Drew Pinsky
Pinsky in January 2007.
Birth name	David Drew Pinsky
Born	(1958-09-04) September 4, 1958 (age 53) Pasadena, California, United States
Show	Loveline
Station(s)	KROQ-FM Various (syndicated)
Network	Westwood One
Show	Celebrity Rehab Sex Rehab Sober House Dr. Drew
Network	VH1 MTV HLN
Country	United States
Spouse(s)	Susan Pinsky
Children	3
Website	DrDrew.com

David Drew Pinsky (born September 4, 1958),^[1][2] best known as Dr. Drew, is an American board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist, and radio and television personality. He has hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline since the show's inception in 1984. On television, he hosts the talk show Dr. Drew on HLN, as well as the daytime series Lifechangers on the The CW. In addition, he serves as producer and stars in the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and its spinoffs Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew and Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House.

Pinsky is also Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, former Medical Director for the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California,^[3] staff member at Huntington Memorial Hospital, and a private practitioner.^[4]

Early life[link]

Pinsky was born in Pasadena, California and attended Polytechnic School.^[5] His father, Morton Pinsky (1925–2009), was a physician whose parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His mother, Helene Stanton (née Eleanor Mae Stansbury; 1925–), is a retired singer and actress who came from a "highly Victorian upper-middle-class family in Philadelphia".^[6][7] Pinsky majored in biology at Amherst College, graduating in 1980,^[8] and earned his M.D. at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1984.^[9] He served his residency in internal medicine at USC County Hospital and became chief resident at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and eventually moved into private practice.^[10]

Career[link]

As The New York Times described it in February 2008, Pinsky's dual career in medicine and the mass media has required him to "navigat[e] a precarious balance of professionalism and salaciousness."^[11]

[edit] Loveline

In 1984, while still a medical student, Pinsky started appearing in "Ask a Surgeon", a segment of a Sunday night KROQ-FM show hosted by Jim "Poorman" Trenton and "Swedish" Egil Aalvik.^[12] "Ask the Surgeon" soon combined with "Loveline", another Sunday night segment, into a show of its own, co-hosted by Trenton and Pinsky.

Loveline went national in 1995, and the television version launched on MTV the following year, hosted by Pinsky and Adam Carolla. The exposure on both radio and television made Pinsky the "Gen-X answer to Dr. Ruth Westheimer, with an AIDS-era, pro-safe-sex message."^[11]

The MTV show ran for four years, while the radio show continues on today without Carolla, who left the show in 2005.

Other radio work[link]

On November 27, 2007, Pinsky began Dr. Drew Live, another nationally syndicated talk radio show where he focused on a wider range of health issues. It originated from KGIL in Los Angeles, originally airing weekdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT^[13] Although the show was canceled in December, 2008, as of February 28, 2009 the show's website is still up and old shows can still be downloaded and listened to via the website.

Other media appearances[link]

On a January 2011 episode of Loveline, Pinsky mentioned that he appeared on Wheel of Fortune in 1984, but did not win anything.

Dr. Drew Pinsky made his acting debut in "Terminal," a 1998 episode of the TV show Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and later appeared on Dawson's Creek^[14] and Family Guy.^[15]

In addition to his own radio show and medical career, Pinsky also has appeared on television talk shows. He served as "health and human relations expert" on the first season of the U.S. TV series Big Brother in 2000. He has also hosted his own television series, Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew, on the Discovery Health Channel, which was followed by Strictly Dr. Drew. The newer program addressed everyday health issues, premiered on July 25, 2006, and continues to air weekly on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm PT.

In 2008, Pinsky starred in Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, a reality television show which involves celebrities in a drug rehabilitation facility. The show was filmed at Pasadena Recovery Center, with Pinsky serving as the resident medical expert. The series premiered January 10, 2008 on VH-1, and has been renewed for multiple seasons. A followup show to Celebrity Rehab with many of the same celebrities was Sober House, which began its first season in January 2009, and included celebrities from the first two seasons of Celebrity Rehab continuing their recovery in a sober living facility.^[16]

Pinsky also appears on the MTV series Sex...with Mom and Dad.

Pinsky makes guest appearances on a variety of news programs where he usually gives his observations on the relationship between controlled substances and high-profile individuals. He has frequently given his views on the deaths of people such as Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson, arguing that their fates should set examples of the seriousness of misusing drugs.^[17]

In November 2009, Pinsky starred in a spinoff of Celebrity Rehab, Sex Rehab with Dr.Drew, which depicted celebrities being treated for sexual addiction over the course of three weeks at the Pasadena Recovery Center.

