Dax Randall Shepard[1] (born January 2, 1975)[2] is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker and podcaster. Since 2018, he has hosted Armchair Expert, a podcast in which he interviews celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives.
He is a co-founder of the diaper and baby product company Hello Bello with his wife Kristen Bell.
Early life and education
Shepard was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan at Beyer Hospital, in Washtenaw County, Michigan, in suburban Detroit.[3][1] He is the son of Laura LaBo,[4][5] who worked at General Motors (GM), and David Robert "Dave" Shepard Sr.,[6][7][8] who was a car salesman.[7][9] His parents divorced when he was 3 years old.[3] Shepard was sexually abused at age 7, which he believes was a major underlying cause of his later substance abuse issues. He did not reveal the abuse to anyone for 12 years after it occurred.[10]
Shepard's mother had developed a substantial business by the time he was in high school.[4] She worked car shows with traveling events at racetracks. She started as a janitor on the midnight shift at GM,[11] then worked in fleet management at the GM proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, then hosted hospitality days for all the GM family members, eventually moving into public relations at an ad agency.[9] She returned to GM, becoming the owner of four shops that managed publicity events for magazine journalists. From 14 to 18, Shepard worked for his mother on the road, going from racetrack to racetrack.[3] For about two years, Shepard had a stepfather who was an engineer on the Corvette.[3][9] Shepard's mother has been married four times; Shepard said he has had three stepfathers.[12]
According to Shepard, his mother named him for the rich playboy Dax (Diogenes Alejandro Xenos), in Harold Robbins' novel The Adventurers.[13] He has an older brother, David Shepard Jr., who lives in Oregon,[7] and a younger half-sister, Carly Hatter,[3] whom he cast in two films: 2012's Hit and Run[14][15] and 2017's CHiPs. Through marriage, he is distantly related to George Washington on his mother's side.[16]
After a year in Santa Barbara, California, Shepard moved to Los Angeles in 1996.[3] He found out about The Groundlings improv troupe from a friend from Santa Barbara, Kareem Elseify, who ended up auditioning (the first time he acted) and took classes while attending UCLA. After about five years of classes, he got into the Sunday Company of The Groundlings—in a group that included Melissa McCarthy, Fortune Feimster, Tate Taylor, and Nat Faxon.[3]
From 2003 onwards, Shepard appeared in the improv Candid Camera-type show Punk'd, with Ashton Kutcher. When the show had its 2012 revival, he continued to appear. Shepard said he auditioned for Punk'd and, while doing the pilot, became friendly with Kutcher, who arranged for him to get an agent.[3] He had auditioned unsuccessfully for ten years before landing the role in Punk'd, his first.[3]
Shepard wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the 2012 low-budget film Hit and Run alongside Bell and his close friend Bradley Cooper.[25][26] He said the movie, which includes numerous car chases and fast driving scenes, allowed him to live out his Smokey and the Bandit fantasy.[3]
Shepard had a supporting role in the 2014 film The Judge.[27]
In September 2014, Shepard starred with his wife, Kristen Bell, in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S.[28] It was so popular (with over 20 million YouTube views) that they did another commercial for the holiday season.[29]
Shepard wrote and directed CHiPs, based on the 1977 to 1983 American crime dramaCHiPs, where he starred as Officer Jon Baker alongside Michael Peña as Frank "Ponch" Poncherello.[27] The project was released by Warner Bros.[30][31][32] on March 24, 2017, to negative reviews.
On February 14, 2018, Shepard launched the podcastArmchair Expert with cohost Monica Padman. The show explores the stories of their guests. Featured guests on the show have included Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Kristen Bell, Ashton Kutcher, Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and hundreds of others. On June 7, 2018, the show released their first episode of "Experts on Expert", in which Shepard and Padman interview experts in their fields. Featured experts on the show have included psychologist Wendy Mogel, comedian and author David Sedaris, and speechwriter Jon Favreau. The show was the most popular new podcast on iTunes in 2018.[33] On December 3, 2019, it was revealed that Shepard will be a host of the revived Top Gear America, which premiered on Motor Trend in January 2021.[34] In 2024, the company secured a first-look deal with Wondery, a unit of Amazon, after the success of the podcast show Armchair Expert.[35] In 2024, Armchair Expert was the 8th biggest podcast in the USA on Spotify's platform.[36]
Shepard met actress Kristen Bell, also a native of Detroit's northern suburbs, at the birthday party of a mutual friend; they began dating in late 2007. The couple announced their engagement in January 2010; they decided to delay marriage until the state of California passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage.[37][38] After section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on June 26, 2013, Bell asked Shepard through Twitter to marry her,[39] which he accepted.[40] They were married at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's Office on October 17, 2013.[41] They have two daughters, born in March 2013[42] and December 2014.[43]
Substance use problem
Shepard has said that, except for a year in high school when he used drugs, he did not have a substance abuse problem until he was 18 years old.[3] After struggling for years with alcohol, cocaine, and pills,[44] Shepard achieved sobriety in September 2005.[3] On September 25, 2020, in a special episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, Shepard revealed he had relapsed while recovering from an accident by using painkillers to augment a prescription. He announced that he was again sober, with seven days of sobriety as of the recording date (September 21, 2020).[45][46]
Interests and charity work
Shepard races motorcycles at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, including his Ducati Hypermotard 1100S and Suzuki GSX-R1000.[47] He donates much of his time to the Hollenbeck Youth Center, an after-school program that provides opportunity to at-risk inner-city youth. He has served as their official Master of Ceremonies, along with his friend Tom Arnold, for the Inner-City Games and Hollenbeck Youth Center's Miracle on 1st Street Toy Giveaway Program in East Los Angeles.[48][49]
Shepard and his wife were advocates of California Senate Bill 606, called "no-kids paparazzi".[51] Bell said: "We're not saying that we can't be newsworthy. We're saying that our child is not newsworthy."[52] California Senate Bill 606[53] passed in 2013, with testimony by actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner.[51]
^"David R Shepard". United States Social Security Death Index. December 30, 2012. Archived from the original on May 9, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2014 – via FamilySearch.
^ abcShepard, Dax (March 20, 2013). "My Father's Horniness". Don't Try: Dax Tumbler. Archived from the original on September 24, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
^"Galaxy Tab S – What You Really Need". www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEdfCdbxJJ9ouWKLSRCRRw. Samsung Mobile USA YouTube. September 16, 2014. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
^"Senate Bill No. 606, Chapter 348". California Legislative Information. September 24, 2013. Archived from the original on September 18, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
