He also faced many hardships while trying to break into the entertainment business, including homelessness. Steve Harvey’s net worth may be enormous today, but this wasn’t always the case. The game show host worked hard to build his massive media empire. Here, we take an in-depth look at how the entertainer amassed his impressive fortune and answer the burning question, “What is Steve Harvey’s net worth”?
Born in West Virginia on January 17, 1957, Steve Harvey grew up in Ohio. After graduating from high school, he attended both Kent State and West Virginia University before flunking out of school. He took on a string of odd jobs after this, trying everything from auto repair and carpet cleaning to selling insurance and boxing.
Eventually, Harvey ended up trying his hand at stand-up comedy. But success was anything but instant. During the late 1980s, the Family Feud star lived in his car for three years while traveling from gig to gig. Occasionally, a venue would provide him with a hotel, but most of the time he spent his nights sleeping in his trusted 1976 Ford Tempo and relying on gas stations and public swimming pools to shower.
Harvey himself admits that this was a very difficult time in his life and that he almost felt like giving up. “I have flunked out of college,” Harvey said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. “I’ve lived in a car. I’ve been homeless. I’ve been written off, told I wasn’t going to be nothing.”
“So I know what it is to have no money,” he continued. “I know what it is to start at the bottom. I know what it is to get back up. I know what it is to overcome. I know what it is to win. I know what losses feel like. I know what failure does — I know how to use it to your advantage.”
Despite the crushing hardships, Harvey kept going. In the early ‘90s, after becoming a finalist in a national comedy search competition, he landed his first big gig as host of It’s Showtime at the Apollo. Similar to America’s Got Talent, the popular late-night NBC show featured singers and dancers performing in front of a live audience.
The job was an excellent fit for Harvey, who was a funny, charming, and natural emcee. He went on to host the show for seven years—where he clearly fine-tuned his interviewing talents and ability to charm an audience! While hosting It’s Showtime at the Apollo, Steve Harvey scored his own WB sitcom, The Steve Harvey Show, in 1996.
He also continued to hone his stand-up career, teaming up with fellow comedians Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and the late Bernie Mac for the “Kings of Comedy” tour, which began in 1998 and earned a whopping $18 million in its first year. It went on to became the highest-grossing comedy tour in history and was turned into the 2000 Spike Lee movie, The Original Kings of Comedy.