller, and he later published Straight Talk, No Chaser (2010). In 2015, Britannica notes, he mistakenly crowned the wrong contestant while hosting Miss Universe and quickly corrected the error. He has also been active in mentoring work through the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation.

Name notes for searchers

Broderick Steven Harvey is the documented full name; the professional name is Steve Harvey. Searchers looking for the host of Family Feud, the star of The Steve Harvey Show, or one of the Kings of Comedy are usually aiming at the same person.