TV appearances in which Pinsky did not appear as himself include The Adam Carolla Project, Minoriteam,^[18] Robot Chicken,^[19] My Gym Partner's a Monkey,^[20] and Code Monkeys.^{[episode needed]} Pinsky appeared in the films New York Minute and Wild Hogs.

In early 2011, Dr. Drew began hosting his own show on HLN that focuses on addiction.^[21]

In an interview on Kevin and Bean, Pinsky has stated he will speak to any media outlet including TMZ and The National Enquirer, but will not speak to the Los Angeles Times, explaining "They distort, and they mislead, and they take things out of context. I really am stunned at how shoddy their journalism is, so I stopped talking to them."^[22]

Other work[link]

In 2003, Pinsky authored Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again, recounting his experiences as the Medical Director of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at the Las Encinas Hospital drug rehabilitation clinic in Pasadena, California. He also contributed to the book When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know About OxyContin and Other Prescription Drugs, published in 2004.

In addition to his media appearances, Pinsky speaks at college campuses and other public venues.^[23][24] When Adam Carolla and Pinsky were teamed as hosts of Loveline, Carolla and Pinsky spoke at colleges.^[25][26][27]

In 1999, Pinsky co-founded an Internet-based community and advice site for teenagers called DrDrew.com with Curtis Giesen. Among their early backers was Garage.com.^[28] DrDrew.com soon ran out of funding, and the company was sold to Sherwood Partners Inc., a corporate restructuring firm, which sold the remnants to DrKoop.com in November 2000.^[29]

Pinsky was the voice of 1-800-GET-THIN, advocating Lap-Band surgery on radio ads and in a recording played for those who called 1-800-GET-THIN.^[30][31][32]

Honors[link]

Asteroid 4536 Drewpinsky is named in his honor.^[33]

Pinsky was honored with the Larry Stewart Leadership and Inspiration Award at the 12th Annual PRISM Awards in 2008.^[34]

Credentials[link]

• BA Amherst College^[8]
• MD University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine of USC
• Residency Internal Medicine, Huntington Memorial Hospital
• Board Certified, American Board of Internal Medicine^[35]
• Board Certified, American Board of Addiction Medicine^[36]
• Certified member of American Society of Addiction Medicine since 1990^[37]
• Member of American College of Physicians
• Licensed Physician and Surgeon in the State of California since 1985^[9]

Criticism and praise[link]

In 2009, Pinsky drew criticism from experts for publicly offering professional opinions of celebrities he has never met or personally examined, based on media accounts, and has also drawn the ire of some of those celebrities. Following comments Pinsky made about actor Tom Cruise's belief in Scientology and Lindsay Lohan's drug abuse, Cruise's lawyer compared Pinsky to Joseph Goebbels, and Lohan posted on Twitter, "I thought REAL doctors talked to patients in offices behind closed doors."^[38] Pinsky also received criticism in April 2010 for stating that he would frame Lohan for illegal drug use in order to force her into a sobriety program if he were her father.^[39] Pinsky responded in the same publication that his remark was intended as hyperbole and a "flight of journalistic excess," not a suggestion as a treatment modality in any way. He stated his intent was to drive home the point about bringing negative consequences to bear for a person dying of addiction when all other options have been exhausted.^[40]

Pinsky, who admits in his 2009 book, The Mirror Effect, that he scored a 16 on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (average is 18 for celebrities), and shares several traits with the "closet narcissist", asserts that he was never motivated by fame to become a media figure, but from a desire to educate the public, especially the youth, on the medical facts distorted by the media. Patient Andy Dick, who made Pinsky his primary care physician, disputes the accusation that Pinsky is motivated by a desire for fame, insisting that Pinsky "really is just this unbelievably caring guy. He really is. He’s almost too caring."^[41] Sex Rehab alumnus Duncan Roy, however, has criticized Pinsky's competence. While Roy concedes that Pinsky is highly skilled at treating drug and alcohol addiction, he claims that Pinsky has no knowledge of sex addiction, and that he merely recycled the words and ideas of Jill Vermiere, MFT, one of the therapists on Sex Rehab, who Roy says, along with Dr. John Sealy, were the true therapeutic forces behind his recovery.^[42]

