Canadian Icon of The Month: Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek was born on July 22, 1940, in Sudbury, Canada, a large city in northern Ontario. His mother, Lucille(Lagacé) Trebek, was a Franco-Ontarian woman with some First Nations ancestry, and his father, George Edward Trebek, was a Russian immigrant who worked as a chef at a local hotel

In 1966 he decided to shift his focus from journalism to hosting game shows. He became the host of the Canadian quiz show Reach for the Top. His first American television gig was as host of the short-lived 1973 NBC game show The Wizard of Odds. In 1984, ABC hired him to host Merv Griffin's new trivia show, called Jeopardy!.

Alex Trebek has served as the host of Jeopardy!, one of the most popular game shows in television history, for which he has won several Daytime Emmy Awards.

Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Trebek graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy. After his first decision to become a newscaster, he joined the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), Canada's premier network in 1961. As he was working, he helped organize national news and covered a variety of special events for CBC's radio and television divisions, receiving high praise as a broadcaster who retained his poise and composure in the toughest places. Then, in 1966, he became a Canadian game show host on Reach for the Top (1965), and stayed there for the first seven years until he migrated to the United States to host his very first game show in that country, The Wizard of Odds (1973), for NBC.


On May 17, 2002, Jeopardy! (1984) celebrated a milestone, the show celebrated its 4000th episode and at the same time, it received another Daytime Emmy for "Outstanding Game Show/Audience Participation", making it its 21st Emmy. Like Bob Barker, Alex Trebek had broken the world record as host of TV's #1 quiz show in the country, and he won 2 Emmy Awards and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame(located at 6501 Hollywood Boulevard, near those for Ann-Margret and Vincent Price)., and, this year, was described as one of the Top 10 Canadians on U.S. Television. Today, as Alex began his 19th year as the host, he remains as popular as any other quizmaster

In March 2006, it was announced that he would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.^[31][32] He is the second game show host to be inducted (the first being Monty Hall of Let's Make a Deal and the third being Howie Mandel of Deal or No Deal). His star is located on King Street West near those of the Crazy Canucks and Eugene Levy. In 2011, it was announced that Trebek would be one of the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards.