Steve Wilkos Biography

Steven John "Steve" Wilkos (born 9 March 1964) is an American television personality and former U.S. Marine and police officer. He has hosted The Steve Wilkos Show since 2007, and was director of security on The Jerry Springer Show from 1994 to 2007. He had previously substituted for Springer as host on several occasions before being given his own talk show.

Personal life

Wilkos was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jeanette (née Pelikan), a beauty school instructor, and Stanley Wilkos, a former police officer and Marine who saw action in the Korean War. He has a brother and two sisters. Wilkos graduated from Lane Technical High School in 1982, then joined the United States Marine Corps, serving from 1982 to 1989 before joining the Chicago Police Department in 1990, where he was stationed in the Logan Square, Chicago neighborhood. His wife, the former Rachelle Consiglio, is the executive producer for Springer as well as his own show, and they have two children. They lived in Park Ridge, Illinois while working in Chicago before their two TV shows relocated to Stamford, Connecticut north of New York City.

Career

The Jerry Springer Show

In May 1994, the producers of The Jerry Springer Show, taped in Chicago at that time, needed security guards, so they decided to hire Wilkos and other off-duty police officers to work part-time for the show as security guards. Steve recruited several fellow officers for the job, and he retired from the force and worked exclusively for the show starting in 2001.

Entertainment Weekly reported that Wilkos became a professional wrestler with the Maryland Championship Wrestling, during a temporary production hiatus of Springer. In 2005, Wilkos appeared as a guest on Check, Please!, a restaurant-reviewing program on Chicago's PBS station, WTTW.

Beyond Springer, he has made cameo appearances on the TV series Between Brothers, The Wayans Bros. and The Simpsons, and in the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me as a security guard for Jerry Springer.

The Steve Wilkos Show

In January 2007, NBC Universal Television officially announced that Wilkos would host a talk show of his own based at NBC Tower in Chicago. The self-titled program premiered on September 10, 2007 and received high ratings. Steve is known for his abrasive approach to solving disputes.

In August 2009, the show moved its taping location to Stamford, Connecticut.

In June 2012, NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution announced that The Steve Wilkos Show had been renewed through September 2016.

In the UK, the show started airing on Living 2, then Living It and later, Sky Living.

The show was parodied in "The Story of Lando Freeman" episode of the adult animated television series, The Boondocks, with John DiMaggio voicing Wilkos.