Defending the practice of paying addicts to attend rehab, producer Pinsky says, "My whole thing is bait and switch. Whatever motivates them to come in, that’s fine. Then we can get them involved with the process."^[43]

Personal life[link]

Pinsky married on July 21, 1991, and he and his wife Susan had triplets Douglas, Jordan, and Paulina in November 1992.^[44][45][46]

Pinsky lives in Pasadena, California. Interested in fitness since his early teens, he goes running^[47] and does weight training regularly.^[48] In addition to his hobby of traveling,^[12] he also enjoys singing opera, as his mother was a professional singer. Pinsky stated on the June 24, 2009 episode of Loveline that at one point, he was torn between practicing medicine and becoming a professional opera singer.^[49] Pinsky stated that he auditioned for a celebrity singing show, but that the show passed on his appearance when he made it clear to producers that he could not sing pop songs, but did perform an aria on Turn Ben Stein On.^[50][51][52]

Pinsky's father, Morton, died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 27, 2009.^[41] A title card at the end of the season 3 finale of Celebrity Rehab dedicated the episode to him.

Pinsky is a nonobservant Jew; he admits to abandoning most Jewish practices but claims to retain a continued desire to learn about the religion. He explains that religious as well as philosophical studies affect his medical practice and his speeches, and that his background places "an indirect coloring on every answer."^[53]

Filmography[link]

Published work[link]

Journal publications[link]

• Pinsky, Drew; S. Mark Young (October 2006). "Narcissism and celebrity". Journal of Research in Personality 40 (5): 463–471. DOI:10.1016/j.jrp.2006.05.005. 
• Noll AM, Pinsky D (June 1991). "Withdrawal effects of metoclopramide". West. J. Med. 154 (6): 726–8. PMC 1002885. PMID 1877215. //www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1002885. 

Books[link]

• Pinsky, Dr. Drew; with Robert Meyers and William White (July 2004). When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know about OxyContin and Other Prescription Drugs. New York: Hazelden Publishing & Educational Services. ISBN 1-59285-107-X. 
• Pinsky, Dr. Drew (September 2003). Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again. New York: Regan Books. ISBN 0-06-009655-1. 
• Pinsky, Dr. Drew; with Adam Carolla and Marshall Fine (1998-10-13). The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide To Life and Love. New York: Dell. ISBN 0-440-50836-3. 
• Neinstein, Lawrence S.; chapters by Pinsky, Drew & Heischober, Bruce S. (2002). "Approaches to Management of Drug Abuse". Adolescent health care: a practical guide (4th ed.). Hagerstwon, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 0-7817-2897-5. 
• Pinsky, Dr. Drew; with S. Mark Young (March 2009). The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-158233-6. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Drew Pinksy at the Internet Movie Database
• 2003 radio interview by Barbara Bogaev on Fresh Air
• "Dr. Drew's Celebrity Addiction Special" at the VH1 website
• Interview with Drew Pinksy's wife at LAist
• Official Message-Board
• The now canceled,"Dr. Drew Live" Radio Show
• Dr. Drew behind-the-scenes video on QIK.COM

Adam Carolla
Carolla in Seattle, Washington, in 2007
Born	(1964-05-27) May 27, 1964 (age 48) Los Angeles, California, US
Occupation	Comedian, comedy writer, radio personality, television personality, actor, carpenter
Known for	The Adam Carolla Show (podcast), The Adam Carolla Show (radio)
Television	Loveline, The Man Show, Crank Yankers, Too Late with Adam Carolla, The Adam Carolla Project, The Car Show
Board member of	Marijuana Policy Project (advisory board)[1]
Religion	none (atheist)[2]
Spouse	Lynette Paradise (2002–present)
Children	2
Website
AdamCarolla.com

Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast which set the record as the "most downloaded podcast" as judged by Guinness World Records.

Carolla co-hosted the syndicated radio call-in program Loveline from 1995 to 2005 as well as the show's television incarnation on MTV from 1996 to 2000. He was the co-host and co-creator of the television program The Man Show (1999–2004), and the co-creator and a regular performer on the television show Crank Yankers (2002–2007). He hosted The Adam Carolla Project, a home improvement television program which aired on TLC in 2005 and The Car Show on Speed TV^[3] in 2011.

Carolla has also appeared on the network reality television programs Dancing with the Stars and The Celebrity Apprentice. His book, In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks, debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2010.

