94 Facts About Joe Rogan

Joseph James Rogan was born on August 11,1967 and is an American podcaster, UFC color commentator, comedian, actor, and former television host.

Joe Rogan's podcast is one of the most influential and most watched podcasts in the world.

Joe Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, and began his career in comedy in 1988 in the Boston area.

Joe Rogan released his first comedy special, I'm Gonna Be Dead Someday.

Joe Rogan launched The Joe Rogan Experience in 2009; by 2015, it was one of the most popular podcasts in the world, regularly receiving millions of plays per episode.

Joe Rogan's audience has since grown significantly, and in 2024, he renewed his deal with Spotify for an estimated, but will no longer be exclusive to them.

Joe Rogan has voiced support for same-sex marriage, recreational drug legalization, universal health care, universal basic income, gun rights, and free speech, while opposing cancel culture and military adventurism.

Joe Rogan has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, COVID-19 misinformation, and for hosting guests who spread misinformation and pseudoscience.

Joseph James Joe Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 11,1967.

Joe Rogan had one Irish grandparent, while his three other grandparents were all of Italian descent.

Joe Rogan's parents divorced when he was five, and he has not been in contact with his father, an architect, since he was seven.

Joe Rogan graduated from Newton South High School in 1985.

Joe Rogan participated in Little League Baseball and developed an interest in martial arts in his early teens.

Joe Rogan was a Massachusetts full-contact state champion for four consecutive years and became a taekwondo instructor.

Joe Rogan attended the University of Massachusetts Boston but found the endeavor "pointless" and dropped out early.

Joe Rogan later cited Richard Jeni, Lenny Bruce, Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks as comedy influences.

In 1994, Joe Rogan relocated to Los Angeles, where his first national television spot followed on the MTV comedy show Half-Hour Comedy Hour.

Joe Rogan declined, but it prompted Sussman to send tapes of Joe Rogan's performances to several networks, which sparked a bidding war.

Joe Rogan secured his first major acting role in the 1994 nine-episode Fox sitcom Hardball as Frank Valente, a young, egocentric star player on a professional baseball team.

Joe Rogan called the hiring process "weird", as the network had no idea if he could act until he was asked by Dean Valentine, then-president of Walt Disney Television, to whom he replied: "If you can lie, you can act, and if you can lie to crazy girlfriends, you can act under pressure".

The filming schedule was a new experience for Joe Rogan, who started to work 12-hour days.

Joe Rogan later said: "It was a great show on paper until a horrible executive producer with a big ego was hired by Fox to run the show and he rewrote it".

Around this time, Joe Rogan began performing at The Comedy Store in Hollywood and was hired as a paid regular by owner Mitzi Shore.

The role was originally set to be played by actor Ray Romano, but Romano was let go from the cast after one rehearsal and Joe Rogan was brought in.

Joe Rogan befriended fellow cast member Phil Hartman, who confided his marital problems to him.

Joe Rogan claimed he tried to persuade Hartman to divorce his wife five times, but "he loved his kids and didn't want to leave".

Joe Rogan later saw acting as an easy job, but grew tired of "playing the same character every week", and only did so for the money.

Joe Rogan later viewed his time on NewsRadio as "a dream gig" that allowed him to earn money while working on his stand-up as often as he could.

Joe Rogan began working for the mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship as a backstage and post-fight interviewer.

Joe Rogan's first show took place at UFC 12: Judgement Day in Dothan, Alabama, on February 7,1997.

Joe Rogan became interested in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1994 after watching Royce Gracie fight at UFC 2: No Way Out, and landed the position at the organization as Sussman was friends with its co-creator and original producer, Campbell McLaren.

Joe Rogan quit after two years as his salary could not cover the cost of traveling to the events, which were often held in rural locations.

However, Joe Rogan initially declined as he "just wanted to go to the fights and drink".

Joe Rogan won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for Best Television Announcer twice, and was named MMA Personality of the Year four times by the World MMA Awards.

In 1999, Joe Rogan secured a three-album deal with Warner Bros.

Around this time, Rogan worked on ideas for a film and a cartoon with his comedian friend Chris McGuire, and began to operate a blog on his website, JoeRogan.

In 2001, the development of Joe Rogan's television show was interrupted after he accepted an offer from NBC to host the American edition of Fear Factor.

Joe Rogan declined initially as he thought NBC would not air such a program due to its content, but Sussman convinced him to accept.

Joe Rogan later said that the main reason he accepted was to obtain observations and anecdotes for his stand-up comedy.

In December 2002, Joe Rogan was the emcee for the 2002 Blockbuster Hollywood Spectacular, a Christmas parade in Hollywood.

In February 2003, Joe Rogan became the new co-host of The Man Show on Comedy Central for its fifth season from August 2003, with fellow comedian Doug Stanhope, following the departure of original hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla.

Around this time Joe Rogan entered talks to host his own radio show, but they came to nothing due to his already busy schedule.

Joe Rogan trained for the event for five months before Snipes backed out following an investigation by the IRS for alleged tax evasion.

Joe Rogan believed Snipes needed a quick payout to alleviate his debt.

In May 2005, Joe Rogan signed a deal with the Endeavor Talent Agency.

