Ed Bassmaster


Ed Bassmaster is the stage name of American YouTuber Edwin Rodriguez. His YouTube channel runs comedy videos where, as various characters, he pranks people or puts people into awkward situations. Bassmaster was also the star of the CMT reality-TV prank series, The Ed Bassmaster Show.
In Bassmaster's videos, he is typically acting as one of his many characters: Chip Diamond, Always Teste, Skippy, Emillio, I-Work guy, Girard Douche, a CIA agent, Swollen Man, Hacker, Tequila, Mumbles, Bluetooth Man, Ugly Face, Bushman, and Zombie Face.

Early life

Rodriguez was born in the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He describes his mother as “half Italian, half Russian Jew,” and is also of Puerto Rican descent from his father, who left the family when Rodriguez was a toddler. He left high school in 10th grade.

Career

Bassmaster began posting videos in 2006, and gained wide attention in 2015 with his and fellow YouTuber Jesse Wellens' faux surveillance video purporting to show the destruction of the Canadian hitchhiking robot hitchBOT, whose real-life destruction was not filmed. Some news organizations were fooled by the video.
During the YouTube Comedy Week live event in 2013, Skippy, one of Bassmaster's characters, went on stage unannounced and was kicked out of the event.
In January 2015, producers Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley said their company DiGa Vision was producing CMT's The Ed Bassmaster Show, a reality-TV series where Bassmaster would play his characters and prank people as he does in his YouTube videos. It premiered on April 14, 2016.
Ed has more recently started his own podcast on his YouTube channel, which started on 31 October 2019. His first official guest on the show was Steve-O of Jackass.

Personal life

As of 2014, Rodriguez is a married father of four who lives in Northeast Philadelphia. His younger sister also makes YouTube videos documenting her life as a blind person.

Filmography

Television