Howie Mandel’s career spans all facets of the entertainment spectrum.
During a trip to Los Angeles in 1979, Mandel went to the legendary Comedy Store with some friends on an amateur night. His friends convinced him to try his luck on stage and, as fate would have it, there was a producer in the crowd who immediately hired him to appear on the comedy game show Make Me Laugh. This led to talk show appearances, and stints as an opening act for Diana Ross.
As a stand-up comedian, one of Mandel’s signature stunts was stretching a latex glove over his head and inflating it with his nostrils, filling it until it suddenly propelled itself off his head. This trick also lent itself to the title and cover photo of his comedy album, Fits Like a Glove.
In 1980, he won the lead role in the Canadian movie Gas. In 1982, Mandel joined the cast of the award-winning NBC series St. Elsewhere, where he spent six seasons as Dr. Wayne Fiscus.
His voice-over work includes Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. He was the voice of Bunsen Honeydew, Animal and Skeeter for the first two seasons of Muppet Babies. But his most popular role would undoubtedly be Bobby from the Emmy-nominated animated series Bobby’s World, which Mandel created and executive produced.
Howie currently hosts NBC’s popular Deal or No Deal (he also hosted the nationally syndicated version of the show in Canada). And joined the panel of judges for NBC’s America’s Got Talent, replacing David Hasselhoff in the fifth season.
