Film & TV / Press & broadcasting
Dax Shepard
born 1975 · actor, comedian, filmmaker, podcaster
Actor and Armchair Expert podcast host who grew up in Detroit's northwestern suburbs, the car-loving son of a GM employee.
- Born
Ypsilanti, Michigan
age 51- Birth name
- Dax Randall Shepard
- Detroit years
- 1975–1993
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Dax Shepard was born on January 2, 1975, at Beyer Hospital in Ypsilanti and grew up in a string of Detroit suburbs, above all Walled Lake, while also calling Milford home. Cars ran through his family: his father sold them, and his mother started as a janitor on the midnight shift at General Motors, moved into fleet management at GM's Milford Proving Ground and eventually into public relations and event work. He graduated from Walled Lake Central High School in 1993 and then left for Los Angeles, where he trained with the Groundlings improv troupe and got his break on MTV's prank show Punk'd. Films such as Without a Paddle, Idiocracy and his own car-chase comedy Hit and Run followed, along with six seasons of Parenthood. He married fellow Detroit-suburbs native Kristen Bell, and since 2018 he has hosted the hit podcast Armchair Expert.
Highlights
- Crosby Braverman on NBC's Parenthood (2010–2015)
- Wrote and directed Hit and Run (2012) and CHiPs (2017)
- Host of the podcast Armchair Expert since 2018
- Films include Without a Paddle, Zathura and Idiocracy
- Married to Huntington Woods-raised actress Kristen Bell
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1989–1993
Walled Lake Central High School
Shepard graduated from this public high school in Commerce Township in 1993.