Wayne Brady Net Worth

Wayne Brady's Quotes

• [on replacing Monty Hall as host of Let's Make a Deal (2009) in 2009]: They got me because they wanted someone a little edgier, but I get that it is daytime, so I am not going to say, 'Hey bitch, what's behind Door No. 1?' But it lets me push it as far as you can in the daytime schedule, because it is a Vegas audience.
• I was teased horribly as a child and beaten up a lot. I had a horrible stutter; I got my butt kicked by bigger kids in school for breakfast, lunch and tea. I want my child to not be that person. I want her to be popular. I want her to have self-confidence. I want her to be comfortable being herself because those were the things that I never had.
• [on Reeko the Skunk]: Stuart showed Reeko that he could take down that wall, and just let people like him for him. At one point I say, 'You don't like me because I'm a skunk,' and they say, 'No, we don't like you because you're a jerk.' He couldn't understand that. There was a good lesson there."
• [In 2008]: This is what I was built for, I can't save a life; that's why I didn't become a doctor. I can't drive a 16-wheeler. There are a lot of things in life I can't do, but I'll be damned if I can't get on a stage and entertain.
• The old adage is, you strike while the iron is hot. I've been blessed enough that my irons have been hot-to-warm-to-hot for the past 10 years. So I'm still striking.

Interesting Facts about Wayne Brady

1. Graduated from Dr. Phillips High School in 1989.
2. Underwent surgery in Nov 2002 to fix his right knee which he hurt when he was 18
3. His ex-wife, Mandie Taketa, gave birth to their first child, daughter Maile Brady (Maile Masako Brady), on February 3rd, 2003.
4. An early job was dressing up as Tigger at Walt Disney World.
5. Spoofed his own harmless, sugary persona while appearing as a guest on Chappelle's Show (2003), portraying himself as a drug-dealing, pimping, murderous psychopath who terrorizes Dave Chappelle and others.
6. When acting in school, a stage piece dropped on his right foot - his big-toe nail never grew in straight.
7. Sung in the Dr. Phillips High School chorus.
8. Wife, Mandie Taketa, filed for divorce on July 2, 2007. She and Wayne had been separated since April 5, 2006.
9. Director Neil Patrick Harris cast Brady in the role of "Tom Collins" in a 2010 limited-run production of the musical, "Rent", at the Hollywood Bowl. Brady had previously played Harris's character's brother on How I Met Your Mother (2005).
10. Born in Columbus, Georgia. Raised in Orlando, Florida.
11. His paternal grandmother, Valerie Petersen, is a Virgin Islands native who raised him from infancy in Orlando, Florida. Wayne also refers to his grandmother as "Mom".
12. His mother, Linda Marie Newton, was an employee of Northeast Baptist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. [1993]
13. His father was in the military (an Army serviceman posted overseas) and did not want Wayne to be raised as a military brat, so Wayne was raised by his grandparents from infancy. His mother was also 17-years-old and was not able to raise him.
14. Son of Wayne Brady and Linda Marie Newton.
15. Met his second wife, Mandie Taketa, an actress from Hawaii, while performing together in a show in Hawaii.
16. His daughter's name Maile is pronounced "my-lee" which Wayne says is a "very pretty bamboo leaf" used to make leis.
17. Became the first African-American host in the "Miss America" pageant's 81-year history. [2002]
18. He started acting in high school when he was 16 to overcome his heavy stuttering and build confidence. He had an unexpected invitation from a friend to take over one line in a play, in which he ended up with the lead role and that was the turning point to get into acting. Before this, he originally had plans to go into the military like his father.
19. His paternal great-grandfather Cyril "Parky" Dorsett (father of Valerie Petersen) was a former park gardener for the Virgin Islands government. He died at age 81 on March 13, 1975 and is interred at the Western Cemetery, U.S. Virgin Islands.
20. Attended high school and was best friends with Joey Fatone from *NSYNC.