Harald Franz Schmidt was born on 18 August 1957 in Neu-Ulm, Germany as the oldest son of an administrative employee and a kindergarten educator. After graduating in his hometown Nürtingen, he studied acting at the Stuttgart School of Music and Performing Arts from 1978 to 1981. During his first stage engagement in Augsburg, he was discovered by Kay Lorentz, making him a cast member at the Düsseldorf cabaret Kom(m)oedchen. As television noticed the talented comedian, he started hosting his first shows _"Maz ab!" (1988) and _"Psst...!" (1989)_, followed by the satirical Schmidteinander (1990). Although his first Saturday night show Verstehen Sie Spaß? (1980) flopped, the private network SAT.1 gave him the opportunity to host his own late night show Die Harald Schmidt Show (1995), which gained cult status during its eight-year-run due to Schmidt's sophisticated, disrespectful humor. At the end of 2004, after a break of one year, he returned to the public network ARD and started a second run with Harald Schmidt (2004).