T. J. Lavin Height, Age, Girlfriend, Wife Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Real Name/Full Name	Thomas Joseph Lavin ^[1]GQ
Nickname(s)	Lavs ^[2]Las Vegas Weekly
Profession(s)	Professional BMX RIder, TV Presenter, Actor, Musician
Famous Role(s)/Famous For	Hosting MTV’s reality show ‘The Challenge’ since 2005
Physical Stats & More
^[3]Las Vegas Weekly Height	in centimeters- 183 cm in meters- 1.83 m in feet inches- 6’
^[4]Las Vegas Weekly Weight	in kilograms- 82 kg in pounds- 181 lbs
Eye Color	Light Gray
Hair Color	Dark Brown
Career
Debut	TV: Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet 2 (2005); 11th season of series 'The Challenge' Music Album: The First Set' (2007) Film: Beast: A Monster Among Men (2013) as Ely
Awards, Honors, Achievements	• Gold medal in BMX Dirt at X Games in 1997 and 1999 • Silver medal in BMX Dirt at X Games (1996) • Bronze medal in BMX Dirt at X Games in 2000, 2001, and 2004 • Gold medal in Gravity Games (2000)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	December 7, 1976 (Tuesday)
Age (as of 2021)	45 Years
Zodiac sign	Sagittarius
Nationality	American
Hometown	Las Vegas, US
School	• Clark High School, Las Vegas • Durango High School, Las Vegas
Food Habit	Vegan ^[5]T. J. Lavin's Instagram Post
Relationships & More
Sexual Orientation	Straight
Marital Status	Married
Affairs/Girlfriends	Roxanne Siordia (2004-2012)
Marriage Date	November 2, 2012
Family
Wife/Spouse	Roxanne Siordia (Personal Trainer, Pilates Instructor, Nutritionist, and runs two websites, 'All Things Plant Based' (Health & Wellness) and 'Eat Well Live Pretty' (Travel and Fitness))
Children	Stepdaughter- Raquel Lavin (A trained cosmetologist and hairstylist) Note: Raquel is Roxanne Siordia's daughter from her previous relationship. T. J. Lavin formally adopted Raquel after his marriage with Roxanne and does not have any children of his own.
Parents	Father- Name Not Known (A craps pit boss who worked at various prestigious hotels like Dunes, Treasure Island, and Bellagio, in Las Vegas) Mother- Barbara Lavin (Card dealer at Bally's, Las Vegas)
Stepfather	In the caption of an Instagram post, Lavin talked about his stepfather, Jim, an said, "This badass guy took my sister @thelavingirls and I early on in our lives. He didn’t say much but what he did say was always funny and he showed us even more. He continues to show his support ALL the time never wavering. Great person my “stepdad” Jim.. love ya man"
Siblings	Sister- Brooke Lavin
Favorites
Food	Pizza, Fettuccine
Film Series	Superman
Motocross Racer	Jeremy McGrath
Surfer	Laird Hamilton
Holiday Destination	Hawaii
Style Quotient
Car Collection	An avid lover of vintage cars, he owns various cars including: • Pontiac Catalina • 1964 Chevrolet C10 • 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer • Audi Q7 • Toyota Land Cruiser FJ

Some Lesser Known Facts About T. J. Lavin

T. J. Lavin is a former American BMX rider who is known for hosting MTV’s reality show ‘The Challenge’ since its eleventh season.

Lavin was fond of riding bicycles since he was three. He developed his riding skills in the shadow of neighborhood kids who performed stunts on their bicycles during Lavin’s childhood.
Three-year-old T.J. Lavin posing with his bike in 1979

He caught the attention of Nick Herda, the owner of the now-defunct local store Herda Discount Appliance, who became the first sponsor and mentor of Lavin. While talking about Nick Herda in an interview, T. J. Lavin said,

He really took me under his wing, and he financially helped me get to contests.”

T. J. Lavin and Nick Herda

During his childhood, he and his friends would drive three hours to Lake Mead, where they used to set up a ramp and do backflips in the water for amusement.

He secured his first job at an ice cream parlor when he was just fifteen. He worked in a nut and bolt factory at the age of sixteen.

Lavin had a mind for business since childhood. In an interview, while talking about his school days, he revealed he used to sell chewing gum valued at 25 cents for a dollar at school and childhood would buy it because they had no alternative place to buy gum.

At 15, Lavin started competing in BMX races and trick events. At 19, Lavin became a professional dirt-jumping cyclist and won his first pro contest, ABA King of Dirt (1995). Thereafter, he was sponsored by S&M Bikes.

