Pat Sajak

Sajak is best known as the host of the television game show Wheel of Fortune, a position he has held since 1981. For his work on Wheel, Sajak has received 19 nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, winning three times. In 2019, he was recognized by Guinness World Records for having the longest-serving career as a game show host for the same show, surpassing previous record holder Bob Barker.


Beyond his game show career, Sajak has made various appearances in films, television series, and game shows, such as Airplane II: The Sequel, Days of Our Lives, and Rugrats. He also hosted a late-night talk show on CBS from 1989 to 1990 and became a frequent guest host for CNN's Larry King Live and the syndicated Live with Regis and Kelly.


Sajak has been involved in a variety of other endeavors, including as an external director of conservative publishing house Eagle Publishing and writing for the National Review Online and Ricochet.co. He is also the author of several puzzle games, including "Lucky Letters", developed in collaboration with puzzle developer David L. Hoyt.


Sajak has been married twice, currently to Lesly Brown Sajak since 1989, with whom he has two children. As of 2021, Sajak has also been credited as a Consulting Producer of Wheel of Fortune and hosts Prime Time Celebrity Wheel of Fortune on ABC alongside Vanna White.

Early life[edit]

Born in Chicago, Illinois on October 26, 1946,^[3] Sajak graduated from Farragut High School in 1964,^[4] then went to Columbia College Chicago while working as a desk clerk at The Palmer House Hilton hotel.^[4] His Polish-origin surname was originally spelled Sajdak, but he later changed it to Sajak to better reflect its Americanized pronunciation.^[5]


Sajak served in the U.S. Army as a disc jockey during the Vietnam War for American Forces Vietnam Network.^[6] He hosted the same Dawn Buster radio show that Adrian Cronauer had, and for 14 months, followed Cronauer's tradition of signing on with "Good Morning Vietnam!"^[7]