Drew Allison Carey was born to Lewis and Beulah on May 23, 1958 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the youngest of three children. His father died of a brain when he was only eight. Drew frequently left home and spent a lot of time listening to comedy albums and watching cartoons.

Drew played in the school marching band at Cleveland’s Rhodes high. He attended Kent State after graduation. Drew didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life and ended up changing his major several times. Drew was a devoted Frat brother and got kicked out of school a lot because of problems with balancing his studies and social life. Drew swallowed bottles of sleeping pills twice in attempts to kill himself out of depression.

Drew was convinced he needed to do something to help himself, so he started reading “Self-help” books. Drew is convinced that they literally changed his life. He joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1980 in hopes of learning some self discipline. Soon enough, a disc jockey friend saw Drew’s comedic talent and offered to pay him to come up with funny ideas for his radio show. Drew read books upon books about writing jokes and began to try out his stand up at local comedy clubs.

A big turning point in Drew’s career was when he landed a guest appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Johny Carson in 1991. Soon enough, Drew became the Drew Carey that we know today. Star of the “Drew Carey Show” and host of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”.  He has recently written his first book of short stories and anecdotes, “Dirty Jokes and Beer.”

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