Pete Davidson is one of those celebs you either love or hate. The eccentric oddball has a sense of humor known to offend, but his willingness to take risks is part of how he became one of SNL’s youngest cast members to date. It’s probably how he ended up dating Kim Kardashian, too.
So, what’s Pete Davidson’s net worth? How old is he? How did he get into comedy? Find out the answer to all your pressing questions about one of Hollywood’s most controversial celebs.
Pete Davidson didn’t have the easiest time in school.
Pete Davidson was born on Nov. 16, 1993, and grew up on Staten Island, making him 28 years old at the moment. He went to not one, but three, different high schools. It wasn’t because he did poorly but because of persistent bullying.
He had few friends, and when the bullying got bad enough, he had no choice but to switch schools. He was much happier when he left Staten Island to pursue a college education.
He has openly spoken out against bullying.
When Davidson and Ariana Grande’s relationship crumbled, Davidson faced a tremendous backlash from fans on social media. The criticism was harsh and sometimes aggressive.
Eventually, Davidson spoke out about how ridiculous it was to bully someone online over something personal like a breakup. He also made a statement about how harmful bullying can be and extended his sympathy to anyone who had been similarly victimized.
Pete’s Dad was a NYC firefighter.
It’s true! His father, Scott Davidson, was a hero. He served New York City as a firefighter until the tragic day of Sept. 11, 2001.
He was seen running up the stairs of the World Trade Center seconds before it collapsed, taking his life among many others. A Requiem Mass was held in his honor at St. Clare’s Roman Catholic Church on Staten Island.
Pete Davidson struggled with depression as a kid.
Pete Davidson was only 7 when he lost his father. He acted out in school because of it and began compulsively pulling out his hair to cope with his grief.
He also shared with “The Breakfast Club” morning radio show that he once dealt with persistent suicidal thoughts. He owes his survival to the music of Kid Cudi, which inspired him to persevere.
He’s mostly Jewish and Irish.
Davidson’s father was mostly Jewish with a handful of Italian, Irish and German roots. His mother’s side was mostly Irish.
He also has a little sister named Casey.
Pete Davidson was raised Catholic.
Despite his Jewish roots, Pete Davidson was brought up Catholic. He went to St. Joseph by the Sea High School, followed by Tottenville High School and Brooklyn’s Xaverian High School, where he graduated in 2011.
He went on to enroll at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights.
He only attended one semester of college.
It wasn’t that he was bad at school. Pete Davidson did fine, but he realized that he wanted to pursue comedy full-time and left after just one semester.
A college degree isn’t the only road to success, and Davidson is living proof.
He originally tried stand-up on a dare.
Daring your friends to do something silly might result in more than good memories. Davidson was with a group of friends at a Staten Island bowling alley when some of them dared him to take to the stage and try out stand up.
Even at 16, they already knew he was good at it. It wasn’t exactly an impressive venue, but everyone has to start somewhere.
Pete suffers from a fairly rare autoimmune disorder.
When he was 18, Davidson was diagnosed with an unpleasant chronic disorder known as Crohn’s disease. Similar to irritable bowel disease and ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s causes inflammation of the digestive tract.
The symptoms can come and go, and many patients with Crohn’s eventually need surgery to repair their bowel. The cause of the disorder remains unknown, but it’s manageable with medication.
He was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
Pete Davidson didn’t exactly get the best luck of the draw as far as health goes. He also developed borderline personality disorder, a rare mental health disorder that influences how you feel about yourself and others. Symptoms include impulsive behavior, mood swings, unstable relationships, fear of abandonment and feelings of emptiness, just to name a few.
Only about 1.4 percent of the adult population in the U.S. has borderline personality disorder. Most of those diagnosed are women, but that’s likely because men’s symptoms are more frequently attributed to PTSD or depression.
Even with these health issues, he became the first member of the SNL cast born in the 1990s.
For all his struggles growing up, Pete Davidson didn’t waste any time turning his life around. After gaining some initial traction doing stand-up and some incredibly lucky breaks, Davidson landed himself a spot on the cast of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). He was 23 and the youngest cast member at the time, along with the first cast member born in the 1990s.
