Mike Rowe

Michael Gregory Rowe was born March 18, 1962, and raised in Baltimore County, Maryland, where he became an Eagle Scout and later graduated from Towson University with a degree in communication studies. Rowe began his professional career in broadcasting and live performance, including an early stint as an opera singer and a long series of on-air and voice-over roles in local and national television and radio before breaking nationally with Discovery Channel programming in the early 2000s. In 2003 Rowe launched Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, a program in which he joined workers doing difficult, messy, or unusual occupations; the series ran for multiple seasons, travelled widely across the United States, and established Rowe as a prominent television personality and narrator for other documentary and reality programs. Beyond television, Rowe has narrated numerous documentary series (including How the Universe Works and Deadliest Catch), hosted other series such as Somebody’s Gotta Do It and Returning the Favor, released books, recorded music, and developed a substantial speaking career. In 2008 he founded the mikeroweWORKS Foundation to promote skilled trades and fund work-ethic scholarships; the foundation has awarded millions in scholarships and championed reintroducing shop programs into schools, becoming a central pillar of his public advocacy.