About Mike Vecchione

Mike Vecchione was born in Youngstown, Ohio and raised Italian American and Catholic. Mike's father was involved in a family business and his mother was/is an elementary school teacher. As a family, they moved back and forth between northeast Ohio and South Florida throughout his childhood.

Mike started playing contact football at age 9 in Florida and wrestling at age 13 in Ohio. In his senior year of high school he placed second in the Florida AAA State Tournament and went on to college at Pennsylvania State University where he wrestled and tutored student athletes. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1995 with his bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and counseled adjudicated teens and children with mental health issues. Mike started teaching special education in the Philadelphia School District in 1998 and received his masters in Special Education in 2001 from Cabrini College. He continued to teach in both public school and residential school settings.

Mike has performed on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" and IFC's hit show "Z-Rock." He also won the Peoples Choice Award for Favorite Comic at the NY Comedy Festival. Mike can currently be seen on the Comedy Central show, "Russell Simmons Presents Stand-Up at the El Rey." Plus, he was the 1983 and 1984 spelling bee runner up at Pine Grove Elementary School. Mike failed to advance to the national bee in Washington D.C. because of the complexity of the word "roothless," which he still spells with two o's.