Steve-O facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Steve-O
Steve-O in August 2011
Born	Stephen Gilchrist Glover (1974-06-13) June 13, 1974 (age 49) Wimbledon, London, England
Citizenship	United Kingdom United States Canada
Occupation	Entertainer stunt performer television personality YouTuber podcast host
Years active	1998–present
Partner(s)	Lux Wright (engaged 2018)

Stephen Gilchrist Glover (born June 13, 1974), known professionally as Steve-O, is a British-born American entertainer.

Early life and education

Stephen Gilchrist Glover was born in Wimbledon, London, on June 13, 1974. His mother, Donna Gay Glover (née Wauthier; d. 2003), was Canadian, and his father, Richard Edward "Ted" Glover, is an American of English descent. When he was six months old, his family moved to Brazil due to his father's job as president of the South American division of Pepsi-Cola, and Steve-O stated in an interview with Graham Bensinger that his first words were in Portuguese. His family moved from Brazil to Venezuela when he was two, where he learned fluent Spanish; at age four, he moved to Darien, Connecticut; at age six, he moved to Miami; at nine years old, he moved back to England; at age 12, he moved to Toronto; and at age 13, he moved back to England again, remaining there through all four years of high school at the American School in London until he graduated.

He attended the University of Miami to study with the School of Communications, but dropped out after one year due to poor grades and acts of disobedience in school. He also attended the University of New Mexico from 1996 to 1997. He graduated from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in 1997. After graduation, he was not selected to join the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, but worked as a clown in a circus at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop flea market. He filmed his stunts, including clown performances, throughout this period.

Career

In 2005, he became the spokesperson for the Sneaux brand of footwear.

On July 18, 2006, Steve-O became a late contestant on the British reality show Love Island broadcast on ITV from Fiji in an effort to boost ratings. On July 19, 2006 he abruptly left Love Island.

In 2007, Steve-O starred in his own television show called Dr. Steve-O on the USA Network. In the show, he helped make his guests cool and "de-wussify" them.

On February 25, 2008, he appeared on The Howard Stern Show with Howard Stern, Robin Quivers and Artie Lange on Sirius Satellite Radio to promote his upcoming rap album Hard as a Rock.

Comedy tours (2009–2012)

In March 2009, Steve-O was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Lacey Schwimmer. After the first week, he complained of pinched nerves and back spasms and did not compete in the second week after injuring his back further by falling on his microphone pack during dress rehearsal. The judges based their scores on his performance at the dress rehearsal. He was eventually eliminated in the sixth week of the competition.

On May 3, 2009, MTV premiered a documentary titled Steve-O: Demise and Rise.

In November 2010, Steve-O began touring the United States performing stand-up comedy on what he called "Steve-O's Entirely Too Much Information Tour".

Steve-O at a 2011 book signing

In May 2011, he took his stand-up show to Australia, playing a show in all the major cities. In an interview with Comedy Digital Radio station Barry, Steve-O explained the genesis of his comedy tour, "Someone invited me to a famous comedy club in Los Angeles and they asked that I get on stage and do something outrageous. When I got to that comedy club I looked around and it occurred to me that the craziest thing I could possibly do by far would be to try stand-up comedy. Like, that was genuinely the most terrifying, outlandish just crazy thing that I could do."

On September 13, 2011, during a taping of the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen, Steve-O joked, "The last time this many nobodies were at a roast, at least Great White was playing". Steve-O has since apologized for the comment and requested that it be removed from the broadcast of the roast. Steve-O was also shown to be visibly upset by Amy Schumer's joke about Ryan Dunn's passing, but later stated he was not offended by the joke.

It was announced on October 3, 2011, that Steve-O would be hosting truTV's new reality game show Killer Karaoke, the American version of the British competition show Sing If You Can. The show first aired at 9 p.m. EST on November 23, 2012.

He told US Weekly in November 2012 that he credited his two rescue dogs, Walter and Bernie, with helping him to maintain nearly five years of sobriety.

