Mark DeCarlo is an American actor,
television host
A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people who garnered fam ...
,
comedian
A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...
,
travel
Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without Baggage, luggage, a ...
,
internet personality, and
foodie expert. He is currently known for being a contributor to
WLS-TV
WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's ABC network outlet. It has been owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. ...
morning show ''Windy City Live'',
a locally produced Chicago program that replaced ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show
''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped i ...
'' following its 2011 ending. DeCarlo has been awarded three local
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
s for his work on ''Windy City Live''.
DeCarlo's first major exposure came in 1991 when he became host of the dating game show ''
Studs''. He is also known for providing the voice of
Hugh Neutron, the
title character
The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piëce. The title o ...
's father in ''
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius'' for
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
and for portraying Alec Berg in the ''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...
'' episode, “
The Face Painter”. DeCarlo authored ''“A Fork on the Road: 400 Cities, 1 Stomach”'' which is a comedic
travelogue &
cook book
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food.
Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cours ...
published by
Lyons Press
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an American independent academic publishing company founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns t ...
.
DeCarlo rose to influencer-style fame on the internet in July 2021 when
Hugh Neutron gained a meme-centric cult following, in an attempt to get the Jimmy Neutron character into the ''
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl'' video game.
Career
Acting
Prior to ''Studs'', DeCarlo was a host on the cable network MovieTime before it became ''
E! Entertainment Television
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable television network. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel focuses primarily on pop culture, celebrity based reality shows and movie ...
''. Early in his career, DeCarlo was a contestant on ''
Sale of the Century
''Sale of the Century'' (stylized as ''$ale of the Century'') is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being t ...
'', winning $115,257 in cash and prizes in 1985, and ''
Tic Tac Dough'' in 1990. He also guest-starred as himself in an episode of ''
Jonas'' and is now a regular on ''Windy City Live'', a local morning show in the
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
market.
DeCarlo hosted two more TV shows,
Fox
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush").
Twelve species ...
's extreme game show, ''
Big Deal'', and
FX's late night talk show ''
The X Show
''The X Show'' is a magazine, variety, and interview/talk program that aired on FX Network in the United States from May 1999 to April 2001. Running time was originally one hour, but this was later reduced to a half-hour. The show was 'guy-theme ...
''. He appeared on the game show ''
Street Smarts
''Street Smarts'' is an American game show that featured two in-studio contestants trying to predict the outcome of interviews of people who were found on the street. The show, which was hosted by Frank Nicotero, aired in syndication from 200 ...
'' in 2002, playing against
Mark L. Walberg as part of a "Game Show Showdown", and lost the game with $1 to Walberg's $2. Since it was a charity episode, he still earned $500 for the M.S. Society of America. In 2005, DeCarlo starred in ''
Sex Sells: The Making of Touché''.
DeCarlo appeared on an episode of the show ''
Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis
''Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis'' is an American reality television series that debuted March 14, 2012, on Bravo. It is a spin-off from Lewis' other Bravo show ''Flipping Out'', and features both Jenni Pulos and Zoila Chavez.
Format
The show ...
'' on
Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
* Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
* Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...
that aired May 16, 2012. He co-hosted the TV series ''THIS vs THAT'' that premiered internationally in November 2012. He also had a small role on HBO's ''
Curb Your Enthusiasm
''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', also known colloquially simply as ''Curb'', is an American television comedy of manners created by Larry David that premiered on HBO with an hour-long special in October 17, 1999, followed by 12 seasons broadcast from Oc ...
''.
In 2013, he hosted ''EconomicalECO'', a
how-to
How to or how-to (among other spellings) may refer to:
* A user guide
** An owner's manual, more narrowly
* A tutorial
** Especially, instructional material created for the do it yourself market
In titles of specific works
* How to... (film serie ...
series that popularized ways to radically reduce the cost of living by choosing economical American products.
On a 1992 episode of ''Studs'', DeCarlo hosted
Ronald Goldman, at the time an aspiring actor who become well known two years later after being murdered along with
Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the second wife of American professional football player, actor, and media personality O. J. Simpson. She was murdered outside her Brentwood home, along with her friend Ro ...
in Los Angeles on June 12, 1994, which led to the arrest and
Trial of O.J. Simpson.