He remains the fourth-youngest performer to be welcomed to the SNL cast list, and many of his stand-up routines on the show were major hits. His most popular skits included impressions of Adam Sandler, Marco Rubio and Eminem.
He got on the show because he knew a guy.
Technically, he knew a guy who knew a guy. He went from being practically unknown to a full-time cast member overnight. It happened thanks to a combination of talent, timing and pure luck. Davidson had landed a minor role in the film “Trainwreck,” and he happened to be on set the same day as SNL star Bill Hader.
The two hit it off, and Hader mentioned his name to the SNL’s producer Lorne Michaels. Michaels agreed to give Davidson a shot. He nailed the audition, and just like that, he was famous.
His Justin Bieber roasts marked a turning point in his career.
Pete Davidson’s years of being bullied as a kid prepared him to deliver incredibly sick burns. When he was just 21, he roasted Justin Bieber on Comedy Central, achieving critical acclaim.
It was considered one of the most memorable moments of the whole event.
Pete Davidson has a dark sense of humor.
Pete Davidson’s bold, unapologetic sense of humor can be hit or miss. He has upset fans countless times, including many from his hometown. Hurricane Sandy hit Staten Island in 2012, and Davidson made a crack that the Hurricane should have finished the job.
Residents took offense to the dig, considering how many lives and homes were lost thanks to the natural disaster. Still, Davidson didn’t rescind his joke. Seems fair considering it’s his hometown, too.
That wasn’t the only time his jokes crossed a line.
Davidson seems to thrive off of controversy. He landed himself in hot water again in 2018 when he poked fun of a veteran on SNL. He teased former Navy Seal and politician Dan Crenshaw for his eyepatch and appearance, even though his eye was lost in combat while serving in Afghanistan.
Unlike with the Staten Island comment, however, Davidson recognized he had taken the joke too far. He invited Crenshaw back to apologize to him publicly. He even gave him a chance to star in the next episode of SNL to show respect and appreciation for his years of service.
He also had a run in with the Catholic Church.
One would think Pete Davidson would get tired of stirring the pot, but no. In addition to insulting a vet and the population of Staten Island, he invoked the wrath of the Catholic Church. He compared Catholics to fans of R. Kelly, a convicted sex offender, in light of the church’s numerous sex-abuse scandals.
Catholics around the world were understandably insulted, as the vast majority of them were just as horrified by the abuse as everyone else. The church itself deemed the comparison crude and unfair.
Pete Davidson was once engaged to Ariana Grande.
For all his inflammatory jokes, Davidson’s authenticity has a certain appeal. He has dated numerous well-known female stars, including Cazzie David, Ariana Grande and now Kim Kardashian.
His relationship with Ariana Grande came as a surprise to all, considering no one realized they were dating until they announced their engagement in 2018. Despite a great deal of hype from fans, they broke up suddenly just four months later.
The timing of their engagement was a little fishy.
The timing of Davidson’s breakup with Cazzie David, the daughter of Larry David, and his next relationship with Ariana Grande is somewhat suspicious. Cazzie was in the picture for quite a while before their breakup in May 2018.
Strangely, he announced his engagement to Ariana Grande just a month later in June. Some believe the ring he gave her was originally intended for Cazzie.
He once made a joke about Grande that didn’t go over well.
Of all the off-colored jokes Pete Davidson has made, this one got our blood boiling the most. While he was still dating Ariana Grande, he chatted about his relationship with her on an episode of SNL Weekend Update.
He made a joke about swapping her birth control pills with Tic Tacs, implying that he wanted to get her pregnant without her consent. Can you say creepy?
He wasn’t exactly the most supportive partner to Grande.
It’s all speculation, but some think his response to Mac Miller’s passing led to his breakup with Grande. Before Davidson and Grande were an item, she dated rapper Mac Miller. The troubled musician had substance abuse issues, sadly, and died in 2018 as a result.
Even though Grande was no longer dating him when he passed, she was understandably broken up about his death. Davidson, however, didn’t understand why she still cared so much about an ex. It’s possible his lack of empathy contributed to their eventual breakup, but the details of their split are known only to them.
Regardless of what went down, Ariana still named a song after him.
