From Sleeping In His Car To Being The Most Decorated TV Host, Here's The Story of Steve Harvey Before Fame

Steve Harvey is an American comedian, TV host and actor who rose to fame as stand-up comedian in the 1980s.  

Before Steve Harvey accumulated over 4.5 million followers on Twitter and over 1.85 million YouTube subscribers, before he became the host of the show Family Feud, making it the second most watched daytime show in the globe.

Before he, the original king of comedy officially announced his retirement from stand-up during a live pay-per-view comedy special, filmed in Las Vegas, before he accidentally crowned the wrong winner during the 2015 Miss Universe competition, and made sure not to do it again in 2017.

Even before he apologized to Asian men everywhere after sliding them on his talk show and making what many considered to be a serious racist joke. Before all of that, Steve Harvey came from very humble beginnings.

He was a young man from West Virginia who tried his hand at numerous occupations. He worked as a life insurance agent, a carpet cleaner, an auto worker, and even a boxer for a while. 

Steve was willing to try everything and anything to achieve greatness, including living on the streets while pursuing his goal of going from being homeless to building a wealth of over $100 million. He rose from poverty to affluence, but it didn't happen immediately, and he encountered some significant obstacles along the road.

Without further ado, let's look at Steve Harvey's fascinating life and career before he became well-known.

Broderick Stephen Harvey, who was given the name Broderick in honor of the actor Broderick Crawford, was born on January 17, 1957 in Welch, West Virginia. He was the youngest of five children raised by his hard-working coal miner father, Jesse Harvey. While his mother Eloise served as the community church's pastor and taught Sunday school.

Every time his late mother is mentioned on one of Steve's TV broadcasts, it is clear how close they were.

When Steve was a young child, his family relocated to Cleveland, where he attended Glenville High School and graduated in 1974. After that, he returned to his native state to enroll in West Virginia University and Kent State University. 

He became a member of the esteemed Omega sci-pi fraternity. Shaquille O'Neal, Ray Lewis, spooky Bill Cosby, and sobbing Michael Jordan are some of the group's other well-known members. 

Several pledges have died during initiation, others have suffered severe injuries to the point of organ failure, and a few pledges, well, they were forced to eat dog faeces or, as Bill Cosby would call them, jello pudding pops. The fraternity is well-known for its hazing scandals.

Steve began looking for a job after quitting college in his third year. He held a variety of jobs, including those as a mail carrier, an insurance salesperson, and even a professional boxer. Nothing seemed to fit until Steve took the stage for the first time on October 8, 1985, in Cleveland, Ohio's Hilarity's Comedy Club.

He discovered his true calling there, where he also started his stand-up comedy career. Steve quickly fell in love with performing on stage, but it wasn't supporting him financially. 

For extended periods of time, he was forced to live out of his 1976 Ford, shower and shave in public pools. The benefit would be that when he scheduled a gig, a hotel would be supplied for him. 

He was constantly seeking for the next act, so to speak. Steve got to receive some help during these years from Rich and Becky Liss, two supporters who set up Steve with a part-time carpet cleaning business and also some credit to aid with travel arrangements. 

He began to earn prominence in 1989 after reaching the finals of the second annual Johnny Walker National Comedy Search. This was after years of hard living and spending so much time on stage honing his skill. 

However, Steve didn't begin to establish himself in the world of comedy seriously until 1993. Harvey won the highly sought-after position of host of the nationally syndicated comedy program 'Showtime at the Apollo' from the renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem, and oh, his outstanding television performances grabbed the notice of tv producers who gave him his own sitcom.

In 1996, the WB picked up the Steve Harvey show, one of the network's first successful shows and the venue where Steve first met famed comic, Cedric the Entertainer, who would become one of his closest friends in show business.

In 1997, Cedric and the other comedy giants, including Steve Harvey, D.L. Hewley, and Bernie Mac, went on tour. The tour was a huge hit, and in 1999, the King's Economy Tour—which made an astounding $19 million—became the highest-grossing comedy tour in American history.

Harvey had earned enough money that year to practically buy a new car every single day for something like a year, so he no longer needed to sleep in his Ford. He was doing alright. 

Legendary director Spike Lee was drawn to the massive tour and decided to turn the stand-up show into a performance documentary. The documentary was shot over the course of two days while the acts were performing in North Carolina.

 "The Original Kings of Comedy," a movie that cost three million dollars to produce, has made over 38 million dollars in box office receipts. As a result, Harvey became a super star and began his journey to becoming the one-man media empire he is today.

The Steve Harvey Morning Show, which began as an L.A. broadcast show but quickly became nationally syndicated, was the radio program that Steve launched in 2000.

In the midst of all this success, he suffered his first significant setback when his father passed away from black lung disease, and Steve's desire to expand his brand was motivated by a worry that he might have to return to living in a Ford. 

He persisted in producing new comedies and television programs. After the Steve Harvey show was canceled in 2002, he scheduled "Steve Harvey's Big Time" for the following year. 

He made his big-screen debut the same year in the movie "The Fighting Temptations," which led to roles in "You got served," "Johnson family vacation," and "Racing Stripes" in 2004 and 2005, respectively. 

Harvey started writing books, achieved success as a best-selling author, and even launched a dating service.