Born in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 11, 1971, the performer who would adopt his hometown as his stage name attended South-Doyle High School before pursuing a career in the American entertainment industry. That career would come to span multiple disciplines, establishing him as a working presence across film, television, and stunt performance.

Johnny Knoxville works as an actor, screenwriter, film producer, and stunt performer, with credits extending across both film and television. His work as a voice actor adds a further dimension to his performing career. As a United States citizen working primarily in English, he has maintained an active presence across these overlapping roles, moving between on-screen performance, behind-the-camera production responsibilities, and the more physically demanding work of stunt performance. The combination of screenwriting and producing credits alongside his acting work indicates involvement in projects at multiple levels of production, rather than purely as a performer executing others' material.

The Library of Congress name authority file records him under the entry "Knoxville, Johnny, 1971-," a cataloguing designation that reflects his established presence within documented American cultural production. That formal recognition, alongside his sustained output as a film and television actor, screenwriter, stunt performer, and producer, marks him as a figure whose contributions to American entertainment have been formally documented and indexed. His work as a stunt performer, in particular, represents a thread that runs distinctively through a career otherwise occupied with more conventional creative roles, distinguishing his professional profile from that of a straightforward actor or producer.