Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe has had more jobs than you. In fact, Mike has had more jobs than anyone.
As the creator and executive producer of Discovery Channel’s Emmy®-nominated series DIRTY JOBS WITH MIKE ROWE, Mike has spent years traveling the country, working as an apprentice on over 250 jobs that most people would go out of their way to avoid. From coal miners to roustabouts, maggot farmers to sheep castrators, Mike has worked in just about every industry and shot every state, celebrating those hard-working Americans who make civilized life possible for the rest of us.

No one is better suited to the role of good-natured guinea pig than Mike – mainly, because it’s not a role. Dirty Jobs is entirely unscripted, and Mike doesn’t cheat – he actually does the work with a sense of humor rarely portrayed in such professions. In fact, the notion of depicting hard work as noble and fun is central to his personal mission. On Labor Day of 2008, Mike launched a website called mikeroweWORKS.com where skilled labor and hard work are celebrated in the hope of calling attention to the steady decline in the trades and bolster enrollments in trade schools and technical colleges.

In addition to DIRTY JOBS and his mikeroweWORKS endeavor, Mike is the voice of DEADLIEST CATCH and ABC WORLD NEWS WITH DIANE SAWYER. He is also the national spokesman for FORD and has traveled extensively for The Discovery Channel, hosting SHARK WEEK in South Africa where he field tested a steel mesh “shark-suit,” and EGYPT WEEK LIVE where he opened and explored newly discovered tombs in The Valley of the Golden Mummies. He continues to narrate specials like Wild Pacific (2009) and Human Planet (2011) for Discovery. He has partnerships with Caterpillar, VF Corp/Lee Jeans and Kimberly-Clark and helped launch the “I MAKE AMERICA” with CAT and AED in September of 2010. He also helped launch the highly successful “Go Build Alabama” campaign promoting job opportunities in the skilled trades for the state of Alabama. Mike recently testified before the US Senate Commerce Committee in support of manufacturing and addressing the juxtaposition between the current high unemployment and the lack of skilled workers.

In October, 2009, Mike delivered the Keynote to more than 55,000 Future Farmers of America (now called FFA) in Indianapolis and in July 2010, Mike’s Keynote at the National Boy Scout Jamboree 100th Birthday Celebration was seen by more than 80,000 in attendance and streamed across the country. Some of his other speeches include the NTEA in Chicago (2009), SE Missouri University (2010), American Farm Bureau Federation in Atlanta (January 2011) and the Western Veterinary Conference (February 2011). Mike was listed #4 on the Forbes.com Most Trustworthy Celebs list in 2009 and 2010.

Before Dirty Jobs, Mike’s resume was no less eclectic. Without any formal training, he began his career as a professional musician faking his way into The Baltimore Opera, and earning his union card in the process. Soon thereafter, he crashed an audition for The QVC Cable Shopping Channel, where he was immediately hired to sell dubious merchandise in the middle of the night. There, he impersonated a host for nearly three years, spending most of his tenure on double-secret probation, while learning the ins and outs of live television. After that, he worked when he felt like it, narrating, writing, acting and hosting programs like Worst Case Scenario for TBS, On-Air TV for American Airlines, The Most for History Channel, No Relation for Fox, and New York Expeditions for PBS.

In San Francisco, Mike is best known for his work on CBS as the host of Evening Magazine, a position he left in 2005 to begin production on Dirty Jobs. He currently lives in San Francisco, where he sometimes spends up to five days a month. Hide