Bam Margera

Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera (born September 28, 1979) is an American professional skateboarder, television and radio personality, actor and daredevil. He came to prominence after appearing in MTV's Jackass crew. He has since appeared in MTV's Viva La Bam and Bam's Unholy Union, all three Jackass movies, and Haggard and Minghags, both of which he co-wrote and directed. --- Margera was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to Phil and April Margera. He is the younger brother of Jess Margera and nephew of Vincent Margera. His grandfather nicknamed him "Bam" at the age of three after his habit of running into walls. He attended East High School and cites friend Chris Raab as his only reason for attending high school. --- Margera began shooting videos of himself and his friends skateboarding and doing stunts, which eventually turned into the CKY video series. He independently released CKY. CKY2K, CKY3 and CKY4 have also been released. CKY stands for "Camp Kill Yourself", a reference to the film Sleepaway Camp. These early videos feature many of Margera's friends, including Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Rake Yohn, Chris Raab, Brandon Novak and others who form a loose collective known as the CKY Crew. CKY is also the name of a rock band featuring his brother Jess, and the history and relationship between the video and band projects is heavily interlinked. Following the CKY success, former Big Brother editor Jeff Tremaine noticed Margera's videos and drafted him into the team which would eventually become MTV's Jackass. Margera and Ryan Dunn became mainstays of the cast while other CKY crew members played supporting roles to various degrees. Margera went on to appear in Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, and Jackass 3D. Several skits in the first Jackass movie were CKY style pieces filmed in and around West Chester, but similar scenes in the second movie were removed after the arrest of Margera's uncle Vincent Margera. --- Margera was previously engaged to Jenn Rivell, a divorced single mother. Rivell played a prominent part in several of his projects and the couple appeared to be cohabiting in various episodes of Viva La Bam. However, the relationship ended in 2005. In November 2006, Margera filed for "Protection From Abuse" from Rivell after she allegedly broke into his house. In 2006 Margera became engaged to childhood friend Melissa "Missy" Rothstein. The events leading up to their wedding (with about 350 friends and family in attendance) on February 3, 2007, in downtown Philadelphia, were chronicled on the MTV series Bam's Unholy Union—the couple's honeymoon was in Dubai. In 2008, during an appearance on LA Ink, Margera told Kat Von D about US$13,000 in damages that was caused during his wedding celebration, explaining, "I was kind of ready for it though. I was like: 'I’m inviting the Jackass crew. If something doesn’t get broken then that’s not right'.