1st Birthday

A Biographical Sketch.

My name's Andy Baio. I'm turning 26 years old later this month. I'm a Southern California native, born and raised in Burbank and later in Ventura. I graduated high school in my junior year, skipped my senior year and prom, and eventually graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in mass communications.

I worked for San Francisco-based Gettingit.com in 1999, a Los Angeles-based web design firm called Kick Media for a couple years, and currently manage the website staff for Dimensional Fund Advisors, a multinational asset management firm headquartered in Santa Monica.

I'm 75% Italian and 25% Scottish. I have terrible eyesight, curly brown hair that needs to be cut, and I'm too skinny. With all the boba tea that I drink, you'd think I'd gain some weight.

There's been much happiness in my life. I'm in love with my wife Ami. We married in Cambria three and a half years ago, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I have many close friends, including some from as early as elementary school. My family is tightly-knit and very loving. I get paid to do what I enjoy.

There's been some unpleasantness, too. My parents divorced when I was two, but they still remain close friends. My friend Travis was accidentally shot and killed on Christmas Eve by another close friend when I was in 10th grade. My aunt killed herself a couple years ago. My grandmother is losing her memory and is not long for this world.

I taught myself how to play guitar. I love music, and collect it voraciously (1300+ albums). I'm drawn to singer-songwriter music across all genres, a quality that interests me in any medium. I strongly believe that sincerity and vision drive all good music, art, books, and software.

I love the Internet more than almost anything. I started using computers when I was 8 years old, dialing into BBSes at age 10. I used the web in 1994 and never looked back. I taught myself PHP, Perl, database programming and Unix. I'm in love with the open source movement, web culture, and memes. If I wasn't writing this biography, I would be programming.