Mike Rowe

From the Baltimore Opera to QVC shopping channel, Executive Producer, Host, and Author Mike Rowe has had hundreds of jobs and relished his role as a chronic freelancer. He’s best known as the “dirtiest man on TV,” a title he earned on the hit TV series Dirty Jobs, where he traversed all 50 states; completed 300 different jobs; and transformed cable television into a landscape of swamps, sewers, and coal mines. He has narrated hundreds of documentaries about space, nature, dinosaurs, and how stuff works. Currently, Mike is a host of the hit TV series Somebody’s Gotta Do It and Six Degrees With Mike Rowe. As a public speaker, Fortune 500 companies routinely hire him to frighten employees with stories of maggot farmers and sheep castrators. He has also forged a handful of partnerships with iconic brands and filmed a boatload of Ford commercials.

Most recently, you can find Mike on Facebook’s groundbreaking series Returning the Favor, where he searches for remarkable people making a difference in their communities and helps give back to those who pay it forward with humor, heart, and surprise. You can also watch him on the TV series Somebody’s Gotta Do It on TBN where Mike introduces viewers to innovators, do-gooders, and entrepreneurs who march to the beat of a different drum. Or you can listen to him on The Way I Heard It, America’s #1 short-form podcast of five-minute mysteries for the curious mind with a short attention span. Mike gives a different take on people and events that you thought you knew, from pop culture to politics, Hollywood to history. His book, The Way I Heard It, is a companion to his podcast; and it’s a collection of 35 mysteries that are part of a larger mosaic—a memoir full of recollections, sharp observations, and behind-the-scene moments from Mike’s life and career.

Mike is also the CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity that works hard to debunk myths about the skilled trades and help close the skills gap. Mike speaks regularly about the country’s dysfunctional relationship with work and challenges the persistent belief that a four-year degree is automatically the best path for most people. To achieve its mission, the Foundation gives away a modest pile of free money to people getting trained for skilled jobs that are in demand through a variety of scholarship programs, including the Work Ethic Scholarship Program. Since its inception, the Foundation has granted, or helped facilitate the granting of, more than $5 million in technical and vocational education for trade schools across the country.

In his spare time, Mike keeps a lively conversation with more than 5 million Facebook friends, where he talks about everything from the musings of his persnickety terrier named Freddy to the merits and pitfalls of blind patriotism.