Voice-over acting
DeCarlo was the voice of
Hugh Neutron on the Nickelodeon animated series ''
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius''. His voice over career includes roles in ''
Back at the Barnyard
''Back at the Barnyard'' (originally advertised as ''Barnyard: The Series'') is an American animated television series created and executively produced by filmmaker Steve Oedekerk based on the 2006 film '' Barnyard'', which he wrote, co-produc ...
'', ''
Planet Sheen
''Planet Sheen'' is an American animated television series created by Keith Alcorn and Steve Oedekerk. It is a spin-off series of the '' Jimmy Neutron'' franchise, the second sequel television series of the film '' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'', ...
'', ''
Johnny Bravo
''Johnny Bravo'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The second of the network's Cartoon Cartoons, it aired from July 14, 1997, to August 27, 2004. The titular Johnny Bravo (voiced by ...
'', ''
Handy Manny'' and the ''Thumb'' series of comedies: ''
Thumb Wars'', ''BaTThumb'' and ''Thumbtanic''.
Travel & foodie expert
DeCarlo hosted the
Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...
's ''Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo'' for two seasons in 2004 and 2005, and is also known as the host of the early 1990s dating
game show
A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...
, ''
Studs'' and the short-lived 1996 game show ''
Big Deal''.
In September 2022, DeCarlo and his wife,
Yeni Álvarez, resumed travel for their podcast, ''A Fork on the Road,'' which they began in 2017 but set aside due to the
Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Internet icon
DeCarlo hosts an internet sitcom called The ''Boffo the Bear Show'', via Facebook Live and YouTube. Mark portrays a pompous blue bear in Hollywood who runs his own interview talk show and game show. The realtime-CGI technology created for Boffo was programmed by Julian Sarmiento, Global Director of Virtual Production and Real-Time at
FuseFX
FuseFX (formerly known as The Outfit) is an American special visual effects company which was founded in Los Angeles, California in 2006 by David Altenau, Tim Jacobsen and Jason Fotter. The company is best known for developing special visual ef ...
. Mark has held several interview panels with his Boffo character using this technology at comic-con conventions.
On July 13, 2021, GameMill Entertainment announced ''
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl'', a
platform-fighter video game for Fall 2021. The same day as the announcement trailer, the hashtag "#HughNation" and Hugh Neutron began to trend on Twitter, as memes of Mark's character becoming a playable fighter in the video game circulated. What started as a joke began to build a serious cult following for DeCarlo's character to be included. As a result, a
Discord
Discord is an instant messaging and Voice over IP, VoIP social platform which allows communication through Voice over IP, voice calls, Videotelephony, video calls, text messaging, and digital media, media. Communication can be private or take ...
server for DeCarlo's fanbase got DeCarlo himself involved, in which he fueled the community's desire for the character to be added. DeCarlo further interacted with his fans by reading submitted memes via Twitter, and later through his
Cameo page.
On May 13, 2022, GameMill Entertainment released a reveal trailer for ''Nickelodeon All-Star Brawls newest DLC fighters, including Hugh Neutron, which DeCarlo and his fanbase had been rallying for since the game's reveal.
On August 5th, 2022, Hugh Neutron released as a paid downloadable fighter for the game. On the DLC's release day, DeCarlo and
Debi Derryberry
Debi Derryberry (''née'' Greenberg; born September 27, 1960) is an American voice actress who has provided voices for a number of animations and video games. She is best known for voicing Jimmy Neutron, the titular protagonist of the Jimmy Neutr ...
commentated a ''Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl'' tournament, consisting of twelve online content creators.
Personal life
DeCarlo graduated from
Benet Academy
Benet Academy ( ) is a private, highly competitive, co-educational, college-preparatory, Benedictine high school in Lisle, Illinois, United States, overseen by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet in Illinois, Diocese of Joliet. Founded in 1886, ...
high school in 1980. He later graduated from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
.
[ He married voice actress Yeni Álvarez on November 24, 2012. Being a Chicago native, he is also an avid ]Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...
fan as well and is often seen wearing various Cubs merch.
Filmography
Films
Scourc
iMDb
Television
Video Games
References
External links
Mark DeCarlo Official Website
Mark DeCarlo tells his story of losing seventy pounds
Mark DeCarlo at AVOTalent.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Decarlo, Mark
Male actors from Chicago
Contestants on American game shows
American game show hosts
Drake University alumni
Living people
Nickelodeon people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American male comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
Comedians from Chicago
Phi Delta Theta members