Mike Rowe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mike Rowe | |
| Born | March 18, 1962 Baltimore, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Television host and Narrator |
| Known for | Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch and other Discovery Channel television shows |
Michael Gregory "Mike" Rowe (pronounced /ˈroʊ/(roe)) (born March 18, 1962)[1] is an American television personality. He narrates a number of television programs and currently stars in and hosts Dirty Jobs.
Contents |
[edit] Personal life and education
Originally from Baltimore, Rowe has said in commercials for Dirty Jobs that the inspiration for doing the show was as a tribute to his father. During his service project for Eagle Scout at the Maryland School for the Blind, he read aloud for students, and he cites this as one of the reasons he became interested in narrating and writing.[2]
Rowe went to Overlea High School and went on to attend The Community College of Baltimore County[3] at the Essex campus. He later graduated from Towson University[4] in Towson, Maryland. He has one son named Jaimie.
[edit] Professional background
Mike Rowe sang professionally with the Baltimore Opera and worked for QVC selling various items in the early 1990s. He has hosted Your New Home for WJZ in Baltimore, Worst Case Scenarios for TBS, On-Air TV for American Airlines, The Most for The History Channel, No Relation for FX, New York Expeditions for PBS, Channel 999 instructional guide for the now defunct PrimeStar satellite television service, and the CD-ROM music trivia game Radio Active (as "Bobby Arpeggio") for now-defunct software publisher Sanctuary Woods. You can find video of Mike Rowe working at QVC here.
From 2001 to 2005 Rowe hosted Evening Magazine on KPIX-TV in San Francisco. During this time, he hosted a news segment called "Somebody's Gotta Do It," profiling a number of unpleasant professions; this concept later grew into Dirty Jobs. Rowe's first work with Discovery included a trip to the Valley of the Golden Mummies to host Egypt Week Live!, where he explored ancient tombs live on air with Dr. Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist.
Starting in 2007, Rowe has been appearing in commercials for the Ford Motor Company. Rowe is also the TV spokesperson for Epic Pharmacy, a Baltimore-area association of independent pharmacies.
[edit] Narration work
In addition to Dirty Jobs, Rowe's work for Discovery now includes narrating for American Chopper, American Hot Rod, and Deadliest Catch, as well as other Discovery specials and series. Rowe hosted the Discovery Channel's annual "Shark Week" in 2006, along with hosting the special "You Spoof Discovery", which as the title suggests, poked fun at some of the popular series on the Discovery Channel's lineup. On Dirty Jobs, Rowe frequently mocks his seeming omnipresence on Discovery Channel; when a segment on firefighting and salvage was unable to be completed in a single day, he assured his firefighter host that he would "send over the MythBusters ... maybe the American Chopper boys ... [to finish the job]"
Other narration work includes Drydock: A Cruise Ship Reborn, Southern Steel, Powertool Drag Racing, Scavengers Rock (Animal Planet), and other Discovery specials and series, such as You Spoof Discovery, an amateur parody video special.[5]
Rowe was originally tapped to be the on-air host of the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch, a show about crab fishing in the Bering Sea, and had shot show-host footage onboard several of the crab boats in addition to working on narration for the series; when Dirty Jobs was picked up by Discovery, he was told to choose which show he wanted to appear in on-screen. Rowe claims he was told by Discovery that the two shows would be airing back-to-back on the same night, thus, "we can't have you telling us stories about six dead fishermen on camera and making a fart joke with your arm in a cow's ass".[6] Rowe chose to accept the Dirty Jobs role and narrate Deadliest Catch instead, and the footage of him on the boats was not used in the series, although Rowe does appear on camera on one of the season finale episodes of Deadliest Catch, interviewing the captains. Rowe hosted another show about life on the Bering Sea, a 2007 miniseries entitled After the Catch.
Rowe narrated for the first season of the show Ghost Hunters, a show from the producers of American Chopper, on the Sci-Fi Channel. Additionally, Rowe has done voice-over work for the reality television show The Ultimate Fighter.[7]
On October 7, 2007 Rowe appeared on FOX's American Dad as the voice of a meter maid training Stan Smith.[8]
Rowe is a frequent guest on The Opie & Anthony Show.
Beginning in March 2007, Rowe was featured in several Ford F-Series truck commercials, presented in a style similar to Dirty Jobs.[9]
He was also mentioned in a quest for the Flagship Studios game Hellgate: London.
He is portrayed in the MMORPG video game World of Warcraft as "Dirty" Michael Crowe, a fish vendor.
[edit] References
- ^ Biography of Mike Rowe. discovery.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
- ^ Transcript of March 7, 2006, Online Chat with Mike Rowe publisher = Discovery Channel (2006-03-07). Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
- ^ Down & Dirty. "Emerge" The Community College of Baltimore County Alumni Newsletter. Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
- ^ You Ask, He Answers (Dirty Jobs FAQ). Discovery Channel. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
- ^ You Spoof Discovery (2007) (TV)
- ^ Collis, Clark (June 2007). Shock And Awe: The stars of the edutainment shows Survivorman, The Deadliest Catch, and Dirty Jobs share jaw-dropping tales from their brave work. Entertainment Weekly. Time, Inc.. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
- ^ Mike Rowe's Biography. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
- ^ "American Dad!" Meter Made (2007)
- ^ Bernstein, Marty (2007-03-01). Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe To Tout Ford Trucks as Spokesperson. The Auto Channel. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
