Dwayne Johnson

Johnson was born in Hayward, California, on May 2, 1972, the son of Mataniufeagaimaleata "Ata" Fitisemanu (née Maivia) and former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles). Growing up, he briefly lived in Grey Lynn in Auckland, New Zealand, with his mother's family, where he played rugby and attended Richmond Road Primary School before returning to the U.S.

Johnson's father was a Black Nova Scotian with a small amount of Irish ancestry and his mother is Samoan. His father and Tony Atlas were the first black tag team champions in WWE history, in 1983. Johnson's uncle Ricky was also a wrestler. His mother is the adopted daughter of Peter Maivia, who was also a professional wrestler. Johnson's maternal grandmother Lia was one of the first female pro wrestling promoters, taking over Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling after her husband's death in 1982 and managing it until 1988. Through his maternal grandfather Maivia, Johnson is a non-blood relative of the Anoaʻi wrestling family. In 2008, he inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Johnson attended Montclaire Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then moved to Hamden, Connecticut, where he attended Shepherd Glen Elementary School and then Hamden Middle School. He attended President William McKinley High School in Honolulu and then Glencliff High School and McGavock High School, both in Nashville, Tennessee, and then Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the state, where he graduated in 1990.

At Freedom High School, Johnson initially struggled and was drawn into a culture of conflict and petty crime. By age 17, he had been arrested several times for fighting, theft, and check fraud, and was suspended two weeks for fighting. An article in the local newspaper labeled him "a troubled teenager with a history of run-ins with police." But Freedom High School football coach Jody Cwik saw athletic potential in Johnson, and recruited him to join the school's football team, where he played defensive tackle, an experience that proved to be a significant personal transformation for Johnson. "My thought process started to change. That's when I started thinking about goals and what I wanted to accomplish", he has since said about his high school football experience. In addition to playing football, Johnson also was a member of Freedom High School's track and field and wrestling teams.

By his senior year at Freedom High School, Johnson had played only two years of football, but was offered a full athletic scholarship offer from the University of Miami, whose football program was beginning to emerge as one of the nation's top-level NCAA Division 1 teams.In March 2020, Johnson launched Teremana Tequila, which sold 600,000 nine-litre cases in its first year and is valued at approximately $3.5 billion.

In August 2020, Johnson along with several partners and investors—including RedBird Capital Partners—purchased the XFL for $15 million. Within months, Johnson announced plans for the relaunch of the league in spring 2022. While the launch was delayed a year, the first games of 2023 kicked off on time. After a successful 2023 season, the XFL and United States Football League announced their intent to merge into a single league. On December 31, 2023, it was announced that the new merged league would be called the United Football League (UFL). The league would feature 8 teams and start on March 30, 2024. Johnson, along with Dany Garcia, and RedBird Capital Partners own 50% of the UFL together under XFL Properties LLC.

On January 23, 2024, Johnson joined the TKO Group Holdings board of directors. In the process, he obtained full ownership over his trademarked name "The Rock", which was owned by WWE. As part of the settlement, Johnson signed a new services and merchandising agreement with WWE.