Background and career
Daniel Brandon Bilzerian (born December 7, 1980) is an American social media personality, businessman, and political activist. He began to gain widespread notability in 2013 for documenting an extravagant playboy lifestyle on social media alongside scantily dressed models, firearms, and high-stakes poker. In 2026, running as a Republican, Bilzerian launched a congressional campaign in Florida's 6th U.S. House District for the 2026 midterm elections. His campaign drew attention for running antisemitic ads about an opponent and criticizing President Donald Trump, whose removal from office Bilzerian has called for via the Twenty-fifth Amendment. He finished in second place in the Republican primary to the incumbent, Randy Fine. Bilzerian has also generated controversy for making antisemitic statements independent of his congressional campaign, including Holocaust denial and the dissemination of several conspiracy theories.
Daniel Brandon Bilzerian was born on December 7, 1980, in Tampa, Florida, the son of corporate takeover specialist Paul Bilzerian and Terri Steffen. He is the brother of fellow poker player Adam Bilzerian; they are half Armenian-American through their father, who was a corporate raider on Wall Street and gave both his sons trust funds. Bilzerian said he studied for four years at the University of Florida, majoring in business and criminology, but dropped out of college to pursue a professional poker career.
In the 2010s, Bilzerian gained attention for his extravagant playboy lifestyle and photos with luxury cars, guns, money, private jets, and scantily clad women. These photos were regularly posted on various social media platforms, particularly Instagram. Since he gained several million followers there with these photos, Bilzerian was called the "King of Instagram". He has said he has suffered several heart attacks as a result of this lifestyle.
Bilzerian played in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing in 180th place. In 2010, he was voted one of the funniest poker players on Twitter by Bluff magazine readers. In November 2011, Bilzerian was one of those sued by the estate of Bradley Ruderman over winnings from poker games that were alleged to have been paid with funds from an illegal Ponzi scheme. In November 2013, Bilzerian posted an unconfirmed claim that he won $10.8 million in a single night of playing poker. In 2014, he said he had won $50 million during the year, adding that he "doesn't play against professionals anymore and the most he's ever lost in a single session is $3.6 million."
Bilzerian has previously claimed to run the company Ignite International Brands Ltd., which sells electronic cigarettes, CBD oils, water bottles and vodka, among other products. U.S. prosecutors allege that Bilzerian's father, Paul Bilzerian, retained de facto control of Ignite, and improperly funneled money to the company while owing more than $180 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dan Bilzerian later claimed he was never directly involved with running the company. Ignite was a public company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, that began trading in January 2019 under the BILZF ticker and went private in June 2022 The company reportedly lost over $50 million in 2019, mostly on marketing and office rental expenses. In July 2020, former Ignite president Curtis Heffernan sued Bilzerian for wrongful termination. Heffernan said that he was fired for criticizing Bilzerian's misappropriation of company funds for his lavish lifestyle.
Bilzerian has appeared in the films Lone Survivor (2013), The Equalizer, Cat Run 2 (both 2014), and Extraction (2015), and wrote the autobiography The Setup (2021), which recounts his controversial life and lifestyle. Bilzerian's appearance in Lone Survivor was provided to him in exchange for a $1 million investment in the film. In 2022, in cooperation with gaming company Novasoft, Bilzerian launched a mobile video game, Save Dan. The game is a first-person shooter, developed for IOS and Android, where players shoot a horde of large-breasted female zombies.
