Career
Mencia performed at venerated LA stand-up venues such as The Comedy Store and The L.A. Cabaret. His success in these venues led to appearances on The Arsenio Hall Show and Buscando Estrellas, where he attained the title "International Comedy Grand Champion." Then, in 1994, Mencia was chosen to host HBO's latino comedy showcase Loco Slam.
Mencia followed up Loco Slam by hosting Funny is Funny! on Galavision in 1998. He would continue to do stand-up, including a successful tour in 2001 with Freddy Soto and Pablo Francisco, "The Three Amigos." Mencia also did two half-hour specials on HBO, the second of which won him a CableACE Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. After the release of his first comedy album by Warner Records, Take A Joke America, Mencia performed his break-out performance on Comedy Central Presents in 2002.
By the time his career began to take off in the early 2000s, Mencia was also working as an actor doing guest appearances in the television shows Moesha and The Shield, and starring in the film Outta Time and the animated show The Proud Family.
In 2002, he performed on Comedy Central Presents. In March 2005, Comedy Central announced Mencia's own half-hour comedy show, Mind of Mencia The show mixed Mencia's stand up comedy with sketch comedy, much like Dave Chappelle's Chappelle's Show. The show achieved moderate success in its first season and was brought back for a second season in the spring of 2006, becoming Comedy Central's second highest-rated program behind South Park. The success of the series prompted Mencia to go a highly publicized arena tour titled "The Punisher Tour" in 2006 The show's third season premiered in early 2007. The series ended in 2008 after four seasons when Mencia decided against filming a fifth season, explaining "It would have felt repetitive and redundant. There's a lot of different doors that are opening for me...I truly have no idea what's next."
Mencia was sometimes a guest on the Opie and Anthony radio show on XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio. He took part in the first Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour in 2006.
Mencia starred in a Super Bowl XLI commercial for Bud Light. In November 2009, Mencia began appearing in commercials for a weight-loss product called Belly Burner.
In 2011, Mencia released his new special Carlos Mencia: New Territory to Comedy Central.
Mencia was a co-founder of the restaurant chain Maggie Rita's, and a co-owner of several locations. By January 2013, Mencia's restaurants had closed amid poor reviews, though one franchised location continued to license the name.
In 2023, Mencia released "Here I Am", his first comedy special in 12 years.
