Harvey was born on January 17, 1957, in Welch, West Virginia, and is the son of Jesse Harvey, a coal miner, and Eloise Vera. His first name is Broderick, named after actor Broderick Crawford of the TV series Highway Patrol. Harvey’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, living on East 112th Street, which was renamed Steve Harvey Way in 2015. He graduated from Glenville High School in 1974.

Harvey has been a boxer, an autoworker, an insurance salesman, a carpet cleaner, and a mailman. He first performed stand-up comedy on October 8, 1985, at the Hilarities Comedy Club in Cleveland, Ohio. In the late ’80s, Harvey was homeless for three years. He slept in his 1976 Ford when not performing gigs that provided a hotel, and he showered at gas stations or swimming pool showers. Rich and Becky Liss helped Harvey during this time with a contract for carpet cleaning and credit at a travel agency.

Harvey was a finalist in the Second Annual Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search performing on April 16, 1990, eventually leading to a long stint as host of It’s Showtime at the Apollo, succeeding Mark Curry in that role. His success as a stand-up comedian led to a starring role on the short-lived ABC show Me and the Boys in 1994. He would later star on the WB network show The Steve Harvey Show, which ran from 1996 to 2002. While popular, the show never achieved critical acclaim outside of the African-American community.

In 1997, Harvey continued his work in stand-up comedy, performing on the Kings of Comedy tour along with Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac. The tour became the highest grossing comedy tour in history, grossing $18 million its first year and $19 million its second. The comedy act would later be put together into a film by Spike Lee called The Original Kings of Comedy. That title was also used as the name of his comedy and variety television show (later renamed Steve Harvey’s Big Time Challenge), which aired on The WB network from 2003 until 2005.

He had appeared in the 2003 movie The Fighting Temptations alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles. The same year he played the role of Clarence Johnson in the film Love Don’t Cost a Thing. In 2014 he had roles in the films Johnson Family Vacation and You Got Served; and, in 2005, he co-starred in the movie Racing Stripes as the voice of Buzz.

Harvey has been married three times and has seven children (four biological and three stepchildren). From his first marriage, to Marcia Harvey, he has two daughters (twins Brandi and Karli) and one son (Broderick Harvey Jr.). From his second marriage, to Mary Shackelford, Harvey has another son named Wynton. The couple divorced in November 2005. In 2011, Collin County, Texas-based 199th District Court Judge Robert Dry expressed concern about Mary Harvey spreading false information about the divorce, with the judge suggesting that she had not been left materially destitute.

In 2006, Harvey released the stand-up special Steve Harvey: Don’t Trip… He Ain’t Through with Me Yet directed by Leslie Small. The special was filmed at MegaFest with Harvey not using profanity during the show. In 2008, Harvey hosted the Disney Dreamers Academy, a teen-focused personal and professional enrichment event that took place January 17–20, 2008, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

In June 2007, Harvey married Marjorie Bridges, who he says is responsible for making him a better man and changing his life. Marjorie Harvey is mother to three children (Morgan, Jason, and Lori), all of whom Steve adopted. Steve and Marjorie have five grandchildren: three through Jason’s marriage to his wife Amanda, one through Morgan’s marriage to her husband Kareem, and one through Karli’s marriage to husband Ben. Through 2017, Harvey and his family divided their time between Atlanta, where his radio show was broadcast and Family Feud was recorded, and Chicago, where he hosted his talk show for NBCUniversal from the company’s Chicago studios, although he would host his radio show there as well. In 2018, Harvey moved his talk show, radio show, and Family Feud to Los Angeles.

Harvey released the book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man in 2009. The book is about how men think about women and relationships. Based on the book, the 2012 film Think Like a Man, is an ensemble romantic comedy depicting characters taking advice on dating from the book. The hardcover version spent 64 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, 23 of those weeks at No. 1.

Harvey began hosting Family Feud in September 2010. The show has seen improved ratings under Harvey, and he has surpassed every previous Feud host to date in length of consecutive tenures. Harvey also hosts Celebrity Family Feud, where celebrities compete for a chance to donate up to $25,000 to their favorite charity. The show airs during the summer on ABC.

In August 2011, on his radio show, Harvey called Cornel West and Tavis Smiley “Uncle Toms” because of their criticism of President Barack Obama. Harvey later apologized for using the slur but maintained his criticism of West and Smiley. In January 2017, Harvey was met with backlash from some in the African-American community for his decision to meet with then-President elect Donald Trump. He defended his decision, citing that it would help spark positive changes.

