Weird Al Yankovic
Costa Mesa, CA USA
"If you do what makes you happy, you'll never be a disappointment to yourself."
Career Roadmap
Weird Al's work combines: Music, Writing, and Being Creative
See more careers and stories that connect to your interests.
Take Roadmap Quiz
Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Architecture
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
After excelling in art and math, his counselors recommended that he study architecture.
2.
He went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo-an excellent school for the subject-but about halfway through his studies, he realized his heart wasn't in it.
3.
What he truly enjoyed was doing his shift at the campus radio station (where he invented his stage name, "Weird Al").
4.
Says that the years after college were "pretty scary" because he had a degree he didn't want to use, and he had no idea how to break into the music world.
5.
Throughout his life, he'd recorded songs with his accordion and sent them to the Dr. Demento show, which played novelty songs.
6.
Some of his parody songs started to get positive responses from the show's listeners, so Dr. Demento decided he'd fund Al's first EP.
7.
In the beginning, most people wrote him off; the irony is, his career has outlasted the careers of most people he's parodied over the years.
8.
Says you need to know you went through life giving it your best shot; you don't want to look back over your life with regret.
