David Drew Pinsky (born September 4, 1958), commonly known as Dr. Drew, is an American media personality, internist, and addiction medicine specialist. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline from the show's inception in 1984 until its end in 2016. On television, he hosted the talk show Dr. Drew On Call on HLN and the daytime series Lifechangers on The CW. In addition, he served as producer and starred in the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and its spinoffs Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House. Pinsky currently hosts several podcasts, including Ask Dr. Drew, The Dr. Drew Podcast on the PodcastOne Network, and The Adam and Drew Show with his former Loveline co-host Adam Carolla. From February 2019 - December 2023, he hosted Dr. Drew After Dark on the Your Mom's House network.
Pinsky is a former staff member at the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California, and Huntington Memorial Hospital. He currently maintains a private internal medicine practice in South Pasadena.
Pinsky was born September 4, 1958 in Pasadena, California, to Helene Stanton (née Eleanor Mae Stansbury; 1925–2017), a singer and actress who played a supporting part in the 1955 film The Big Combo, and Morton Pinsky (1926–2009), a physician whose parents immigrated to the United States from Ukraine. Pinsky's father was Jewish, while he described his mother as coming from a "highly Victorian upper-middle-class family in Philadelphia."
After graduating from Polytechnic School in 1976, Pinsky studied biology at Amherst College, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts. He then attended the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, graduating in 1984 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He served his residency in internal medicine at USC County Hospital and became chief resident at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and later moved into private practice.
My goal was always to be part of pop culture and relevant to young people, to interact with the people they hold in high esteem.
As The New York Times described it in February 2008, Pinsky's dual career in medicine and the mass media has required him to "navigat[e] a precarious balance of professionalism and salaciousness."
In 1984 while still a medical student, Pinsky started appearing in "Ask a Surgeon", a segment of a Sunday night KROQ-FM show hosted by Jim "Poorman" Trenton and "Swedish" Egil Aalvik. "Ask the Surgeon" soon combined with "Loveline", another Sunday night segment, into a show of its own, co-hosted by Trenton and Pinsky. Loveline went national in 1995, and the television version launched on MTV the following year, hosted by Pinsky and Adam Carolla.
The exposure on both radio and television made Pinsky the "Gen-X answer to Ruth Westheimer [Dr. Ruth], with an AIDS-era, pro-safe-sex message." The MTV show ran for four years, while the radio show continued until April 2016 with cohost Mike Catherwood.
On November 27, 2007, Pinsky began Dr. Drew Live, another nationally syndicated talk radio show where he focused on a wider range of health issues. It originated from KGIL in Los Angeles, originally airing weekdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT The show was canceled in December 2008.
On January 5, 2015, Pinsky launched a new weekday program, "Dr. Drew Midday Live with Mike Catherwood", on KABC in Los Angeles. Leeann Tweeden became the co-host of the show starting on January 7, 2019.
On April 21, 2016, Pinsky announced Loveline would wrap up on April 28, 2016. Adam Carolla re-joined him as co-host for the final show.
Pinsky's first television appearance was as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune in 1984, though he did not win. He also served as "health and human relations expert" on the first season of the U.S. TV series Big Brother in 2000.
He has also hosted several shorter educational television series, starting with Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew, which ran for 10 episodes on the Discovery Health Channel, followed by Strictly Dr. Drew which addressed everyday health concerns. He later hosted the MTV series Sex...with Mom and Dad (2008–2009).
In 2008, Pinsky starred in Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, a reality television show which involves celebrities in a drug rehabilitation facility. The show was filmed at Pasadena Recovery Center, with Pinsky serving as the resident medical expert. The series premiered January 10, 2008 on VH-1 and was renewed for multiple seasons. A follow-up show to Celebrity Rehab with many of the same celebrities was Sober House, which began its first season in January 2009, and included celebrities from the first two seasons of Celebrity Rehab continuing their recovery in a sober living facility. In November 2009, Pinsky starred in a spinoff of Celebrity Rehab, Sex Rehab with Dr.Drew, which depicted celebrities being treated for sexual addiction over the course of three weeks at the Pasadena Recovery Center.
In a 2011 episode of Lifechangers, Dr. Drew brought on a 16-year-old Courtney Stodden and conducted an on-air ultrasound of her breasts to prove Stodden's claim she didn't have plastic surgery. The ultrasound was conducted by Dr. John Diaz, a plastic surgeon.
Pinsky makes guest appearances on various news programs where he usually gives his observations on the relationship between controlled substances and high-profile individuals. He has frequently given his views on the deaths of people such as Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson, arguing that their fates should set examples of the seriousness of misusing drugs.
Pinsky has acted in several TV appearances (either portraying himself or a fictional character), Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Dawson's Creek, Family Guy. The Adam Carolla Project, Minoriteam, Robot Chicken, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Code Monkeys, and The Midnight Gospel. Pinsky also appeared in the films New York Minute and Wild Hogs.
In early 2011, Pinsky began hosting his own show, Dr. Drew On Call on HLN that focuses on news involving health and addiction topics. On August 26, 2016, HLN and Pinsky announced that the show's last episode would be September 22 of that year.