T. J. Lavin gained popularity with his participation in the annual extreme sports event ‘X Games.’ T.J. Lavin is one of only two riders who won the BMX Dirt gold medal more than once. ^[6]X Games Tricks like superman seat grabs, perfect backflips, and tailwhips earned him immense recognition in the field of BMX dirt biking.
Lavin X Games 12 performing a tabletop

Specialized Bicycle Components (also stylized as SPECIALIZED) started sponsoring him in 1996. He graced the cover of the august issue of BMX Plus! magazine in 1997.
T. J. Lavin on the cover of the august issue of BMX Plus! magazine (1997)

Lavin’s superman seat-grab trick was so popular that The United States Post Office modeled a stamp featuring T.J. Lavin doing the trick in 1999.
Stamp modeled by The United States Post featuring T. J. Lavin doing a superman seat-grab

In 2000, THQ for Game Boy Color released a sports video game titled MTV Sports: T.J. Lavin’s Ultimate BMX, which featured the likeness of T.J. Lavin.

Lavin switched his sponsor from SPECIALIZED to Schwinn bike in 2002. Following a clavicle fracture, he made a comeback in X Games (2004) and won a Bronze medal in the competition.

In 2005, he started hosting a reality competition show ‘The Challenge.’ His zero-tolerance stance on competitors who want to quit was so popular in the show that competitors often push themselves to perform harder out of fear of disappointing him. While expressing his hatred for quitters in the show, in an interview, he said,

I get probably 50 people a week asking me how to be on the show, in DMs and comments and whatever, ‘Put me on the show!’ and quitters are taking the place of someone that really wants to be there, would die to be there, would give anything to trade places.”

T. J. Lavin on the show The Challenge

‘The Challenge’ is the amalgamation of two of MTV’s reality shows, The Real World and Road Rules.

Apart from being a skilled BMX rider, he is also a musician. He is a self-taught pianist and guitarist. He has a home music studio, which he refers to as “Lav’s Lab.” He has produced music for local rapper Big B and for various television shows and commercials.

He released his debut album ‘The First Set’ (2007) under the name “Lavs.”

In 2007, he suffered a heart-wrenching incident during the Dew Action Sports Tour in Orlando, Florida. While performing his last trick, he lost control of the landing and shattered his leg. He was performing a trick called “decade” in which the rider jumps around the front of the bike and lands back on it, while the bike holds its position. In other words, the rider’s body does a 360° revolution of the bike while the bike stays still in the air. Consequently, Lavin had to go through multiple surgeries, extensive rehabilitation, and physical therapy. He joined a group of professional athletes at the physical therapist Tim Soder’s office.

In October 2010, while competing in the Dew Tour event in Las Vegas, he suffered an accident, which resulted in an immediate unconsciousness, a shattered right wrist, broken numerous ribs, and a fractured orbital bone. While attempting a nac nac combination over the second set of the dirt course, he lost control of his bike and smashed to the ground as he failed to get his feet back on the pedals upon landing. Due to his critical injuries, he was put into a medically induced coma. While he was hospitalized, he also developed pneumonia. In November 2020, after making a recovery from his injuries, he returned back to his Las Vegas home. In the aftermath of the incident, he took speech therapy and relearned how to count money and tie shoelaces. The lingering effects of the crash also included double vision while lying down. Thereafter, he stopped riding BMX professionally.

In 2011, he ventured into a business into entrepreneurship when he became the co-owner of ‘Forgiven,’ an alcohol metabolizer manufacturing firm. The metabolizer was aimed at running alcohol through the body faster so that a person gets sober quicker. Retailed for $3.99, the chemical-free product decreased the hangover-related symptoms by breaking down the by-products of alcohol, providing electrolytes for rehydrating the body, and helping relieve nausea associated with alcohol consumption.

A trained firefighter, Lavin had plans to retire after season 30 of the series The Challenge in 2017 and pursue a career as a firefighter in Las Vegas. He started studying to be a firefighter in Thailand.

His debut film Beast: A Monster Among Men (2013) centers around five friends who are hunted down one by one during their getaway to a remote cabin.

Annually, TJ organizes a backyard jam at his house in Las Vegas.
Flyer of Lavin’s 10th annual backyard jam

In 2020, he made an appearance in the American musical romantic drama film ‘Viena and the Fantomes’ as a BMX Rider.

He has a one-acre BMX track in his backyard, which includes several groomed trails and dirt jumps.
TJ Lavin’s backyard BMX track

In 2018, his father died of stage 4 lung cancer when Lavin was shooting for The Challenge: Final Reckoning in South Africa. Instead of returning home, the dedicated host chose to shoot for the next two weeks and returned home for the second funeral. While recalling his father’s last words in an interview, he said,

My dad’s last words to me were: “TJ, go to work.”
In October 2000, a picture of his stunt was featured in Ride BMX magazine, which later became a subject of a photorealist painting titled “King of Dirt” by artist, Bert Ernie.
Photorealist painting – King of Dirt

As an avid dog lover, he has three dogs, Hanky, Sonny, and Cooper.

He is often referred to as Lavs ^[7]Las Vegas Weekly and TJ ^[8]heavy by media houses.

Lavin and his wife are vegan. ^[9]heavy

In an interview, he revealed that although his family had a history of heavy alcohol consumption, he hardly grew any taste for it and consumes alcohol occasionally. He said,

Yeah. I’ve been around alcohol my whole life. I was never really a gnarly drinker. But I came from a long line of drinkers. I never developed a taste for alcohol.”