Johnny Knoxville

Philip John Clapp (born March 11, 1971), better known as Johnny Knoxville, is an American stunt performer, actor, producer, and screenwriter.

Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 11, 1971, the son of Sunday school teacher Lemoyne (née Houck; 19382017) and car and tire salesman Philip Clapp (19352018).

He has two older sisters.

His cousin, singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade, gave him a copy of Jack Kerouac's book On the Road.

He credits this with sparking his interest in acting.

Knoxville attended South-Young High School (now South-Doyle High School) in Knoxville, where he played on the baseball team and was named All-Knoxville Interscholastic League Honorable Mention.

He also played in the Knoxville Area All Star game as a pitcher.

After graduating in 1989, he moved to California to become an actor.

He began appearing in commercials and as an extra.

When the breakthrough role 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 "Number Two" video.

Knoxville is responsible for many of the ideas in Jackass, and is often seen as the de facto leader of the crew.

The show is directed by Jeff Tremaine, who produced a pilot that used footage from Big Brother and Bam Margera's CKY videos.

With help from Tremaine's friend, film director Spike Jonze, they pitched a series to various networks.

A deal was made with MTV and Jackass was born.

He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass (2000–2001) and its subsequent movies.

He starred in the movie Lords of Dogtown as Topper Burks, made a minor appearance in the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly, and was featured as a guest voice on two episodes of King of the Hill.

Knoxville appeared in the John Madden-directed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, Killshot, however, his character was subsequently removed from the final cut of the film.

He guest-starred in a season 3 episode "Prank Wars" on Viva La Bam, in which he and Ryan Dunn trashed Bam Margera's Hummer and performed other pranks.

He voiced himself in an episode of Family Guy.

He co-produced The Dudesons in America and the now-canceled Nitro Circus on MTV.

Knoxville has had acting roles in films such as Men in Black II (2002), A Dirty Shame and Walking Tall (both 2004), The Dukes of Hazzard, The Ringer, and a cameo role as a sleazy corporate president of a skateboard company in Lords of Dogtown (all 2005), The Last Stand (2013), Skiptrace (2016), and the television series Reboot (2022).

Knoxville has been in several feature films, such as The Dukes of Hazzard and playing a two-headed alien in the 2002 film Men in Black II.

Knoxville also worked with John Waters in A Dirty Shame in 2004, and appeared as a supporting character to The Rock in Walking Tall in the same year.

Prior to Jackass premiering on MTV, Knoxville and company turned down an offer to perform their stunts for Saturday Night Live on a weekly basis, though Knoxville later hosted a 2005 episode of the show.

He starred in Katrina Holden Bronson's Daltry Calhoun in 2005, and in The Ringer as an office worker who pretends to be disabled and joins the Special Olympics to pay for surgery for his office's janitor.

Following the conclusion of Jackass, Knoxville and his co-stars returned for the first installment in the Jackass film series, with a second and third installment released in 2006 and 2010.

He starred in Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, Jackass 2.5, Jackass 3D (which marked the 10th anniversary of the franchise), Jackass 3.5, Jackass Forever, and Jackass 4.5.

Knoxville also participated in the Gumball 3000 for Jackass along with co-stars Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jackass director Jeff Tremaine, and cinematographer Dimitry Elyashkevich.

In 2010, Knoxville hosted a three-part online video for Palladium Boots titled Detroit Lives.

The videos focus on the resurgence of creativity in Detroit.

Dickhouse's projects include The Birth of Big Air (2010), a documentary about Mat Hoffman that was part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010), both of which have been picked up by Tribeca Films.

Knoxville guest-starred as the voice of Johnny Krill, an extreme sports enthusiast, in "Extreme Spots", a 2012 episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013), the first film in the series to feature a storyline, saw him star as his Jackass character Irving Zisman.

The fourth installment, Jackass Forever (2022), has been rumoured to be the final one of the entire franchise.

He also voiced Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014).

Knoxville voiced Leonardo in the 2014 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but did not appear in the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

Knoxville has a production company called Dickhouse Productions, which he owns and operates with Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze of the Jackass franchise.

In May 2014, Knoxville (along with Jackass Executive Producer/H.M.F.I.C. Derek Freda) formally announced the formation of a new production company called 'Hello Junior', which will continue Knoxville's now-longstanding relationship with Paramount Pictures, who have signed an exclusive two-year first-look deal with Knoxville and 'Hello Junior' in the wake of the massive success of Bad Grandpa in late 2013.

Knoxville was quoted as saying, "I am over the damn moon about continuing an amazing partnership with Paramount Pictures. I have many more films to make and bones to break. I am glad I will be doing it for Paramount."