In 2005, Joe Rogan wrote a blog entry on his website accusing comedian Carlos Mencia of joke thievery, a claim he had made since 1993.

The situation culminated in February 2007 when Joe Rogan confronted Mencia on stage at The Comedy Store in Hollywood.

Joe Rogan later said that every comic he had talked to was happy and thankful that he did it, and went on to sign with William Morris Agency.

Joe Rogan hosted the short-lived CBS show Game Show in My Head, which aired for eight episodes in January 2009.

Joe Rogan agreed to host the show as the idea intrigued him, calling it "a completely mindless form of entertainment".

In 2010, Joe Rogan accused comedian Dane Cook of joke thievery.

In 2011, Joe Rogan resumed his role as Fear Factor host for its seventh and final season.

Joe Rogan took the job, saying he "would hate to see somebody else do it".

Later in 2011, Joe Rogan played his first major film character, Gale, in the comedy film Zookeeper.

Joe Rogan was working on a book around this time that he tentatively titled Irresponsible Advice from a Man with No Credibility, based on his blog entries on his website.

Joe Rogan played himself in Here Comes the Boom, another action-comedy film starring Kevin James that was released in 2012.

In December 2009, Joe Rogan launched a free podcast with his friend and fellow comedian Brian Redban.

On May 19,2020, Joe Rogan announced that he had signed a multiyear licensing deal with Spotify worth an estimated, making it one of the largest licensing agreements in the podcast business.

Joe Rogan apologized, calling his past language "regretful and shameful" while saying that the clips were taken out of context and that he only quoted the slur to discuss its use by others.

Joe Rogan described the video compilation as a "political hit job".

In December 2024, Spotify confirmed that The Joe Rogan Experience was the top podcast on its platform for a fifth consecutive year.

Joe Rogan is a co-founder of the supplements and fitness company Onnit, which was sold to Unilever in 2021.

Joe Rogan is the owner of the Comedy Mothership comedy club in Austin, Texas, which opened in March 2023.

Joe Rogan describes himself as a strong supporter of freedom of speech, and has criticized cancel culture and what he perceives to be suppression of those who hold right-wing views in the television and film industry.

Joe Rogan has criticized what he describes as an American foreign policy of military adventurism.

Joe Rogan said that he liked Trudeau prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2024, Joe Rogan described Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as a "genocide".

Joe Rogan described the way that President Vladimir Putin leads Russia as "evil" but "impressive".

Joe Rogan called Putin a "strong leader" and said, "Isn't there always a longing for a strong man".

Joe Rogan criticized outgoing US President Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine to strike back at mainland Russia with US-supplied missiles.

Ukrainian world heavyweight boxing champion, Wladimir Klitschko, accused Joe Rogan of "repeating Russian propaganda".

In 2020, Joe Rogan had endorsed left-wing Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, saying "I believe in him, I like him, I like him a lot".

In 2022, Joe Rogan said Republican Ron DeSantis would be "a good president".

On November 4,2024, the day before the 2024 United States presidential election, Joe Rogan endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Joe Rogan said that Elon Musk, who had been a guest on his podcast a couple of days prior, "makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you'll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way".

Shortly after the election Joe Rogan openly criticized Trump actions with which he disagreed.

Joe Rogan hosted the documentary film The Union: The Business Behind Getting High and was featured in Marijuana: A Chronic History and The Culture High.

Joe Rogan was the presenter in the 2010 documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

Joe Rogan has an interest in sensory deprivation and using an isolation tank.

Joe Rogan has stated that his personal experiences with meditation in isolation tanks have helped him explore the nature of consciousness and improve his performance in various physical and mental activities and overall well-being.

Joe Rogan acknowledged there was "some legitimate science" behind Fauci's view and emphasized that he is not a doctor and should not be taken as "a respected source of information".

On September 1,2021, Joe Rogan tested positive for the virus.

Joe Rogan criticized CNN for describing ivermectin as a "horse dewormer".

On September 3,2021, Joe Rogan was retested for the virus and the results were negative.

On January 10,2025, Joe Rogan published an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, where Zuckerberg alleged that the Biden administration had pressured Facebook to remove information on the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Joe Rogan is an avid hunter and is part of the "Eat What You Kill" movement, which attempts to move away from factory farming and the mistreatment of animals raised for food.

Joe Rogan has been an outspoken critic of transgender women competing in women's sports, including MMA matches.

In October 2022, while interviewing Tulsi Gabbard on his show, Joe Rogan shared the widely discredited litter boxes in schools hoax, claiming that public schools were providing litter boxes to students who dress up as cats.

Joe Rogan said several weeks later that "it doesn't seem that there's any proof that they put a litter box in there", but falsely claimed that there were discussions considering the idea.

Joe Rogan married Jessica Ditzel, a former cocktail waitress, in 2009.

Joe Rogan is the stepfather or adopted father of Ditzel's daughter from a previous relationship.

Joe Rogan became interested in jiu-jitsu after watching Royce Gracie fight at UFC 2: No Way Out in 1994.

Joe Rogan is a black belt under Eddie Bravo's 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, a style of no-gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and a black belt in gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Jean Jacques Machado.

Joe Rogan was raised Roman Catholic, having attended Catholic school in first grade, but has since abandoned organized religion and has called himself an agnostic.