Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek (; born July 22, 1940) is a Canadian American television personality. He has been the host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and has also hosted a number of other game shows, including The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration and To Tell the Truth. Trebek has made appearances in numerous television series, usually portraying himself. A native of Canada, he became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998.
Trebek is signed as host of Jeopardy! through 2018.
Childhood
Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1940, the son of George Edward Trebek, a chef who had emigrated from Ukraine as a child, and Lucille Lagacé, a Franco-Ontarian. He grew up in a bilingual French-English household.
Trebek graduated from Lisgar Collegiate Institute in 1957 before graduating from Toronto's Malvern Collegiate Institute in 1958, and later the University of Ottawa with a degree in philosophy in 1961. As a student at the University of Ottawa, he was a member of the English Debating Society. Interested in a career in broadcast news, he began his broadcasting career working for the CBC as a newscaster and sportscaster. Trebek specialized in national news and covered a wide range of special events for the CBC's radio and television divisions, including curling and horse racing.
