The Best Jockey ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Jockey of the Year ESPY Award, has been presented annually since 1994 to the thoroughbred horse racing jockey, irrespective of nationality or gender, adjudged to be the best of those riding in the United States in a given calendar year.

Between 1994 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.

Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in June and reflect performance from the June previous.

An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade presented by the American cable television network ESPN to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus months previous. As the similarly-styled Grammy (for music), Emmy (for television), and Academy Award (for film), the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included. The host for the 2011 ESPYS is Seth Meyers and the head writer is Jonathan Drubner.

From their inception to 2004, ESPY Award winners were chosen only through voting by fans. Since 2004, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities also vote. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.

Timothy Richard Tebow ( /ˈtiːboʊ/; born August 14, 1987) is an American football quarterback for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Florida, winning the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and appearing on BCS National Championship-winning teams in the 2006 and 2008 seasons. After graduating, he was drafted by the Denver Broncos as the 25th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. Tebow is known as a dual threat quarterback, adept at both rushing and passing the football. With his unorthodox NFL quarterback skills, frequent demonstrations of his religious devotion, and his team's success, Tebow has attracted unprecedented praise, criticism, and attention from the sporting media and beyond. Commenting on Tebow's play and the attention he has garnered, many football players and observers have said that they "have never seen anything like it."

Tebow played quarterback for Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida and was ranked among the top quarterback prospects in the nation as a high school senior. He ultimately chose to attend the University of Florida. As a backup and situational quarterback, Tebow helped the Gators win the national championship during the 2006 college football season. Tebow was the Gators' starting quarterback during the 2007 season when he became the first college sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. In 2008, Tebow led Florida to a 13-1 record and its second national championship in three years, and was named the offensive MVP of the national championship game. The Gators again went 13–1 in 2009, Tebow's senior year. At the conclusion of his college career, he held the Southeastern Conference's all-time records in both career passing efficiency and total rushing touchdowns, appearing second and tenth (respectively) in the NCAA record book in these categories.

Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence (born April 16, 1965) is an actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and stand up comedian. He came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor, most notably the films Bad Boys, Blue Streak, and Big Momma's House. Lawrence has acted in numerous film roles and starred in his own television series, Martin, which ran from 1992 to 1997.

Lawrence was born in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse in Germany on April 16, 1965, to American parents. He was given his first name after civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and his middle name after US President John F. Kennedy. His father, John Lawrence, served in the US Military. After his parents divorced when he was eight, Lawrence rarely saw his father, who worked as a police officer at the time. His mother, Chlora (née Bailey), began working several jobs to support her family. During his teen years, Lawrence excelled at boxing. He lived in Maryland, and attended Thomas G. Pullen School of Creative and Performing Arts (Landover, Maryland), Fairmont Heights High School (Fairmount Heights, Maryland), Eleanor Roosevelt High School, and also Friendly High School in Fort Washington, Maryland, becoming a Mid-Atlantic Golden Gloves boxing contender.

Anthony "Tony" Victor Okungbowa (born December 6, 1967) is an English actor, film producer, and disc jockey. He is the resident DJ for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Okungbowa is of Nigerian descent and was raised in Nigeria and London. He has a degree in drama from Middlesex University in London. He relocated to the United States in 1992, when he came to do post-graduate work at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City, later moving to Los Angeles in 1998.

His acting roles include guest spots on The X-Files, NYPD Blue and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Unlike most talk shows, The Ellen DeGeneres Show features a DJ to provide musical accompaniment, a role Okungbowa began in 2003 to end of season three of the show in 2006, where he left to further his acting career. He was replaced at the beginning of season four by Jon Abrahams. He returned in 2007 for occasional substitute appearances, and returned to DJ full time for the sixth season which began September 8, 2008. Okungbowa also DJ'd the 2004 Grammy Awards.