Drew Carey

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Drew Allison Carey, born May 23, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio, is an American comedian, actor, and television host who became a major figure in American improv television as the host and executive producer of the American adaptation of Whose Line Is It Anyway? on ABC from 1998 through 2007 and its CW revival from 2013 through the present. His Whose Line tenure, during which he was responsible for bringing the British short-form improv game show format to American primetime audiences, is his primary improv credential; he had no formal Second City training. He also hosted and starred in The Drew Carey Show (ABC, 1995-2004) and has hosted The Price Is Right on CBS since 2007.

Career

Drew Allison Carey was born on May 23, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of three brothers. His father Lewis Carey, a draftsman for General Motors, died of a brain tumor in 1966 when Drew was eight years old. Carey attended high school in Cleveland and enrolled at Kent State University, where he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity; he was expelled twice for poor academic performance and left without completing a degree.

In 1980, Carey enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and served six years as a field radio operator with the 25th Marine Regiment in Ohio, reaching the rank of Sergeant. During his military service he began writing and developing comedy material. He entered the stand-up comedy circuit after his discharge, winning his first open-mic contest in 1986 and becoming master of ceremonies at the Cleveland Comedy Club. In 1988 he competed on the nationally broadcast Star Search, gaining his first television exposure. In November 1991 he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

In 1995, The Drew Carey Show premiered on ABC, a workplace sitcom set in Cleveland in which Carey played a fictionalized version of himself working in a department store human resources department. The show became a ratings success by its second season and ran for nine seasons through 2004. A 1997 special episode titled Drew Live was performed and broadcast entirely live, reflecting Carey's interest in unscripted performance.

Carey had been a fan of the original British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the short-form improv game show that had run on Channel 4 with Clive Anderson as host from 1988 through 1999. When American television producer Dan Patterson, who had created the British series, sought to develop an American adaptation, Carey lobbied ABC to host the program and became executive producer alongside Ryan Stiles. The American Whose Line Is It Anyway? premiered on ABC on August 5, 1998. The show featured Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, and other performers in a rotating guest format, with Mochrie and Stiles as permanent cast members and Carey hosting from outside the performing ensemble. The show ran on ABC through 2004, with additional episodes on ABC Family from 2005 through 2007. In 2001, Carey took the cast on a national tour as Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars.

Carey's improv exposure through Whose Line was gained entirely through his professional relationship with the show's cast rather than through formal improv training. He did not have Second City or iO Chicago instruction. His co-producing credit on Whose Line reflected his organizational role in bringing the format to American television.

In October 2007, Carey was named to replace Bob Barker as host of The Price Is Right on CBS, following Barker's retirement after 35 years. His first episode aired October 15, 2007. He has continued in that role through the present. A revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway? premiered on The CW in 2013 with Carey again as host and executive producer, and has continued through subsequent seasons. He holds a minority ownership stake in Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer, a club he has supported since 2009.

Historical Context

Drew Carey's role in the American adaptation of Whose Line Is It Anyway? was decisive in establishing short-form improv as a viable American primetime television format. The original British series, hosted by Clive Anderson, had reached cult status among American viewers with access to British television but had never been broadcast on a major American network. Carey's successful lobbying of ABC to produce an American version, combined with his executive-producing role in the production, was the direct mechanism by which the format reached American primetime.

The American Whose Line's premiere in August 1998 on ABC, in the same broadcast season as whose Seinfeld finale had just concluded and as the American television landscape was undergoing significant prime-time comedy shifts, placed short-form improv games before audiences who had no previous exposure to the format. The show's success, sustained across seven seasons of original ABC episodes, demonstrated that the improvisational game vocabulary developed in British television could translate to American audience engagement. The performers Carey hosted, particularly Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and Wayne Brady, became nationally recognized figures whose visibility established the professional identity of improv performance as a distinct career category to American entertainment audiences.

His Marines background and his Cleveland stand-up origins gave him a distinctly non-metropolitan comedy profile that differentiated his hosting from the institutional improv and Second City traditions his cast represented. This contrast, between a stand-up host without formal improv training and a performing ensemble deeply grounded in the Harold and Theatresports traditions, was visible throughout the show's run and contributed to the format's accessibility for non-improv audiences.

Legacy

Drew Carey's executive production of the American Whose Line Is It Anyway? is the primary mechanism by which short-form improv game performance became a recognized entertainment category for mainstream American audiences during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The show's seven-year ABC run, followed by its CW revival beginning in 2013, created an audience base for improvised comedy game formats that had not previously existed at American primetime scale.

The performers whose national visibility grew through Carey's Whose Line, particularly Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady, and Greg Proops, became the most publicly recognized names in American improv performance during the period, and their association with the show's game format made the vocabulary of short-form improv games familiar to general audiences who had never attended an improv performance in a theatrical context.

The Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars touring operation, begun in 2001, took the show's performing ensemble into live venues for paying audiences, establishing a touring market for improv-adjacent comedy entertainment that subsequently influenced how other improv performers and companies structured live touring production.

Early Life and Training

Drew Allison Carey was born on May 23, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio. His father Lewis Carey, a draftsman for General Motors, died of a brain tumor in 1966 when Carey was eight. He grew up in Cleveland, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1980, and served six years as a field radio operator, reaching the rank of Sergeant.

Personal Life

Drew Carey has not married. He was engaged to Nicole Jaracz from 2007 through 2012, during which time he helped raise her son Connor. He was briefly engaged to sex therapist Amie Harwick in 2018; Harwick was murdered by a former boyfriend in February 2020. He lost more than 80 pounds around 2010 while managing a type-2 diabetes diagnosis.