YouTube channel and SeaWorld arrest (2013–2018)

Despite joining in 2005, Steve-O did not regularly upload on his YouTube channel of the same name and other channels until 2013. His main channel SteveO has amassed over 6.05 million subscribers as of February 2022.

In 2014, Steve-O narrated a short video titled "What Came Before, featuring Steve-O: The Truth About Meat and Modern Farms", which was about some of the individual animals rescued by Farm Sanctuary. He also reveals the life of the less fortunate animals that are born into modern farming in the US.

In December 2014, Steve-O was announced as one of the competitors in the second series of the British TV show The Jump. He was the ninth contestant eliminated.

On August 9, 2015, Steve-O climbed a construction crane in Los Angeles in a protest against SeaWorld. He lit fireworks and inflated a large whale blow-up doll on top of the crane. He broadcast the stunt on his Facebook page, resulting in LAPD and EMS responding with no knowledge of the stunt going on, and later was arrested after climbing down on charges of trespassing. Fans began a GoFundMe campaign for his bail. For the protest, Steve-O was convicted of two misdemeanors and sentenced to 30 days of jail time and 36 months of probation. Steve-O later admitted that the stunt was poorly thought out as he was nowhere near a SeaWorld. He claims he told his attorney to get jail time because it would increase the publicity and make a statement about captivity. He started his jail time on December 9, 2015. He is quoted saying "I mean, if your goal is to make a statement about captivity, you may as well get yourself locked up!" Steve-O was released from jail after serving just eight hours in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. In 2016, he released his first stand-up comedy special, Guilty as Charged.

Gnarly (2020–present)

On March 19, 2020, Steve-O started his own podcast titled Steve-O's Wild Ride! He hosts this podcast along with Scott Randolph and Paul Brisske. In January 2023, fellow content creator and friend Vinny "Skinny Vinny" Imperati became the fourth co-host.

Gnarly is Steve-O's second stand-up comedy special at the Gothic Theatre in Denver, Colorado. He presented stories, stunts and previously unseen footage to the audience. It was released on July 18, 2020, and is available to watch on Steve-O's website.

In August 2020, he appeared on the VENN Network with host Sasha Grey on her show Grey Area.

Steve-O starred in a supporting role in the film Guest House, released on September 4, 2020.

In 2021, Steve-O started going on tour throughout the United States. This tour, titled The Bucket List Tour. He started going to Australia and New Zealand in February 2023, and to the United Kingdom in June and July of 2023. It was released on his website on November 14, 2023.

Family

Steve-O spoke about his family life on the September 2, 2020, episode 261 of the podcast TigerBelly with Bobby Lee and Khalyla Kuhn. Steve-O reveals that his mother suffered an aneurysm on October 10, 1998, which was before his rise to fame. Steve-O stated that she suffered major cognitive and physical disability as a result of the aneurysm, and died in 2003.

His father, despite being divorced from Steve-O's mother, returned from England when she suffered an aneurysm. On the TigerBelly podcast, Steve-O describes his father taking a moment outside the hospital to express regret for not fully supporting Steve-O's unconventional career path.

Animal rights

In 2010, it was reported that Steve-O had become a vegan for both health and compassionate reasons. He stated that "being vegan, I can tell you, has benefited every single area of my life".

In June 2011, Steve-O released an autobiography entitled Professional Idiot: A Memoir, co-written with David Peisner. He stated that he follows only a strict vegan diet and is one of the many celebrities that got involved in the NOH8 project. In July, he received PETA's Nanci Alexander award for his "voice against cruelty". In 2013, due to his concern about animal rights, he stated that he was eating a vegan diet, and that he did not wear fur or leather.

In December 2018, Steve-O revealed that he was no longer a vegan as he consumes fish and is a pescatarian. In 2019, Steve-O spoke out against "militant" vegans, stating they do more harm than good.

Filmography

Films

Television

DVDs

Video games

Music videos

Web series

See also

In Spanish: Steve-O para niños