Early life[link]

Carolla was born in Los Angeles, California.^[4][5] His father, Jim Carolla, a psychologist of Italian heritage, and his mother, Kris (née Novello), who is of Hungarian descent, separated when Adam was young.^[6] Carolla was not given a middle name; on his driver's license application he filled the "middle name" blank with "Lakers" (after his love for the Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team) and the made-up name still appears on his license.^[7][8]

Adam was raised in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. He attended Colfax Elementary School, Walter Reed Junior High, and North Hollywood High School. Carolla did not receive his high school diploma until years later as it was held by the school until a library fine was paid.^[9] Carolla can be seen paying off the book and receiving his diploma in an episode of his 2005 television show, The Adam Carolla Project.^[10]

During his earlier years, Carolla played Pop Warner football for seven years; he later suggested that being involved in sports saved him from a chaotic home life.^[11] During his senior year at North Hollywood High School, Carolla distinguished himself in football. In December 1981, he was named to the First Team Offensive Line, Central Valley League, one of 8 leagues at the time in the LA City Section of the California Interscholastic Federation.^[12]

He began living on his own at the age of 18. He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, a community college, where he was placed on academic probation before dropping out to work in a series of jobs, including carpet cleaner,^[13] carpenter, boxing instructor,^[14] and traffic school instructor.^[15] Although broke, Carolla and his friends and roommates owned a 1963 Cadillac limousine.^[16]

In the early 1990s Carolla studied improvisational comedy with The Groundlings and was a member of the ACME Comedy Theatre troupe.

Carolla's step-grandfather was László Görög, who wrote The Mole People.^[17]

Radio[link]

In 1994, Carolla volunteered his services as a boxing trainer to prepare Jimmy Kimmel for a bout being staged by KROQ-FM's morning radio program Kevin and Bean.^[5] Kimmel was a regular on the show as "Jimmy the Sports Guy" and he was set to fight another KROQ personality in a boxing exhibition which was being billed as the "Bleeda in Reseda."^[18] Carolla parleyed this opportunity into a long-running friendship and business partnership with Kimmel as well as a recurring role on Kevin and Bean as cranky woodshop teacher, Mr. Birchum.^[19]

Loveline[link]

Carolla was offered the job of co-hosting the radio call-in show Loveline with physician Drew Pinsky, a.k.a. "Dr. Drew", and Riki Rachtman in October 1995 after Pinsky had heard Carolla on Kevin and Bean^[5] (Rachtman left the show the following year).^[20] Loveline is broadcast on KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and is syndicated nationwide on the Westwood One radio network. While the format of the program was primarily a call-in show where listeners would ask questions about sex and relationships, Carolla would often spend much of the show ranting about various topics, from fart jokes to incessant radio weather and traffic reports. Carolla served as the louder, funnier side of the show in contrast to the reserved, thoughtful Pinsky. Carolla's character was described by one reviewer as "a toned-down version of Howard Stern minus the huge ego".^[20] Carolla left Loveline in November 2005 to start his own morning radio show, though he had stated that he'd have continued to do Loveline if it could be recorded immediately after his morning show, but Westwood One insisted that the show be broadcast live.^{[citation needed]}

The Adam Carolla Show[link]

In October 2005 Carolla was announced as the host of a new morning radio show on the Infinity Broadcasting network. His new show would replace the popular syndicated Howard Stern Show (which was moving to satellite radio) in twelve of the 27 markets in which Stern had been broadcast including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix and Portland, Oregon.^[21] The Adam Carolla Show debuted in January 2006.

On February 18, 2009, The Adam Carolla Show was canceled as part of a format switch at KLSX to AMP FM, a new top 40 station. The final show was Friday, February 20, 2009.^[22]

The Adam Carolla Podcast[link]

Carolla started a daily podcast on Feb. 23, 2009, at his personal Web site, which would evolve into the ACE Broadcasting Network. The first Adam Carolla podcast was downloaded more than 250,000 times in the initial 24 hours, and by the third podcast, it was the number one podcast on iTunes in both the U.S. and Canada.^[23] During the debut week, the Adam Carolla podcast recorded 1.6 million downloads. In the second week it recorded 2.4 million downloads. By the fourth episode of the second week, featuring former Adam Carolla Show sidekick Dave Dameshek, the show was downloaded more than 500,000 times.^[24] Adam stated that bandwidth cost more than $9,000 a month as of May 2009.^[25]

