Steve Harvey's Net Worth: From Homelessness To Multimillionaire
Steve Harvey’s Net Worth: From Homelessness To Multimillionaire
Steve Harvey, born Broderick Stephen Harvey on January 17, 1957, in Welch, West Virginia, is now one of the most recognizable faces in entertainment, with a net worth in the millions. However, his incredible rise within the comedy, film, and TV industries was anything but easy.
His career path was a winding road.
The youngest of five kids, Harvey’s early life was marked by modest means. His father, Jesse Harvey, worked as a coal miner, and the family moved often, according to Biography. He attended both Kent State University and West Virginia University but ultimately dropped out, Fortune notes. During those early years, Harvey took on a variety of odd jobs—insurance salesman, mailman, auto‑plant worker—anything to make ends meet.
Harvey discovered his passion on stage, performing stand-up comedy for the first time in 1985 on a dare by a girl he had known. During a June 3 episode of Harvey’s iconic Family Feud, the world-renowned comic went into detail about that night, a day that changed his life and trajectory forever.
“It was Oct. 8, 1985. I went to a comedy club for the first time ever, on a dare by a girl. I was writing jokes for a comedian named AJ Jamal,” Harvey recalled to the audience. “She said, ‘He’s the funniest guy at the comedy club. Why are you writing a joke for him? Why aren’t you doing it yourself?’”
The Virginia native returned to that same club the following week to try his hand at stand-up and was an instant hit with the crowd. Watching the nine performers who went on before him, he quickly realized they lacked the spark he had. He could already tell what they were going to say and instinctively knew what they should have said.
“I went up on stage, performed, [and] had a clap off. I won amateur night. They paid me $50. Oct. 8, 1985. I went to work the next day, Oct. 9, and quit my job,” he added proudly. “I have done nothing since Oct. 8, 1985, except tell jokes. I knew that night that this [was] what I was going to do.”
After years of refining his craft in small clubs, Harvey broke through in 1989 by reaching the finals of the Second Annual Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search, a pivotal moment that brought him closer to mainstream success, according to Biography. From there, Harvey’s career began to soar. In 1993, he became the host of Showtime at the Apollo, the iconic variety show filmed at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. He held the role until 2000, but his time on the show was just one part of a rapidly growing career that would soon include sitcoms, national tours, and more.
Harvey wasn’t always living in the spotlight. Long before he became worth millions, he endured nearly three years of homelessness: sleeping in his Ford Tempo, keeping food cold in an Igloo cooler, and surviving on bologna sandwiches while making as little as $50 a week. That rough period, though brutal, shaped him.
“Because today is temporary; if it all goes right, today will be called yesterday, and if it all goes really right, tomorrow is going to be today,” Harvey said in The Pivot Podcast on Sept. 15. “If you can understand that it can change for you tomorrow, it’ll give you the fortitude to hang in there today because all you got to do is wake up.”
What is Steve Harvey’s net worth?
Despite those difficult early years, Harvey steadily built his career via stand‑up comedy, television, radio, writing, and now business. In the 1990s, Harvey starred in The Steve Harvey Show, a sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2002, earning both commercial success and critical acclaim. His standout role in the 1997 Kings of Comedy tour—later immortalized in Spike Lee’s film The Original Kings of Comedy—cemented his reputation as one of the top comedic voices of his generation. He has been the host of Family Feud since 2010 (including its celebrity and African editions). According to Celebrity Net Worth, out of the roughly $40 million Harvey earns every year, $10 million comes from the hit family game show.
The success doesn’t stop there. Harvey also stars in his own courtroom comedy show, Judge Steve Harvey, and hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, which generates around $20 million in annual revenue. According to Celebrity Net Worth, as of 2025, Steve Harvey’s net worth is widely reported to be around $200 million. Although Forbes suggests his annual income could be approximately $45 million, coming from multiple streams, including hosting Family Feud and its spin-offs, his radio show, books, endorsements, fashion, investments, and real estate.
Notably, Harvey owns multi‑million‑dollar properties, including a $15 million estate in Atlanta formerly owned by Tyler Perry and real estate in Beverly Hills, among other locations, Impact Wealth notes. Even as a celebrity, Harvey is candid about how hard it is to maintain success.
“It’s hard to make money, man, and it’s hard to make a lot of money, and it takes a long time to make a lot of money,” he said during his interview on The Pivot Podcast. “But if you think it’s hard to make money, it’s way harder to keep it and to add to it.”
He likened financial success to physical strength: doing 100 push‑ups might take years of training, but it’s even harder to stay in shape to keep doing it. “To stay successful, guess what you got to do? You got to lock and hold,” he added.
Steve Harvey’s life is a testament to resilience, diversification, and staying focused on the future. He transformed poverty, uncertainty, and homelessness into a thriving career and a significant financial empire. As he puts it, staying successful is more complicated than earning success, but he knows what it takes to “lock and hold” and keep building.
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Steve Harvey’s Net Worth: From Homelessness To Multimillionaire was originally published on newsone.com
