His parents divorced when he was 3 years old.
He was sexually abused at age 7.
Growing up, he found himself spiraling deeper and deeper into addiction, using drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of his past.
But today, this American actor, comedian, and filmmaker is living a completely different life alongside his world-famous wife.
On January 2, 1975, a boy was born who would go on to become one of the most recognizable faces in the world. He was born at Beyer Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan — his mother worked at General Motors, and his father was a car salesman. The actor says his mother named him after the wealthy playboy Diogenes Alejandro Xenos from Harold Robbins’ novel The Adventurers.
Unfortunately, the early years of his life were very turbulent. His parents divorced when he was just three years old. A few years later, something truly devastating happened to him when he was sexually abused.
He carried the secret for more than 12 years before telling anyone — an unbearable burden to hold inside, especially for a child.
”All that time, I was like … ‘It’s my fault,’ as generic as that is, I’m like, I’m gay, I must have manifested this because I’m secretly gay.’ I had all these insane thoughts for 11 years or 12 years,” he said in 2016.
He also believes it played a role in his struggles with addiction later in life. That connection was echoed by a statistic his mother — a court-appointed advocate for foster children — encountered through her work.
“If you’ve been molested, you only have a 20 percent chance of not being an addict,” the actor said. “And I was like, ‘Hm, interesting,’ because in my mind I just like to have a f—–g great time. But when you hear a statistic like that, I’m like, ‘Oh no, I was going to be an addict, period.’ ”
Amid all the darkness that seemed to shadow his career, the actor still had role models in his life—people who worked hard and tried to stay on the right path. One of the most important? His own mother. She had started at GM as a night-shift janitor, but through sheer determination and grit, she worked her way up to become the owner of four shops, overseeing publicity events for magazine journalists.
Working with Ashton Kutcher
Between the ages of 14 and 18, the actor hit the road with his mother, working alongside her as they traveled from racetrack to racetrack.
He later attended Santa Monica College but eventually moved to Los Angeles. A friend from Santa Barbara, Kareem Elseify, introduced him to The Groundlings improv troupe, where he decided to audition — marking his first time acting.
Improvisation and sketch comedy classes followed, and after about five years, he joined The Groundlings’ Sunday Company, alongside talents like Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Fortune Feimster, Tate Taylor, and Nat Faxon.
From 2003 onward, he appeared on the improv-style, Candid Camera-inspired show Punk’d with Ashton Kutcher, continuing with the series when it was revived in 2012.
A small breakthrough on the big screen came with the comedy Without a Paddle. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, raking in over $65 million worldwide by 2009.
The movie that changed his life
A few years later, he continued appearing in films, landing his first leading role in Let’s Go to Prison (2006) alongside Will Arnett and Chi McBride. He then had a main role in the 2008 comedy Baby Mama, starring opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Everything changed when he landed a supporting role in the romantic comedy When in Rome, playing one of the female lead’s would-be suitors. Though small, the part had a huge impact. The woman he acted opposite would become his future wife — none other than Kristen Bell.
The couple announced their engagement in January 2010 but chose to delay their wedding until California legalized same-sex marriage.
In the early part of his career, the actor said that, aside from a single year in high school when he experimented with drugs, he didn’t have a substance abuse problem until he turned 18. After that, he struggled for years with alcohol, cocaine, and prescription pills.
In an interview with Playboy, the star reflected on his turbulent past and how his early relationship with Bell faced its challenges.
“Kristen’s a good girl. She grew up very Christian, went straight to college, did great in school and started work immediately. She’s charitable and philanthropic and rescues dogs,” he said.
“All the things I’d done were terrifying to her, and she had a hard time believing I would ever be able to stay married and monogamous and a father and all those things. For the first year and a half we were together that was what we battled over almost weekly.”
So who is this actor, filmmaker, and now podcast host? None other than Dax Shepard.
His life hasn’t been without its struggles — he revealed that he suffered a relapse after 16 years of sobriety, later sharing on Chelsea Clinton’s In Fact podcast how he talks about it with his daughters.
Shepard explained that he is upfront with Lincoln and Delta, telling them he attends AA meetings twice a week because, as he puts it, “I’m an alcoholic, and if I don’t go there, then I’ll drink and then I’ll be a terrible dad.”
The day after his relapse, Bell — then pregnant with their daughter Lincoln — surprised him by traveling to be with him. Shepard admitted he had taken pills, and Bell reassured him:
“She’s like, ‘You clearly need to call someone in AA, but I would say you’re f— up from this accident, you got high with your dad, keep it moving. You don’t need to redefine it. You didn’t lose eight years,’ which was so comforting,” he said.
“So that was eight years ago,” he said in 2020. “And now I have this experience where I did that, I felt bad, but there wasn’t really any fallout from it.”
Besides hosting Armchair Expert, a podcast where he chats with celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives, he’s also a passionate car enthusiast. Shepard owns the 1967 Lincoln Continental featured in Hit and Run and even competes in off-road racing.
Shepard and his wife have also been active in protecting their children’s privacy, advocating for California Senate Bill 606, known as the “no-kids paparazzi” law.
Bell explained, “We’re not saying that we can’t be newsworthy. We’re saying that our child is not newsworthy.” The bill, which passed in 2013, included testimony from actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner.
Wow, did you know about Dax Shepard’s rough past and everything he’s been through? I had no idea at all. From a turbulent childhood and early struggles with drugs to relapses even after years of sobriety, he’s been through a lot. Yet he’s built a strong life with his family, career, and advocacy work.
It’s a reminder that what we see on social media is just the surface – there’s often so much more behind the person. Stories like this really show resilience, growth, and the human side of fame.
