Johnny Knoxville

Johnny Knoxville
Knoxville at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	Philip John Clapp, Jr. (1971-03-11) March 11, 1971 (age 45) Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	American
Education	South-Doyle High School
Occupation	Actor, film producer, screenwriter, comedian, stunt performer
Years active	1992–present
Notable work	Jackass
Spouse(s)	Melanie Cates (m. 1995; div. 2008) Naomi Nelson (m. 2010)
Children	3
Parent(s)	Philip Clapp, Sr. Lemoyne Clapp

Johnny Knoxville (born Philip John Clapp, Jr.; March 11, 1971) is an American actor, film producer, screenwriter, comedian and stunt performer. He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass, which aired for three seasons from 2000–2002. A year later, Knoxville and his co-stars returned for the first installment in the Jackass film series, with a second and third installment being released in 2006 and 2010, respectively. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013), the first film in the series with a storyline, saw him star as his Jackass character Irving Zisman. Knoxville has had acting roles in films such as Men in Black II (2002), The Dukes of Hazzard, The Ringer (both 2005), The Last Stand (2013) and Skiptrace (2016). He also voiced Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014).

Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp, Jr. in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Philip Clapp, Sr., was a tire/car salesman, and his mother, Lemoyne Clapp (née Houck), taught Sunday school. Knoxville credits a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, given to him by his cousin, singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade, with giving him the acting bug. After graduating from South-Young High School in 1989 in Knoxville, he moved to California to become an actor. In the beginning, Knoxville appeared mostly in commercials and made several minor appearances as an extra. When the "big break" he sought eluded him, he decided to create his own opportunities by writing and pitching article ideas to various magazines. An idea to test self-defense equipment on himself captured the interest of Jeff Tremaine's skateboarding magazine Big Brother, and the stunts were filmed and included in Big Brother's "Number Two" video.