At the end of 2009, The Adam Carolla Podcast was selected by iTunes for its end-of-the-year awards as the Best Audio Podcast of 2009.^[26] On May 18, 2011, Adam announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live that The Adam Carolla Show has taken the Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast ever from Ricky Gervais^[27][27] after receiving 59,574,843 unique downloads from March 2009 to March 16, 2011.^[28]

Television[link]

1999 through 2004[link]

Carolla began his first original television series with The Man Show, along with partner and close friend Jimmy Kimmel, on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2003. He left The Man Show at the same time as Kimmel, after having been reportedly offered $50,000 per episode to stay on. Carolla has continued his work with Kimmel as a writer and guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He also appeared on an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast around this time.

Carolla and partner Daniel Kellison are the heads of Jackhole Productions. The two created the television show Crank Yankers for Comedy Central, which revived the Mr. Birchum character. (The show premiered in 2002 on Comedy Central and returned to MTV2 on February 9, 2007, running again until March 30, 2007. The show screened in Australia on SBS Television and The Comedy Channel between 2003 and 2008.)

2005 through 2008[link]

From August 2005 to November 2005, Carolla hosted the talk show Too Late with Adam Carolla on Comedy Central.

Also in 2005, Carolla was featured in a home remodeling program called The Adam Carolla Project wherein he and a crew of old friends renovated his childhood home. The 13 episodes aired on the cable channel TLC (The Learning Channel) from October through December 2005. The house was then sold for 1.2 Million dollars.^[29][30]

In 2006, Carolla appeared on the special summer series Gameshow Marathon as a celebrity panelist on the Match Game episode.

On the February 18, 2008 broadcast of his radio show, Carolla announced that he would be one of the contestants on the next season of Dancing with the Stars. Later in the broadcast, it was revealed to Adam that his partner would be Julianne Hough.^[31] He was voted off on the April 8, 2008 episode after his performance of the Paso Doble.

Dancing with the Stars performances

On June 16, 2008 Carolla was selected to host a pilot^[32] of an American version of the popular BBC show Top Gear for NBC. In December 2008, NBC decided not to pick up the show.^[33]

2009 to present[link]

On February 21, 2009, a day after his Los Angeles-based morning radio show was canceled — as part of a format change at KLSX-FM — CBS ordered a comedy pilot starring the actor/comedian. "Ace in the Hole" was to star Carolla as a husband and father who works as a driving instructor. Carolla created and wrote the pilot with Kevin Hench ("Jimmy Kimmel Live").^[34] Carolla stated that Pamela Adlon was to play his wife and Windell Middlebrooks of the Miller High Life commercial fame will play his best friend. During his March 30, 2009 podcast, Carolla briefly described the show as being "All in the Family, essentially", with Carolla playing a similar role to that of Archie Bunker. On the July 23, 2009 episode of the Adam Carolla Podcast, Carolla announced that CBS was not picking up the pilot for the 2009 season, "in any way, shape or form."

On October 22, 2009, it was reported in Variety that Carolla had struck a deal with NBC to produce a half-hour pilot for a sitcom. The report was later confirmed on January 4, 2010, and was the first comedy pilot ordered by NBC for the season.^[35] The untitled project, written by Carolla and Kevin Hench, was a single-camera endeavor that starred Carolla as a contractor and father who attempts to rebuild his life after his wife leaves him.^[36][37] Carolla was set to executive produce the NBC project along with frequent collaborators Kimmel and Hench, as well as his agent James "Babydoll" Dixon, Jon Pollack from "30 Rock", Gail Berman, Daniel Kellison, and Lloyd Braun. Universal Media Studios, BermanBraun, and Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel's own Jackhole Industries.^[36][37]

On the February 13, 2010 episode of Carolla's CarCast podcast, he broke the news that The History Channel had picked up Top Gear US, which NBC had decided against in 2008.^[38] On the March 26, 2010 episode of CarCast, Carolla said that he would not be co-hosting Top Gear US because of scheduling conflicts with his NBC sitcom project. In June 2010, Carolla said that his NBC pilot had not been picked up, and was now "dead."^[39]

Carolla was also one of the contestants in NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice. He was fired in Week 4 along with Michael Andretti.

