Background and career
Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera ( mar-JAIR-ə; born September 28, 1979) is an American professional skateboarder, stunt performer, television personality, and filmmaker. He rose to prominence in the early 2000s as one of the stars of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass (2000–2001) and subsequent films. He also created the spin-off shows Viva La Bam (2003–2006), Bam's Unholy Union (2007), Bam's World Domination (2010), and Bam's Bad Ass Game Show (2014), and co-wrote and directed the films Haggard (2003) and Minghags (2009). Since the mid-2000s, Margera has struggled with alcoholism and subsequent legal troubles. Following the death of childhood friend Ryan Dunn and the end of his television projects in 2011–12, Margera's drinking and drug use intensified. More notably, in 2021, he was fired from the production of Jackass Forever (2022) due to his drug and alcohol issues.
Margera was born on September 28, 1979, and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of April and Phil Margera. He is the younger brother of rock musician Jess Margera and the nephew of television personality Vincent "Don Vito" Margera. When Margera was three years old, his grandfather nicknamed him "Bam Bam" after noticing his habit of purposely running into walls; over time, that nickname was shortened to "Bam" by his schoolmates. Before their television fame, Margera's parents, April and Phil, worked as a hairdresser and baker, respectively. Margera received his first video camera from his father as a gift in 1993 after he enrolled in a digital media class at his school with childhood friend Chris Raab. It was here that Margera and Raab met future collaborators and close friends Art Webb, Brandon DiCamillo, and Ryan Dunn. Soon after, they began shooting homemade videos of Margera and his friends skateboarding and doing stunts, which eventually evolved into the CKY video series. CKY stands for "Camp Kill Yourself", a name shared with his brother Jess Margera's band, CKY, which was named as a tribute to the film Sleepaway Camp (1983). In 1994, Margera dropped out of school after Chris Raab was expelled, but was homeschooled by his mother and received his GED. On September 21, 1995, Margera, his brother Jess, Dunn and Raab were all involved in a serious car accident near their hometown of West Chester, PA. In later interviews, Margera revealed that Raab had "forced him" to wear a seatbelt as the car was going nearly 100 mph (160 km/h), and that doing so probably saved his life. Other than Jess suffering a broken arm, none of the four were seriously injured. Following years of recording footage and editing, Margera independently released the first CKY film, then titled CKY: Landspeed, in 1999. The film is a collection of stunts and pranks interspersed with skateboarding tricks and footage set to music by CKY. Subsequent releases of the film have removed the Landspeed subtitle. In the following years, the sequels CKY2K, CKY3 and CKY4: The Latest and Greatest were released. These early videos feature many of Margera's family members, including his parents and brother, as well as his close friends, including Dunn, Raab, DiCamillo, Rake Yohn and Brandon Novak, who formed a loose collective known as the CKY crew. During this period, the videos and band projects were heavily interlinked, with two of the band's albums being unofficial soundtracks to the videos.
Following CKY's success, particularly within the skateboarding community, former Big Brother editor Jeff Tremaine took notice of Margera's videos and recruited him and Ryan Dunn into the main team that would eventually become MTV's Jackass. Both Margera and Dunn became mainstays of the cast, while the other CKY crew members played supporting roles to various degrees. In the original television series, several of the featured stunts were taken directly from the CKY videos. Margera would go on to appear in Jackass: The Movie (2002), Jackass Number Two (2006), Jackass 2.5 (2007), Jackass 3D (2010), and Jackass 3.5 (2011), and would have a very minor appearance in Jackass Forever (2022). He only appears in archive footage in Jackass: Best and Last (2026). Several skits in the first Jackass movie were CKY-style pieces filmed in and around West Chester, PA, while similar scenes in the second movie were forced to be removed after the arrest and conviction of Margera's uncle Vincent Margera (also known as Don Vito) for inappropriately touching two minors. After the Jackass series ended in 2001, Margera was approached by MTV and was given his own series, Viva La Bam, which ran for five seasons from 2003 to 2005. A mixture of stunts and reality, the show followed Margera, his family and the CKY crew as they performed various stunts and missions, while also offering insight into their daily lives. The show was primarily filmed in West Chester, but also visited New Orleans, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Brazil, Finland, Mexico, Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Monaco, and Transylvania. In addition to the regular series, there was also a "lost" episode, which was included on the Viva La Bands CD and was originally filmed in Iceland for the first season. A two-part special episode, "Viva La Spring Break", aired in 2006. In 2003, Margera played himself in the movie Grind, which portrays four young men following a professional skateboarder from Chicago to California. The film contains numerous cameos by Jackass members, as well as many professional skateboarders and other celebrities. Upon its release, the film was met with generally unfavorable reviews from critics. In 2007, Margera's engagement and wedding planning was filmed for a series entitled Bam's Unholy Union, which served as a spiritual successor to Viva la Bam. The show follows Margera, his then-fiancée Missy Rothstein, and their family and friends in the lead-up to their wedding. In 2008, Margera had a "prominent, non-sex role" in a pornographic film by Gina Lynn, The Fantasstic Whores 4, along with Brandon Novak. In 2009, Margera appeared on Nitro Circus, and the following year in 2010, Margera starred alongside Ryan Dunn and skateboarder Tim O'Connor in the one-off special Bam's World Domination on Spike TV, which showcased Margera and his friends' attempt to conquer an obstacle course race in the Tough Guy Competition, held in Staffordshire, England.
