Howie Mandel

Howard Michael Howie Mandel is a Canadian comedian, actor, television host and voice actor. He is well known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the shows daytime and CanadianEnglish counterparts. Before his career as a game show host, Howie Mandel was best known for his role as rowdy ER intern Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere. He is also well known for being the creator and star of the childrens cartoon Bobbys World. On June 6, 2009, he hosted the 2009 Game Show Awards on GSN. Mandel became a judge on NBCs Americas Got Talent, replacing David Hasselhoff, in the fifth season of the reality talent contest. Mandel has mysophobia to the point that he does not shake hands with anyone, including contestants on Deal or No Deal, unless he is wearing latex gloves.

Mandel was born and lived in the Willowdale area of Toronto, Ontario. Mandel is Jewish and a distant cousin to violinist Itzhak Perlman. His father was a lighting manufacturer and a real estate agent. After getting expelled from his high school for impersonating a member of the school board and signing a construction contract to make an addition to his school, Mandel became a carpet salesman who would later open a carpet sales business of his own. He was a standup comedian at Yuk Yuks in Toronto and by September 1978 had a weeklong booking as featured act, billed as a wild and crazy borderline psychotic. His repertoire included placing a latex glove over his head and inflating it by blowing through his nose, the fingers of the glove extending above his head like a cockscomb. When the audience reacted uproariously to that and similar antics, his trademark response was to extend his arms palms up, look incredulous, and ask What What

Source: Wikipedia