The Car Show[link]

Carolla's "The Car Show" debuted on Speed TV July 13, 2011. Appearing Wednesdays at 10 pm Eastern, it features Carolla as the host, along with Dan Neil, John Salley, and Matt Farah. It is a similar format as Top Gear, mixing car reviews, tests and humor. The show has been met with largely positive reviews from car enthusiasts and comedy fans. Talk show host and comedian Jay Leno called The Car Show, "...a lot of fun."^[40] The Car Show was cancelled after one season, after undergoing format changes and dropping John Salley due to low ratings, as Adam mentioned on his podcast January 13, 2012.

Voice acting[link]

Carolla has also done voice acting on cartoons, including Commander Nebula on the Disney animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Death on Family Guy (replacing Norm Macdonald) and Spanky Ham on Drawn Together.

Film[link]

In 2006, Carolla finished work on The Hammer, a semi-autobiographical independent film he co-wrote and co-produced, in which he stars opposite Heather Juergensen. The film is based loosely on his own life and is filmed at a gym he helped build with his co-star, Ozzie, played by Oswaldo Castillo, his friend in real life whom he met while building the gym when they both worked in construction.^[41] The film made its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and shortly thereafter received a positive review in Variety.^[41] The film was released on March 21, 2008.^[42][43][44] The film is rated 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Adam made a short appearance in Jeff Balis' Still Waiting... (a sequel to Waiting...) playing a pick-up artist guru.

Adam helped write an unproduced screenplay for a movie entitled Deaf Frat Guy: Showdown at Havasu.^[45]

He is the voice of Virgil in the independent short film Save Virgil.

Books[link]

Carolla and Drew Pinsky co-wrote (with Marshall Fine) the self-help book The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide to Life and Love which was published in 1998.^[46] The book is a compilation of some of the advice the pair had compiled while producing Loveline.^[47]

In November 2010, Carolla's In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks... And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy was published by Crown Archetype and debuted at number eight on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction on November 21, 2010.^[48] The book was compiled from rants Carolla had delivered on his radio show and podcast along with some new material and was dictated to and ghost written by Mike Lynch.^[49]

Carolla published a short, illustrated e-book entitled Rich Man, Poor Man in January 2012. The book details some similarities in the experiences of the very rich and the very poor which are not shared by the middle class.^[50] The book was illustrated by Michael Narren.^[51]

Carolla's next book Not Taco Bell Material will be published by Crown Archetype on June 12, 2012.^[52]

Controversy[link]

Carolla has been accused of making hasty generalizations abut various groups. In late 2003, for example, he said that Hawaiians are "dumb." The show was then cancelled on KPOI.^[53]

Personal life[link]

On September 28, 2002, Carolla married Lynette Paradise. Lynette gave birth to their first children, twins Natalia and Santino "Sonny" Richard Carolla on June 7, 2006.^[54] On The Adam Carolla Show, Adam repeatedly mentioned the birth was originally scheduled for June 6, but that he and Lynette decided to push it back one day as to avoid the symbolic 666 (06–06–06).

Regarding his religious beliefs, Carolla has stated, "I am not agnostic. I am atheist. I don’t think there is no God; I know there’s no God. I know there’s no God the same way I know many other laws in our universe. I know there’s no God and I know most of the world knows that as well. They just won’t admit it because there’s another thing they know: they know they’re going to die, and it freaks them out. So most people don’t have the courage to admit there’s no God and they know it. They feel it. They try to suppress it. And if you bring it up they get angry because it freaks them out."^[2][55]

Regarding his political views, Carolla has stated, "I guess I would be Republican, in the sense that I want a secure border, I'm not into the welfare state, I'm not into all those freebie lunch programs. It just kind of demeans people." He goes on to state, however, that he is also in favor of traditionally libertarian causes such as the legalization of marijuana and some progressive causes such as "... [being] against semi-automatic and automatic weapons. I'm not an NRA guy by any stretch of the imagination. I'd like alternative energy to be explored and electric cars to be used, but I want them to be powered by nuclear power plants."^[56] (he is a member of the advisory board of the Marijuana Policy Project^[1]). Elsewhere he has stated that "My feeling is this whole country is founded on the principle of 'if you are not hurting anyone, and you're not fucking with someone else's shit, and you are paying your taxes, you should be able to just do what you want to do.' It's the freedom and the independence."^[57] In November 2011, Carolla posed for the NOH8 campaign.

