Background and career
George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos (, born 16 August 1972) is a Canadian media personality, television host and podcaster. He is one of Canada's most popular broadcasters and best known as formerly being a VJ for the Canadian music television channel MuchMusic. He was also the host and co-executive producer of the CBC Television talk show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (formerly The Hour) from 2005 to 2014. From 2014 to 2016, Stroumboulopoulos worked for Rogers Media, anchoring Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL on Rogers. From 2009 to 2023, he was a radio host on CBC Music. In 2020, he joined Apple Music Radio as host of a Monday to Thursday live show.
Stroumboulopoulos was born 16 August 1972, in Malton, Ontario, a neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ontario, to a Greek father from Egypt and a Ukrainian mother. He was raised in Toronto, primarily by his mother and a close-knit extended family. After graduating from Ascension of Our Lord Secondary School, he graduated from the Radio Broadcasting program at Toronto's Humber College in 1993.
In spring 1993, Stroumboulopoulos worked at rock radio station CKLZ 104.7FM The Lizard in Kelowna, British Columbia for a few months before getting a job offer at the Toronto radio station CJCL, working in talk radio. He then moved to CFNY-FM to host various shows including Live in Toronto.
From 2000 to 2004, Stroumboulopoulos worked at MuchMusic as producer and host of The Punk Show, then host of The NewMusic, MuchLOUD and MuchNews.
In 2004, Stroumboulopoulos was featured on CBC television's The Greatest Canadian series as the advocate for Tommy Douglas, former Saskatchewan premier and regarded as Canada's "Father of Medicare". More than 1.2 million votes were cast over six weeks, as each of 10 advocates made their case for the top 10 nominees. George made a personal and passionate case for Tommy Douglas, who was named the winner of the contest.
Stroumboulopoulos hosted a long-running Sunday night talk radio show, The Strombo Show. Originally aired as a talk show on CFRB in Toronto and CJAD in Montreal, the show moved to the Corus network in November 2007 and the format changed to one of mainly music. The Strombo Show broadcast from 102.1 The Edge's Toronto studio and on other radio stations in the Corus Entertainment network, including CFOX-FM in Vancouver, Power 97 in Winnipeg, FM96 in London and Y108 in Hamilton. The show moved to CBC Radio 2 on November 8, 2009, and continued as a music-oriented freeform radio talk show until 2023.
