Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian comedian, actor, and television host. He is known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show\'s daytime and Canadian-English counterparts. In 1987, Mandel starred alongside Amy Steel in the comedy film Walk Like a Man. Before his career as a game show host, 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 children\'s cartoon Bobby\'s World, as well as a judge on NBC\'s America\'s Got Talent.\n', '

Mandel was born and lived in the Willowdale area of Toronto, Ontario. He is Jewish, and his ancestors emigrated from Romania and Poland. Mandel is also a distant cousin to violinist Itzhak Perlman. His father was a lighting manufacturer and a real estate agent. Mandel was expelled from his high school (William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute[dead link]) for impersonating a school official and hiring a construction company to build an addition to his school. Afterwards, Mandel worked as a carpet salesman. He was a stand-up comedian at Yuk Yuk\'s in Toronto and by September 1978 had a week-long 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 say, "it\'s you." His manager during the Yuk Yuk years was Canadian David Holiff who Mandel later fired. \n', '

On a trip to Los Angeles, Mandel performed a set at The Comedy Store, which resulted in his becoming a regular performer there. A producer for the comedic game show Make Me Laugh saw him and booked Mandel for several appearances during the show\'s run in 1979. He was booked to open for David Letterman at shows in the summer of 1979. CBC-TV\'s head of variety programming saw his performance in October 1979 and immediately signed him for a TV special. In 1980, he won the lead role in the Canadian movie Gas, co-starring Susan Anspach and Donald Sutherland. Mandel was one of the first "VeeJays" to appear on Nickelodeon\'s music video series, Pop Clips.\n', '

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