Carolla has stated that he consumes alcohol on a daily basis.^[58][59] He invented 'Mangria', which is red wine with vodka.^[60][61][62]

Carolla won the 2012 Pro/Celebrity Race at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.^[63] The race was run on April 14, 2012 and was broadcast on Speed TV.^[64] Carolla has previously participated in the race in 2010 and 2003.^[65][66] He finished ninth among 19 racers (fifth among the ten celebrities) in 2010^[65] despite being regarded as a pre-race favorite.^[66] He is also a serious automobile collector with over 20 cars. His collection includes several Lamborghinis from the 1960s and early 1970s including two Miuras (of 764 examples ever produced), one of which he has loaned to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, two 400GT 2+2s (of 247 units produced) and a 1965 350GT (one of 135 built). At least one Ferrari and Aston Martin and several vintage race cars round out the collection.^[67]

Carolla is a part owner of Amalfi, an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles.^[68]

Honors[link]

Carolla and Pinsky received a Sexual Health In Entertainment (SHINE) Award from the The Media Project in 2000 for "incorporating accurate and honest portrayals of sexuality" in the talk show category for Loveline.^[69]

Asteroid 4535 Adamcarolla is named in his honor.^[70]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Adam Carolla

• Adam Carolla at the Internet Movie Database

Craig Ferguson
Performing stand-up in New York City, 2007
Born	(1962-05-17) May 17, 1962 (age 50) Glasgow, Scotland
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, music, books
Nationality	Scotland; United States
Years active	1980–present
Genres	Observational comedy, satire/political satire/news satire
Subject(s)	Everyday life, popular culture, self-deprecation, politics
Spouse	Anne Hogarth (1983–86) (divorced) Sascha Corwin (1998–2004) (divorced) 1 child Megan Wallace-Cunningham (2008–present) 1 child
Notable works and roles	Host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Nigel Wick on The Drew Carey Show Glaswegian in One Foot in the Grave Gobber in How to Train Your Dragon
Website	The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Craig Ferguson (born 17 May 1962^[1]) is a Scottish-American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS. In addition to hosting that program and performing stand-up comedy, Ferguson has written two books: Between the Bridge and the River, a novel, and American on Purpose, a memoir. He became a citizen of the United States in 2008.^[2]

Before his career as a late-night television host, Ferguson was best known in the United States for his role as the office boss, Nigel Wick, on The Drew Carey Show from 1996 to 2003. He also wrote and starred in three films, directing one of them.

Early life[link]

Ferguson was born in the Stobhill Hospital in the Springburn district of Glasgow, Scotland to Robert and Janet Ferguson, and raised in nearby Cumbernauld, growing up "chubby and bullied".^[3][4] When he was six months old, he and his family moved from their Springburn apartment to a council house in Cumbernauld. They lived there as Glasgow was re-housing many people following damage to the city from World War II.^[4] Ferguson attended Muirfield Primary School and Cumbernauld High School.^[5] At age sixteen, Ferguson dropped out of Cumbernauld High School and began an apprenticeship to be an electronics technician at a local factory of American company Burroughs Corporation.^[6]

His first visit to the United States was as a teenager to visit an uncle who lived on Long Island, near New York City.^[7] When he moved to New York City in 1983, he worked in construction in Harlem.^[8][9] Ferguson later became a bouncer at a nightclub, Save the Robots.^[10]

Career[link]

British career[link]

Ferguson's experience in entertainment began as a drummer in a rock band called Exposure. He then joined a punk band called The Bastards from Hell.^[11] The band, later renamed "Dreamboys", and fronted by vocalist Peter Capaldi, performed regularly in Glasgow from 1980 to 1982.^[12] Ferguson credits Capaldi for inspiring him to try comedy.^[3]

After a nerve-wrecking, knee-knocking first appearance, he decided to create a character that was a "parody of all the über-patriotic native folk singers who seemed to infect every public performance in Scotland."^[3] The character, "Bing Hitler" (actually coined by Capaldi as Ferguson started with the monogram of "Nico Fulton" but admittedly later stole the name for his "own nefarious ends"),^[12] premiered in Glasgow, and subsequently became a hit at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A recording of his stage act as Bing Hitler was made at Glasgow's Tron Theatre and released in the 1980s;^[13] a Bing Hitler monologue ("A Lecture for Burns Night") appears on the compilation cassette Honey at the Core.

Ferguson's first television appearance was as Confidence on BBC sitcom Red Dwarf during the episode "Confidence and Paranoia".

