Joe Rogan

Joseph James Rogan Jr. (born August 11, 1967) is an American podcaster, UFC color commentator, comedian, actor, and former television host. He hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, which is one of the most popular podcasts in the world and has been the most streamed podcast on Spotify since 2020.

Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, and began his career in comedy in 1988 in the Boston area. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1994, he signed an exclusive developmental deal with Disney and appeared as an actor on several television shows, including Hardball and NewsRadio. In 1997, he started working for the UFC as an interviewer and color commentator. He released his first comedy special, I'm Gonna Be Dead Someday..., in 2000 and hosted the game show Fear Factor from 2001 to 2006.

After leaving Fear Factor, Rogan focused on his stand-up career and hosted more comedy specials. He launched The Joe Rogan Experience in 2009; by 2015, it was one of the most popular podcasts in the world, regularly receiving millions of plays per episode. Spotify obtained exclusive distribution rights to The Joe Rogan Experience in 2020 for $200 million. Rogan's audience has since grown significantly, and in 2024, he renewed his deal with Spotify for an estimated $250 million, but will no longer be exclusive to them.

Rogan has voiced support for same-sex marriage, recreational drug legalization, universal health care, universal basic income, gun rights, and free speech, while opposing cancel culture and military adventurism. Rogan has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, COVID-19 misinformation, and for hosting guests who spread misinformation and pseudoscience. Having previously endorsed Ron Paul in 2012 and Bernie Sanders in 2020, Rogan supported Donald Trump in 2024. He later criticized some of Trump's policies.

Early life and education

Joseph James Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 11, 1967. His paternal grandfather was Irish, while his three other grandparents were all of Italian descent. His parents, James Joseph Rogan Sr. and Susan Lembo, divorced when he was five, and he has not been in contact with his father, an architect, since he was seven. He recalled, "All I remember of my dad are these brief, violent flashes of domestic violence. [...] But I don't want to complain about my childhood. Nothing bad ever really happened to me. I don't hate the guy." At the age of seven, he moved with his mother to San Francisco, California, and when he was 11 they moved to Gainesville, Florida. They later settled in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts. He graduated from Newton South High School in 1985.

Rogan participated in Little League Baseball and developed an interest in martial arts in his early teens. He recalled being "terrified of being a loser" as a child and said, "Martial arts gave me not just confidence, but also a different perspective of myself and what I was capable of. I knew that I could do something I was terrified of, and that was really difficult, and that I could excel at it. It was a big deal for me." Martial arts were "the first thing that ever gave me hope that I wasn't going to be a loser. So I really, really gravitated toward it". At age 14, he took up karate and started taekwondo a year later. When he was 19, he won the US Open Championship taekwondo tournament as a lightweight. He was a Massachusetts full-contact state champion for four consecutive years and became a taekwondo instructor. He also practiced amateur kickboxing and held a 2–1 record; he retired from competition at age 21, as he began to suffer from frequent headaches and feared he might sustain worse injuries. He attended the University of Massachusetts Boston but found the endeavor "pointless" and dropped out early.

Career

1988–1994: Early stand-up career

Rogan had no intention of being a professional comedian. He was a fan of comedy from a young age saying of Richard Pryor's special Live on the Sunset Strip, "It affected me in such a profound way. Nothing had made me laugh like that." His friends from gym and Taekwondo school, whom he would make laugh with impressions and jokes, convinced him to try stand-up. At 21, after six months preparing material and practicing his delivery, he performed his first stand-up routine on August 27, 1988, at an open-mic night at a Stitches comedy club in Boston.

While living in Boston and working on his stand-up, Rogan held several jobs to secure himself financially. These jobs included teaching martial arts at Boston University and in nearby Revere, delivering newspapers, driving a limousine, doing construction work, and assisting a private investigator. Meanwhile, his blue comedy style earned him gigs at bachelor parties and strip clubs. One night, he persuaded the owner of a comedy club in Boston to allow him to try a new five-minute routine. At the show was talent manager Jeff Sussman, who liked the act and offered to become his manager, which Rogan accepted.

In 1990, Rogan moved to New York City. As a full-time comedian, he was "scratching and grinding" for money and stayed with his grandfather in Newark for the first six months. Rogan later cited Richard Jeni, Lenny Bruce, Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks as comedy influences.

1994–1999: Hardball and NewsRadio

In 1994, Rogan relocated to Los Angeles, where his first national television spot followed on the MTV comedy show Half-Hour Comedy Hour. The appearance led to the network offering him a three-year exclusive contract and a role in a pilot episode of a "dopey game show" for $500. Rogan declined, but it prompted Sussman to send tapes of Rogan's performances to several networks, which sparked a bidding war. After a period of negotiation, Rogan accepted a development deal with the Disney network. He secured his first major acting role in the 1994 nine-episode Fox sitcom Hardball as Frank Valente, a young, egocentric star player on a professional baseball team. Rogan called the hiring process "weird", as the network had no idea if he could act until he was asked by Dean Valentine, then-president of Walt Disney Television, to whom he replied: "If you can lie, you can act, and if you can lie to crazy girlfriends, you can act under pressure". The filming schedule was a new experience for Rogan, who started to work 12-hour days. Rogan later said: "It was a great show on paper until a horrible executive producer with a big ego was hired by Fox to run the show and he rewrote it". Around this time, Rogan began performing at The Comedy Store in Hollywood and was hired as a paid regular by owner Mitzi Shore. According to Rogan, he performed at the club for the next 13 years for free and paid for the venue's new sound system.

From 1995 to 1999, Rogan starred in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio as Joe Garrelli, an electrician and handyman at the show's fictional news radio station. The role was originally set to be played by actor Ray Romano, but Romano was let go from the cast after one rehearsal and Rogan was brought in. The switch caused Rogan to work with the show's writers to help develop the character before the show was set to launch, which he later described as a "very dumbed-down, censored version" of himself. Rogan befriended fellow cast member Phil Hartman, who confided his marital problems to him. Rogan claimed he tried to persuade Hartman to divorce his wife five times, but "he loved his kids and didn't want to leave". In 1998, Hartman was murdered by his wife. The loss affected Rogan's ability to perform stand-up, and he canceled a week of scheduled gigs. Rogan later saw acting as an easy job, but grew tired of "playing the same character every week", and only did so for the money. He later viewed his time on NewsRadio as "a dream gig" that allowed him to earn money while working on his stand-up as often as he could. During the series, he worked on a pilot for a show entitled Overseas.

1997–2006: UFC commentator and Fear Factor

Rogan began working for the mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a backstage and post-fight interviewer. His first show took place at UFC 12: Judgement Day in Dothan, Alabama, on February 7, 1997. He became interested in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1994 after watching Royce Gracie fight at UFC 2: No Way Out, and landed the position at the organization as Sussman was friends with its co-creator and original producer, Campbell McLaren. He quit after two years as his salary could not cover the cost of traveling to the events, which were often held in rural locations.

After the UFC was taken over by Zuffa in 2001, Rogan attended some events and became friends with its new president Dana White, who offered him a job as a color commentator. However, Rogan initially declined as he "just wanted to go to the fights and drink". In 2002, White was able to hire Rogan for free in exchange for prime event tickets for him and his friends. After about 15 free gigs as a commentator, Rogan accepted pay for the job, working alongside Mike Goldberg until the end of 2016. Rogan won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for Best Television Announcer twice, and was named MMA Personality of the Year four times by the World MMA Awards.