Drew Pinsky
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David Drew Pinsky, (born September 4, 1958) popularly known as "Dr. Drew," is a board-certified physician and Addiction Medicine specialist. While he currently teaches at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, he is best known as host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline, where he offers advice on a wide array of lifestyle issues affecting not only teenagers and young adults, but people in general.
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[edit] History
Pinsky was born in Pasadena, California and attended Polytechnic School; his father was also a doctor while his mother, Helene Stanton, was a singer and actress. He majored in biology at Amherst College, graduating in 1980, and earned his M.D. at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1984. He served his residency at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and eventually became chief resident there before moving into private practice. Pinsky married in 1991, and he and his wife Susan had triplets Douglas, Jordan, and Paulina in 1992.
[edit] Loveline
While still a medical student, Pinksy began co-hosting the advice show Loveline on local radio station KROQ, with no pay at first. Loveline went national in 1995, and the television version launched on MTV the following year, hosted by Pinksy and his then current radio co-host Adam Carolla. The MTV show ran for four years, while radio show continues on today. A companion volume, The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide To Life and Love, was published in 1998.
Although referred to by patients as Dr. Pinsky, the name "Dr. Drew" came to be as he started his radio career while attending med school. Not wanting to promote his own name or practice, Pinsky took the over-the-air title of Dr. Drew to separate his professional medical and radio careers.
Pinsky's repuation as being handsome but clinical and straight-laced has led to him being referred to jokingly by current co-host Stryker as "Dr. McDreamy" and as a "man of exquisite passion" by former radio co-host Carolla.
- See also: Loveline
[edit] Other media
In addition to his radio show and medical career, Pinsky also has gained fame on television talk shows, where his medical expertise and relationship counseling abilities are highly valued. He served as "health and human relations expert" on the first season of the U.S. TV series Big Brother in 2000.
A frequent guest speaker on CNN, Pinsky has also hosted his own television series, Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew, on the Discovery Health Channel. His latest series on the same network is called Strictly Dr. Drew, addressing everyday health issues, premeired on July 25, 2006, and continues to air weekly on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm PST.
In the midst of the dot-com boom, Pinsky co-founded an Internet-based community and advice site for teenagers called DrDrew.com with a friend named Curtis Giesen. Among their early backers was Garage.com [1]. DrDrew.com soon ran out of funding, and the company was sold to a corporate restructuring firm called Sherwood Partners Inc., which sold the remnants to DrKoop.com in November 2000.[2] Pinsky no longer maintains any affiliation with the site, though they continue to run articles he wrote for the service in 2000-2001.
In 2003, Pinsky authored Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again, recounting his experiences as the program medical director of chemical dependency at the Las Encinas Hospital drug rehabilitation clinic in Pasadena, California. He also contributed to the book When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know About OxyContin and Other Prescription Drugs, published in 2004.
[edit] Trivia
- Pinsky is a trained opera singer and also plays the piano and bass guitar. He made his acting debut in 2004, playing the father of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's characters in New York Minute. He has also made acting appearances on The Man Show and as a voice actor on Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
- Pinsky frequently speaks on college and university campuses throughout the United States, both on his own and with his former Loveline partner Adam Carolla.
- Asteroid 4536 Drewpinsky is named in his honor.[3]
| Preceded by: Jim Trenton |
Co-Host of Loveline 1984 – |
Succeeded by: Incumbent |
[edit] Works
[edit] Books
- Pinsky, Dr. Drew, with Robert Meyers and William White (July 2004). When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know about OxyContin and Other Prescription Drugs. New York: Hazelden Publishing & Educational Services. ISBN 159285107X.
- Pinsky, Dr. Drew (September 2003). Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again. New York: Regan Books. ISBN 0060096551.
- Pinsky, Dr. Drew, with Adam Carolla and Marshall Fine (1998-10-13). The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide To Life and Love. New York: Dell. ISBN 0440508363.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- DrDrew.com (Defunct; No longer controlled by Pinsky)
- Profile of Dr. Drew from the Loveline Information Archive
- Dr. Drew at the Internet Movie Database
- Drdrew.com Launch Party at House of Blues, April 25, 2000
