MIKE ROWE
Host of Discovery Channel’s DIRTY JOBS
What’s motivated Mike Rowe to complete more than 160 DIRTY JOBS ... and counting?
A deep reverence for dirt, his paternal role models, and the common American, he says.
Having grown up in Maryland watching his father and grandfather work side-by-side on manual tasks, Mike has always associated dirt with a solution.
Today, as the journeyman host of Discovery Channel’s popular series DIRTY JOBS, Mike has cultivated an even greater respect for those among us who descend, well groomed, into a pit at the beginning of every work day, and climb out dirty, exhausted, but unbowed at the end.
As a result, Mike is a spokesperson for a nation of unsung heroes. For DIRTY JOBS, Mike takes a walk in their shoes as he performs the jobs most Americans can’t imagine doing – and in some cases, don’t realize they even exist.
By serving as an apprentice to the everyday folks who perform these unthinkable occupations, Mike pays tribute to them. From slime eel fisherman, to sewer inspector, to professionals who determine the sex of chickens, DIRTY JOBS offers an illuminating look at what lies beyond the world of 9 to 5, and no one is better suited to the task of good-natured guinea pig than Mike Rowe.
Before DIRTY JOBS, Discovery sent Mike to the Valley of the Golden Mummies to host EGYPT WEEK LIVE! There, he opened and explored ancient tombs live on the air with Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. From Egypt, Mike was sent to the Bering Sea to narrate yet another of Discovery’s most popular series, DEADLIEST CATCH. Mike also served as host of SHARK WEEK 2006, where he guided viewers through undersea episodes of things that bite.
In cleaner days, Mike Rowe sang professionally with The Baltimore Opera, sold over 100 million dollars of fake diamonds on QVC, and appeared in several dozen Tylenol commercials. He also hosted Worst Case Scenario for TBS, On-Air TV for American Airlines, The Most for The History Channel, No Relation for Fox, and New York Expeditions for PBS. In San Francisco, Mike is best known for his work on CBS as the host of Evening Magazine, a position he held for three years, and left in 2005. Along the way, he has narrated over 1,000 hours of television, and performed dozens of theatrical productions.
If he survives dishing the dirt and scooping the slop on DIRTY JOBS, he plans to take a long shower and return to the stage.
All Photos: Discovery Channel
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