Pop singers often write about exes in a subtle way, but Ariana Grande wasn’t subtle in the slightest. She named one of the songs on her 2018 album, “Sweetener,” after him. The song is literally called “Pete Davidson.”
It was a love song, and it’s still a fan favorite among those who hoped they would stay together.
His mom ran into trouble at work thanks to the breakup.
Being the parent of a celebrity seems like it would be fun, but Pete Davidson’s mom has found it somewhat of a nuisance. She still works as a nurse at one of the high schools that Davidson attended.
When Davidson and Grande broke up, the teens at the school drove Mrs. Davidson nuts by singing Ariana Grande songs nonstop when they visited the health office.
Pete Davidson’s dating life is somewhat predictable.
Much to the dismay of more conventionally attractive celebrities, Pete Davidson has had no trouble landing stunning partners. When he’s in relationships, he seems to be very involved and devoted, in addition to providing round-the-clock comedic relief.
Interestingly, he tends to repeat himself a bit on social media, using similar lines in his posts to each girlfriend he’s had. What’s that about, Pete?
He’s not a fan of his hometown.

Luke Abrahams / Getty Images
If you didn’t already guess by his Hurricane Sandy joke, Davidson doesn’t like New York much at all. He has openly shared his dislike for specifically Syracuse, stating that the city is boring and lacks interesting things to do.
In fact, he can’t understand why anyone would choose to live there.
Before his comedy career, he was on a sitcom that tanked.
Pete Davidson’s career could have taken a different route entirely. At the beginning of 2014, he starred in a show called “Sober Companion,” which was scheduled to become a series on Fox. It was a flop, but this is a perfect reminder that fortunes can change in an instant.
Shortly after the show failed, he was invited to join the cast of SNL. Just imagine how different his life would have been had he become a sitcom star instead of a stand-up genius.
His first appearance on TV was on a comedy series called ‘Failosophy.’
Before Pete Davidson was on SNL, he appeared on the third episode of an MTV comedy series called “Failosophy” in 2013.
Shortly after, he appeared on an episode of a show called “Guy Code” and was featured in four different episodes.
In 2016, he was listed on the ‘Forbes 30 Under 30’ list.
He was ranked No. 6 on the list, and he was only 22 years old at the time. Other noteworthy names on the list included actress Emilia Clarke, comedian Rachel Bloom and actor John Boyega.
To date, Davidson has a net worth of $8 million, so we can only imagine what he’ll do after he turns 30.
Pete Davidson really, really likes Harry Potter.
Potterheads, did you realize Pete Davidson was on your team? The rebellious comedian is a huge Harry Potter fan, and with his laidback, confident demeanor, he’s definitely a Gryffindor.
He even dressed up with Ariana Grande one Halloween as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He also has a tattoo of one of the symbols from the series.
As much as he loves the Potter series, he loves Hilary Clinton even more.
Getting a tattoo from your favorite book is one thing. Getting a tattoo of your favorite presidential nominee is another. Pete Davidson was a strong supporter of Hilary Clinton in the 2016 election and got a tattoo on his leg to show his support.
When it made the news, Clinton responded by joking, “This makes it significantly less awkward that I’ve had a Pete Davidson tattoo for years.”
That must have made his entire year.
He often uses weed before performances.
Davidson began smoking marijuana in his teens. At first, it was to help support his mental health and to relieve the discomfort of Crohn’s disease, but he continued using it even when symptoms subsided. He finds it helps his performance skills and claims he’s almost always at least slightly under the influence when he walks on stage.
He did try to quit using it and went to rehab in 2017, but he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder shortly after. He realized his mood swings were caused by the disorder, not the herb, so he went back to his old weed-smoking habits indefinitely.
He doesn’t like being in the limelight.
Poor Pete Davidson has been an easy target for the paparazzi and tabloids. While he hasn’t toned down his humor to keep them at bay, he hates all the attention. He’s a performer because he loves to make people laugh, not because he wants to be the center of attention 24/7.
Given his habit of dating some of the most famous women in Hollywood, the attention probably won’t lighten up any time soon. Still, the fact that he’s genuinely in comedy because he’s passionate about it makes him all the more likable.