Born Oct. 22, 1967 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Ned Arnel Mencia was the 17th of 18 children born to his Honduran father, Roberto Holness, and his Mexican mother, Magdelana Mencia. The youngster was raised in East Los Angeles, CA by his aunt Consuelo and Uncle Pablo Mencia, where he went by the name Ned Holness in honor of his father. By his own admission, avoiding the street violence of East LA was difficult when he was growing up, but with the help of his family, he excelled in school and stayed out of gangs. He majored in electrical engineering at Cal State University-LA, but left early to pursue a career in comedy after a successful performance on open mic night at the world-renowned Laugh Factory.
Mencia became a quick success at the hip stand-up comedy joints in and around LA, such as The Comedy Store, The LA Cabaret and The Ice House. His reputation led to guest appearances on “The Arsenio Hall Show” (Fox, 1988-1993) and “Buscando Estrellas,” where he bagged the title “International Comedy Grand Champion.” A big break arrived in the form of a call from HBO, who in 1994, selected Mencia to host its Latino comedy showcase “Loco Slam.” Capitalizing on the HBO connection, Mencia hosted “Funny is Funny” on Galavision in 1998.
As he continued moving up the ranks, he continued to hone his stand-up routine; like many comedians he focused on race, politics, religion, class and society, but in a style which intentionally violated all rules of what was considered political correctness (e.g. making a point to use racial epithets) and going out of his way to offend liberal sensibilities (e.g. advocating the death penalty) in order to sustain an exceedingly high level of raunchiness in his act.
In 2001, he headlined with Freddy Soto and Pablo Francisco on the “The Three Amigos” tour (a Kings of Comedy knock-off). He also did two half-hour specials on HBO, in which the second one won a Cable ACE Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. He signed a deal with Warner Brothers Records and his first album, Take A Joke America, garnered him a Comedy Central special in 2002 that was his break-out performance for middle America.
While he was waiting for his comedy career to blow-up, Mencia also worked as an actor, doing guest spots on “Moesha” (UPN, 1996-2001), “The Shield” (FX, 2002- ), “The Proud Family” (2001-05) and in the film “Outta Time” (2002).
So impressed by his 2002 special, Comedy Central – which desperately needed something to fill the void after “Chappelle’s Show” (2003-04) abruptly and controversially stopped airing – gave Mencia his own half-hour comedy show, entitled “Mind of Mencia” (2005- ). The successful show mixed his stand-up comedy with sketch comedy, achieving high enough ratings to be brought back for a second and third season.
In his spare time, Mencia was a frequent guest on the “Opie and Anthony” radio show on XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio, often adding his opinion that life should be filled with comedy, as in his notable catchphrase – “If you ain’t laughin’, you ain’t livin’!”