David Steinberg

David Steinberg — comedian with roots in the Russian Empire

David Steinberg is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, and director who became one of the most controversial and celebrated stand-up comedians of the 1960s-70s. His appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson set records, and he later became a prolific television director.

Tracing the roots — Canada

Born in Winnipeg in 1942 to parents who came from Romania and Russia (Russian Empire), Steinberg grew up in the Jewish immigrant community of the Canadian prairies. His irreverent comedy — once described as the most banned monologue in American television history — has the outsider edge of the immigrant's child.

A career defined by ambition