Arsenio Hall

Arsenio Hall (born February 12, 1956) is an American comedian, actor and talk show host.

He graduated from Warrensville Heights High School in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, in 1973, after briefly attending John F. Kennedy High School.

He later attended Ohio University and Kent State University.

Hall later moved to Chicago, and then Los Angeles, to pursue a career in comedy, making a couple of appearances on Soul Train.

He appeared on five weeks of episodes of the short-lived NBC game show Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour from 1983 to 1984.

In 1984, he was the announcer/sidekick for Alan Thicke during the short-lived talk show Thicke of the Night (a role for which he has on occasion noted his confusion with Monty Hall).

He was also the original voice of Winston Zeddemore in the animated series The Real Ghostbusters from 1986 to 1987.

In 1986, the Fox network introduced The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, created to directly challenge The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

After a moderate start, ratings for the show sagged.

During his career, he set up Arsenio Hall Communications in 1987, and then he had signed a two-year, multi-picture agreement with Paramount Pictures to develop films for an exclusive agreement.

Relations between Rivers and network executives at Fox quickly eroded, and she left in 1987.

Hall was also chosen to host the show in the fall of 1987, and his stint proved immensely popular, leading to his being offered his own show in syndication.

He has appeared in Martial Law, Coming to America (1988), Coming 2 America (2021), and Harlem Nights (1989).

He was also the host of Star Search and appeared as Alan Thicke's sidekick on the talk show Thicke of the Night.

In 1988, he co-starred in the comedy film Coming to America with Eddie Murphy.

The series was subsequently renamed The Late Show, and featured several interim hosts, including Ross Shafer, Suzanne Somers, Shawn Thompson, Richard Belzer and Robert Townsend, before it was canceled in 1988.

Between 1988 and 1991, Hall hosted the MTV Video Music Awards.

Over the years, he has appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows, in special features, as a voice actor, on game shows and other award shows.

He hosted the late-night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show, from 1989 until 1994, and again from 2013 to 2014.

From January 2, 1989, to May 27, 1994, he had a Paramount contract to host a nationwide syndicated late-night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show.

It was a breakout success, rating especially high among the coveted younger demographic, and it was known for its audience's distinctive alternative to applause in chanting, "Woof, woof, woof!"

(which originated in the Cleveland Browns' Dawg Pound in the east end zone) while pumping their fists.

In the early 1990s, this culminated in an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show where Hall was protested by gay rights activists, who criticized that he didn't have any gay guests on the show and that he would occasionally play gay characters; Hall was clearly upset by the accusation, saying he had famously out LGBT celebrities on his show, including Elton John, and had others on who preferred not to publicly advocate their sexual orientation.

Hall and Johnson filmed a public service announcement about the disease that aired in the early 1990s.

The practice soon became such a ritual that by 1991 it had become a "pop culture stamp of approval"—one that Hall said had become "so popular it's getting on people's nerves".

The gesture was so well known that it appeared in films such as Pretty Woman and The Hard Way.

He also had a rivalry with Jay Leno after the latter was named host of The Tonight Show, during which Hall said that he would "kick Jay's ass" in ratings.

Hall was a supporter of gay rights long before the movement had become overwhelmingly popular and supported in the mainstream, especially in black culture.

(For reference, only 27% of Americans supported same-sex marriage in 1996, two to three years after Hall's public show of support, a figure which had exceeded two-thirds majority by 2018. ) After passionately stating his points, Hall received overwhelming woof chants of support from his audience.

Additionally, Hall used his fame during this period to help fight worldwide prejudice against HIV/AIDS after Magic Johnson contracted the virus.

Since The Arsenio Hall Show ended, Hall had leading roles on television shows such as the short-lived sitcom Arsenio (1997) and Martial Law with Sammo Hung (1998–2000), and hosted the revival of Star Search (2003–2004).

While hosting Star Search, he popularized the catchphrase "Hit me with the digits!"

Hall appeared as himself in Chappelle's Show in March 2004 (convinced by Swedish comedy director Saman Khadiri) when Chappelle was imagining "what Arsenio is doing right now" in a dinner scene.

Hall has guest co-hosted Wednesday evenings on The Tim Conway Jr.. Show on KLSX 97.1 FM radio.

He hosted MyNetworkTV's comedic web video show The World's Funniest Moments and TV One's 100 Greatest Black Power Moves.

In 2012, he won NBC's reality-competition game show Celebrity Apprentice 5.

Hall was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Fred and Annie Hall.

His father is a Baptist minister.

Hall performed as a magician when he was a child.

He also appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher in May 2012, in a discussion commemorating the 1992 Los Angeles riots.