In March 2016, Bam and his parents appeared on the VH1 reality television show Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn to address Bam's self-destructive behavior.
Margera began skateboarding at age 7, and by the time he entered high school, had developed it into a full-time hobby. His brother Jess later described Bam's abilities as "a natural talent" and noted that their parents had been very supportive of Margera's decision to go into skateboarding "from day one", and revealed that he used to travel with Bam to Love Park in Philadelphia as early as 1991, when they were 12 and 13 years old, respectively. In 1992, Margera got his first sponsorship from Fairman's Skate Shop and began appearing in skate videos. In 1994, Margera dropped out of high school in order to pursue a full-time skateboarding career. Early on in his professional career, Margera was sponsored by Toy Machine Skateboards, Speed Metal Bearings, Adio Footwear, Electric Sunglasses, Volcom, Landspeed Wheels, Destroyer Trucks, Destructo Trucks, and Fairman's Skate Shop. In 2001, Margera officially became a member of Team Element, the demonstration team for Element Skateboards, which he remained affiliated with for the rest of his professional career. In 2012, Margera was forced to put his skating career on hold indefinitely due to bone spurs and worsening alcoholism. After a five-year hiatus, Bam returned to skateboarding casually, resulting in a renewed partnership with Element Skateboards to celebrate the brand's 25th anniversary in 2017, by re-releasing ten of his most memorable deck designs. The boards were released weekly between September 6 and November 8, 2017; each deck was also personally signed by Margera and limited to 50 units. In addition to collaborating with Heart Supply Skateboards and Wicked Skateboards, in 2025, Margera collaborated with Zero Skateboards to release various limited edition skate decks, which all sold out quickly. As of 2026, Margera is currently collaborating with Slappy Trucks to release a signature collection of skate trucks. Following Margera's collaborations with Zero Skateboards, he returned to pro skateboarding, signing with Zero.
Margera has written, produced and starred in three independent films as of 2024, with a fourth scheduled, but on hold since 2017. He co-wrote, directed and starred in Haggard (2003), an independent film based on real events in the life of his friend Ryan Dunn. Dunn played himself as the main character, while Margera played "Valo", a character based on a combination of himself and elements of HIM singer and friend Ville Valo. Margera also directed Minghags, formerly titled Kiss a Good Man's Ass. This film is a loose sequel to Haggard and features the "garbage juicer" invention from that film. Filming began April 5, 2007. On an episode of Radio Bam, Margera said that they were trying to make the movie PG-13 rated, but with the amount of swearing and a shot of nudity, an R rating could not be avoided. The first viewing of the rough version of the film was on August 7, 2007, at Sikes Hall. The movie was released straight to DVD in December 2008. Also in December 2008, Margera released a Christmas-themed movie, Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% Is Santa?. The movie is about Bam and his friends going to the Arctic Circle in Finland on a quest to find Santa Claus. The film features Ville Valo from HIM, the Dudesons, Hanoi Rocks, and Mark the Bagger. In January 2015, Margera announced that he had been working on an autobiographical documentary film which he hoped to premiere in the near future. The film will deal primarily with Margera's life after the death of his close friend and co-star, Ryan Dunn, who died in a car crash in 2011. According to Margera, the film has been three years in the making, and will give viewers a glimpse into his childhood, career and rise to fame, while focusing mainly on his recovery from the death of Dunn. Musician Brent Hinds of the band Mastodon would play Dunn in what has been described as "dramatic fantasy interludes" that ties the film together while also re-enacting what Margera considers his "darkest moments" after Dunn's death. Hinds died in August 2025. During a Facebook Q&A on December 7, 2015, Margera stated that the name of the film would change from I Need Time to Stay Useless to Earth Rocker and that it would be released February 2016. In a 2017 episode of Vice's Epicly Later'd, Margera stated that after working on the film for four years straight, sometimes for weeks at a time, he had reached the point where he had had enough of doing so. Margera stated that he had approximately eleven terabytes worth of video footage and that editing it down into a two-hour film was "impossible". When asked if the project was simply on pause for the moment, Margera responded that it was. As of 2026, the documentary still remains unreleased, with no scheduled release date.