On August 2, 2012, Harvey performed his final stand-up act at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, ending a 27-year career as a stand-up comedian. The two-hour performance was broadcast live on Pay-Per-View. “The road to this final show has been an amazing journey, doing stand-up for the past 27 years, and I can’t thank fans enough after reflecting on all those years on stage,” he said. The same year, Harvey debuted a self-titled syndicated talk show produced by Endemol and distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution at the NBC Tower in Chicago.

In 2013, Harvey became the first double host nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, receiving nominations for both Outstanding Talk Show Host and Outstanding Game Show Host. He was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The following year, Harvey launched a new dating website called Delightful. It is a joint venture with IAC with Harvey supplying articles and videos for the site.

In December 2015, Harvey hosted the Miss Universe 2015 pageant in Las Vegas. Upon announcing the final results, he mistakenly named the first runner-up, Miss Colombia (Ariadna Gutiérrez) as the winner. A few minutes after she was crowned, Harvey announced that he had read the results incorrectly and that Miss Philippines (Pia Wurtzbach) was the new Miss Universe. He apologized to Wurtzbach outside the venue and later tweeted an apology to both contestants. Harvey also hosted the Miss Universe 2016 pageant in the Philippines on January 30, 2017, telling the Miss Universe Organization that he wanted to personally apologize to the Filipinos for the incident that occurred in the last Miss Universe pageant he hosted. He returned as host for the Miss Universe 2017 pageant in Las Vegas on November 26, 2017, the Miss Universe 2018 pageant in Thailand on December 17, 2018 and the Miss Universe 2019 pageant on December 8, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia.

In January 2016, Harvey gave a motivational speech to audience members after the taping of an episode of Family Feud. The theme of the speech was for people to embrace the skills they were born with. He references embracing the gifts with jumping from a cliff and relying on the parachute (those gifts) to help you. The speech was the motivation for the book Leap: Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance, published by Harvey in 2016.

In October 2016, it was announced that Harvey would host two revival specials of Showtime at the Apollo for Fox. In November 2016, the Steve Harvey talk show was cancelled, and it was announced that Harvey had reached a deal with IMG to produce a new syndicated talk show in Los Angeles with NBCUniversal. The new series, Steve, premiered in September 2017, and was described as having more of a celebrity and comedy oriented format with a larger amount of creative control held by Harvey, as opposed to the previous program’s larger focus on human interest subjects. To facilitate the new series, production of Harvey’s radio show and Family Feud were relocated to L.A.

Harvey is the co-creator of Little Big Shots, a series launched in 2016 and executive produced by him and Ellen DeGeneres. The series features children demonstrating talents and engaging in conversation with Harvey. Harvey hosted the show until 2019.

Harvey united all of his businesses under Steve Harvey Global (SHG) in 2017. Brands under SHG include East One Twelve, Harvey’s in-house production company that is used to develop digital content, films, and television. The company also owns the rights for international versions of Family Feud, of which an African version of the show was announced to begin in 2020. He also launched the Sand and Soul Festival in 2017. The event has been held yearly and features live music, comedy, and a question and answers session with Harvey and his wife Marjorie. He also launched Harvey Events, a special events company led by his daughter Morgan Hawthorne and son-in-law Kareem Hawthorne. It has produced events such as the FroRibbean Fest in Atlanta in 2018.

In 2017, Harvey began hosting a New Year’s Eve special from Times Square for Fox (which, like his talk show, would be produced in partnership with IMG). Two days before the broadcast, Harvey was ordained in the state of New York so he could officiate an on-air wedding between Keven Undergaro and Maria Menounos during the special. The special was Fox’s most-watched New Year’s Eve broadcast to date.

In January 2017, Steve Harvey made jokes on Steve Harvey about Asian men, ridiculing the idea that any white woman or black woman would want to date them. “Excuse me, do you like Asian men?” he said, “No, thank you.” He went on to add, “I don’t even like Chinese food.” The remarks were met with criticism from Asian Americans, including New York politicians and author Eddie Huang. For instance, Huang remarked about Harvey’s hypocrisy in speaking about issues facing the black community while denigrating Asians. Harvey apologized on his talk show and Twitter, saying: “I offer my humblest apology for offending anyone, particularly those in the Asian community. … It was not my intention, and the humor was not meant with any malice or disrespect whatsoever.” However, he also earlier said, “I ain’t been laughing that much over the past few days. They’re kinda beating me up on the internet right now for no reason. But, you know, that’s life, ain’t it?”

In 2019, Harvey announced the launch of a learning hub called Vault. He also spoke at the first Vault conference held in Los Angeles. He also invested in the takeover of HDNet along with Anthem Sports & Entertainment.