The Biography

Tony Robbins (born Anthony Jay Mahavoric, ht: 6'7") is an American author, coach, speaker, and philanthropist; he is of Croatian heritage. He is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books including the books Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within. He's also known for his role in the film Shallow Hal as himself, and appeared in Men in Black as an alien being watched on a monitor. His parents divorced when he was 7 and his mother remarried several times, including a marriage with Jim Robbins, a former semi-professional baseball player who legally adopted Anthony when he was 12. During high school, Robbins grew ten inches in a year, a growth spurt later attributed to a pituitary tumor. When he was 17 years old, he left home and never returned. Robbins later worked as a janitor, and did not attend college. One day he asked the landlord on site, who was a family friend, about how he became so successful. The landlord then told him that he started to turn his life around after going to a Jim Rohn seminar. Robbins began promoting seminars for motivational speaker and author Jim Rohn when he was 17 years old. He subsequently learned to firewalk and incorporated it into his seminars. Robbins has worked on an individual basis with Bill Clinton, Justin Tuck, Hugh Jackman, and Pitbull. He has counseled American businessmen Peter Guber, Steve Wynn, and Marc Benioff. In July 2010, NBC debuted "Breakthrough with Tony Robbins", a reality show that followed Robbins as he helped the show's participants face their personal challenges. NBC canceled the show after airing two of the planned six episodes due to low viewership. In March 2012, the OWN Network picked up the show for another season beginning with the original first season set to re-run and thereafter leading directly into the new 2012 season. In April 2012, Robbins began cohosting Oprah's Lifeclass on the OWN Network. In 2015, filmmaker Joe Berlinger directed and produced the documentary Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, about the Tony Robbins event "Date with Destiny" after filming it in Boca Raton, Florida, in December 2014. It premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in March 2016.