Born in Brooklyn, Isaac Mizrahi found his metier when he was a teenager, designing and making clothes for his mother and her friends. He simultaneously nurtured his love of theater, though, by attending the High School of Performing Arts while taking night classes at Parsons School of Design. After graduating from Parsons, Mizrahi apprenticed with noted designers Perry Ellis, Calvin Klein and Jeffrey Banks before striking out on his own in 1987. Two years later, he was cited by The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) as the new talent of the year. Over the course of the next decade, Mizrahi expanded his empire, adding men's wear, eyeglasses and shoes to his line. He picked up two CFDA awards as "designer of the year" (in 1990 and 1992) and began branching out by creating costumes for ballets. Mizrahi also designed the costumes for Liza Minnelli's 1991 stage show "Stepping Out" which netted him a 1993 Emmy nomination for the 1992 televised PBS special based on that production.

In 1993, Mizrahi achieved a dream by making his motion picture acting debut cast as -- what else? -- a fashion designer in the Michael J. Fox vehicle "Life With Mikey". He subsequently enchanted viewers as the subject of the documentary "Unzipped" (1995), directed by his then companion Douglas Keeve. "Unzipped" traced the genesis of the designer's fall 1994 collection for which he drew his inspiration from such pop icons as Nanook of the North, Loretta Young in "The Call of the Wild", Elizabeth Montgomery in "Bewitched" and Mary Tyler Moore.

While "Unzipped" showed him at the top of his game, only three short years later, Chanel withdrew its financing of his business and his design empire collapsed. Mizrahi more or less withdrew from the public eye, although he did make appearances in three Woody Allen films, "Celebrity" (1998), "Small Time Crooks" (2000) and "Hollywood Ending" (2002). When he finally returned to the limelight, it was as star and writer of "Les MIZrahi", in which he distributed Rice Krispy treats to the audience while regaling them with autobiographical tales, name-dropping, a demonstration of his sewing ability, and the occasional song. The reviews were mostly positive: Charles Isherwood in Variety (October 23, 2000) noted that Mizrahi "exhibits onstage the same natural effervescence and neurotic appeal that made him an entertaining movie subject." In the meantime, Mizrahi attempted to develop his 1997 comic book "The Adventures of Sandee the Supermodel" as both a live-action film and an animated TV series, but neither project was realized.

As his fashion empire dwindled, Mizrahi continued to parlay his fame as a personality, starring in "The Isaac Mizrahi Show," his own talk show on the women-friendly cable channel Oxygen (2001-2003), in which he and a camera crew would often accompany celebrities on various excursions such as taking Conan O'Brien shopping at both Barney's and K-Mart. After receiving the Drama Desk Award for his costume design for revival of the classic Broadway play "The Women" in 2002, Mizrahi resurfaced in a major way in 2005 with the debut of home collection at the ubiquitous retailer Target, and as the host of his own daily Style Network chat fest "Isaac" (2005 - ), in which he grew increasingly comfortable on camera alternately fawning over, sparring with and skewering C-list celebrities (with A-list pals like Madonna and Sarah Jessica Parker stopping by from time to time) and unctuous society and fashion mavens, quickly garnering a loyal cult following. In 2006 Mizrahi was tapped by Style's sister cable network E! to provide coverage from the red carpet at various high-profile Hollywood awards galas, in the hopes his outrageous and uncensored personality would enliven the often leaden pre-ceremony procedings. The gamble paid off in spades when during his first outing at the Golden Globes, the openly gay Mizrahi squeezed Scarlett Johansson's breast, looked down Teri Hatcher's dress for a hidden speech, asked Eva Longoria about about her personal grooming habits underneath her clothes, asked a purse-less Natalie Portman what she would do if she needed a cell phone, credit card or condom, referred to Charlize Theron's character in the 2004 film "Monster" "a scary dyke with bad teeth" and otherwise caught celebrities off-guard. E! defended Mizrahi's outrageous enthusiasm, despite concerned celebrity publicists, outraged gay and lesbian organizations and words of warning from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences about the consequences for such tomfoolery on their red carpet.