You can say that Philip John Clapp, or Johnny Knoxville as he is more commonly known, has been preparing practically since birth for the role that would make him a household name. From an early age, Johnny was a daredevil who kept his parents on their toes with his athletic feats and his constant pranks. As an infant he would often throw himself out of his crib and later moved on to riskier pursuits outdoors such as taking a stick to a hornet's nest. At thirteen, this academically gifted, straight-A student decided to create a phony report card with failing grades and left it around the house for his parents to find. And, of course there was the time he decided to jump into a hotel pool from a second story room. Johnny might have his father to thank for his risky, jokester nature, as his father would play practical jokes on family and friends on a regular basis. He might owe some of his behavior to genetics, but there is no doubt that Johnny's comedic timing and creativity has allowed him to take what he was given and parlay it into a lifetime career. As a child and through his adolescence, this Knoxville, Tennessee native always wanted to be the center of attention. His desire to be noticed brought him to the stage, and he soon found himself playing the lead character, Danny Zuko, in the school production of Grease. Upon graduating from high school, he moved to California to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena. Though he attended on scholarship, he dropped out within a few weeks to pursue other avenues. He fell in love with his next door neighbor and they soon married and had a daughter, Madison. He continued to act and appeared in commercials for such popular brands as Taco Bell, Coors Light and Mountain Dew. He also freelanced as a journalist and wrote articles for such magazines as Blunt, Bikini and Big Brother. It was a combination of his writing skills and risk taking that led to his big break in the late 90s. Johnny had an idea to shoot himself with pepper spray, a taser, a stun gun and a .38 and then write about his experience. As you can imagine, most magazines turned it down because it seemed to be too risky a stunt. In 1997, the editor at Big Brother, Jeff Tremaine, thought Johnny's idea was intriguing and hired him as a full time journalist and asked him to videotape his original idea as well as other stunts, like getting hit by a car, for future stories. The two men turned Johnny's stunts into videos and Johnny quickly became a cult hit, becoming known as the guy no one could believe would actually dare to put his life in danger. It wasn't long before MTV and Comedy Central heard about Johnny and a bidding war soon started for him. Johnny, Jeff Tremaine and Jeff's friend, filmmaker Spike Jonze teamed up and brought an idea to MTV that revolved around combining the Big Brother crew with some skateboarding pranksters and creating comedic value by putting them in strange situations with people that would elicit different reactions. They called their show Jackass and MTV loved it. It wasn't long before Johnny, Jeff and Spike were joined by a group of fellow risk takers including Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Jason Wee Man' Acuna, Dave England, and Steve-O and Jackass was born. Jackass became one of the highest rated shows on cable and Johnny's career was then expanded into film. Going off of the success of the show, Johnny soon found himself being offered roles in feature films. To date, Johnny has been featured in such films as Dukes of Hazzard, Men in Black II, Lords of Dogtown, and The Ringer, just to name a few. Up next, he can be seen in the film, Killshot, alongside Diane Lane, Rosario Dawson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Paying homage to the show that really started everything for him, Johnny also starred in, produced and wrote the motion picture adaptation, Jackass: The Movie and its sequel, Jackass: Number Two. There is no telling what Johnny has planned next, but Young Hollywood is sure this comedian, prankster, daredevil, stuntman, producer, writer, and actor will be creating projects in the entertainment business that is sure to please the masses.

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