Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera (born September 28, 1979) is a professional skateboarder, actor, creator of the "CKY" skate / prank / stunt videos, and radio personality. He is also the star of Viva la Bam, and member of the Jackass crew, two shows broadcast by MTV. He grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania and went to East High School. He cites Raab Himself as his only reason for attending high school, and dropped out after Raab got expelled for smearing feces on a locker (as told in CKY Volume 1 Documentary.)

His weekly Sirius Satellite Radio show is called Radio Bam.

Bam made his own skate videos known as the CKY quadrilogy, which is also the name of his brother Jess's heavy metal band (see CKY band). Margera's crew includes Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Rake Yohn, Raab Himself, and Brandon Novak. His videos and television shows often include his long-suffering parents, Phil and April, his uncle Vincent Margera ("Don Vito"), and ex-fiancée Jenn Rivell (Margera broke off his engagement to Rivell in early 2005). Margera's television antics push the generally accepted boundaries of good taste by seeking to shock and offend, thereby creating a large contingent of detractors who charge that he profits from the humiliation and misfortune of others.

Margera was born and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a western suburb of Philadelphia. Before becoming a professional skateboarder, he could be found frequenting the local skate spots, performing at area fairgrounds, and loitering at Fairman's skate shop.

As a professional skater in the summer of 2005, Margera successfully landed The Loop in Phoenix, Arizona. He became the 13th known skater to land it, and was the first street skater to successfully land it.

Margera directed and co-wrote (with Brandon DiCamillo and Chris Aspite) a low-budget independent film called Haggard, starring himself and his friends, released in 2003. Margera also has a small speaking part in the skateboarding movie "Grind".

Margera also appeared on Punk'd, in 2005. Ashton Kutcher 'trapped' Margera's Element team manager inside of a convenience store while staging an elaborate hold-up, complete with helicopters and weapon-wielding police officers. (The real LAPD SWAT team helped with this prank)

In the DVD comentary for Jackass: The Box Set, Margera said that Element Skateboards pays him two million dollars a year, just for wearing their clothing.

He has also been animated as a character into a number of pro-skateboarder Tony Hawk's video games. In fact, he is featured as a main character in Tony Hawk's Underground (1 and 2).

In March 2006, Bam will start on a new animated series for MTV and will have two special episodes of Viva la Bam entitled Viva La Spring Break.

Bam got his name from his grandfather. When he was younger he would run into walls and be crazy, and his grandfather would say "Bam, bam, bam, chill out! Bam!" The name stuck, and soon everyone was calling him Bam, even his teachers.

"CKY" stands for "Camp Kill Yourself", a reference to the 1983 film Sleepaway Camp, a favourite of CKY band frontman Deron Miller. A 2006 sequel entitled Return to Sleepaway Camp will feature the CKY band members in cameo roles as camp counselors.

A fan of, friend of, and occasional video director for HIM's frontman, Ville Valo, Margera has licensed the band's logo, the heartagram (a pentagram with two points curved to incorporate a heart symbol), for personal use. Bam has even had himself tattooed with the heartagram.

Bam owns 2 cats, Trouble and Mischief. He has personally claimed they're "The Best Ever!". They can sometimes be seen in scenes of Viva La Bam but they're best seen in an episode of MTV Cribs that has Bam showing off "Castle Bam".

Margera is currently writing, producing, and directing his new feature film, a sequel to Haggard, titled Kiss a Good Man's Ass. He announced another film he is working on called The Dream Seller. The Dream Seller is a nickname for long-time friend and fellow skater Brandon Novak.

Current episodes of Margera's show have shown him to own both a red 2003 Hummer H2 as well as a purple Lamborghini Gallardo and a Mercedes-Benz S55 AMG with a heartagram on the front instead of the Mercedes-Benz logo. A recent episode however showed the destruction of the H2 by Don Vito as revenge for constant torment. The Lamborghini has been modified with help from friend Billy Idol to include a sunroof (a rough rectangle crudely cut with a jigsaw). Bam bragged that his was the only vehicle of its kind with a sunroof. Since the end of filming on Viva La Bam, Bam has replaced the red H2 with a blue H3.

The first 5,000 DVD copies of CKY4 contained a hidden Easter Egg - a two-minute video clip of Bam and his then-girlfriend, Jen Rivell, having sex. The video clip was immediately (and continues to be) widely circulated on the Internet.

According to Ryan Gee's message board, he is currently engaged to Missy Rothstein.

• Bam Margera's official website
• Bam Margera's official Sirius Radio station site
• Bam Margera at IMDb