Ferguson made his starring television debut in The Craig Ferguson Show, a one-off comedy pilot for Granada Television, which co-starred Paul Whitehouse and Helen Atkinson-Wood.^[14] This was broadcast throughout the UK on 4 March 1990, but was not made into a full series.

He has also found success in musical theatre. Beginning in 1991, he appeared on stage as Brad Majors in the London production of The Rocky Horror Show, alongside Anthony Head, who was playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter at the time.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, Ferguson played Father MacLean in the highly controversial production of Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom at the Union Chapel in London. The same year, he appeared again at the Edinburgh Fringe, as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, opposite Gerard Kelly as Felix and Kate Anthony as Gwendolin Pidgeon, who is now much better known as Aunty Pam in Coronation Street; the play, which was relocated to 1990s Glasgow, later toured Scotland.^[15]

After enjoying success at the Edinburgh Festival, Ferguson appeared on Red Dwarf, STV's Hogmanay Show,^[16] his own show 2000 Not Out, and the 1993 One Foot in the Grave Christmas special One Foot in the Algarve.

In 1993, Ferguson presented his own series on Scottish archaeology for Scottish Television entitled Dirt Detective.^[17] He travelled throughout the country examining archaeological history, including Skara Brae and Paisley Abbey.

U.S. career[link]

After cancellation of his show The Ferguson Theory, Ferguson moved to Los Angeles in 1994. His first U.S. role was as baker Logan McDonough on the short-lived 1995 ABC comedy Maybe This Time, which starred Betty White and Marie Osmond.

His breakthrough in the U.S. came when he was cast on The Drew Carey Show as the title character's boss, Mr. Wick, a role that he played from 1996 to 2003. He played the role with an over-the-top posh English accent "to make up for generations of English actors doing crap Scottish accents." In his comedy special "A Wee Bit O' Revolution", he specifically called out James Doohan's portrayal of Montgomery Scott on Star Trek as the foundation of his "revenge". (At the end of one episode, though, Ferguson broke the fourth wall and began talking to the audience at home in his regular Scottish accent.) His character was memorable for his unique methods of laying employees off, almost always "firing Johnson", the most common last name of the to-be-fired workers.^[18] Even after leaving the show in 2003, he remained a recurring character on the series for the last two seasons, and was part of the 2-part series finale in 2004.

During production of The Drew Carey Show, Ferguson devoted his off-time as a cast member to writing, working in his trailer on set in-between shooting his scenes. He wrote and starred in three films: The Big Tease, Saving Grace, and I'll Be There, which he also directed and for which he won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Aspen, Dallas and Valencia film festivals. He was named Best New Director at the Napa Valley Film Festival. These were among other scripts that, "... in the great tradition of the movie business, about half a dozen that I got paid a fortune for but never got made."^[19] His other acting credits in films include Niagara Motel, Lenny the Wonder Dog, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Chain of Fools, Born Romantic, The Ugly Truth, How to Train Your Dragon, Kick-Ass and Winnie the Pooh.

Ferguson has been touring the United States and Canada with a stand-up comedy show, and performed at Carnegie Hall on 23 October 2010.

[edit] The Late Late Show

In December 2004, it was announced that Ferguson would be the successor to Craig Kilborn on CBS's The Late Late Show. His first show as the regular host aired on 3 January 2005. By May 2008, Ben Alba, an American television historian and an authority on U.S. talk shows, said Ferguson "has already made his mark, taking the TV monologue to new levels with an underlying story. But he is only just starting ... He is making up his own rules: It's the immigrant experience."^[18]

The Late Late Show averaged 2.0 million viewers in its 2007 season, compared with 2.5 million for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[20] In April 2008, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson beat Late Night with Conan O'Brien for weekly ratings (1.88 million to 1.77 million) for the first time since the two shows went head-to-head with their respective hosts.^[21]

By the end of 2009, Craig Ferguson topped Jimmy Fallon in the ratings with Ferguson getting a 1.8 rating/6 share and Fallon receiving a 1.6 rating/6 share.^[22]

Ferguson's success on the show has led at least one "television insider" to say he is the heir apparent to take over David Letterman's role as host of The Late Show.^[18]

Television and appearances[link]

Craig Ferguson has made guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Rachael Ray, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Howard Stern Show, The Daily Show, The View, Loveline, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Soup, The Talk and The Dennis Miller Show. He also co-hosted Live with Regis & Kelly with Kelly Ripa.

On 4 January 2009 Ferguson was a celebrity player on Million Dollar Password.