HOMETOWN: Long Meadow, Mass.
LATEST GIG: Hosting Total Request Live
•Why you know him:
Manning Total Request Live's Times Square studio, Fahey doesn't just sit on a couch and interview celebs like Beyoncé Also in his repertoire: a tug-of-war in an oatmeal-filled kiddy pool. "The big thing is being funny," he says. "I'm just trying to earn some applause. I'm very needy."
•In the beginning:
An only child, Fahey was raised by his bohemian parents, Richard, 49, and Paula, 51, both art teachers. "I was a little rock and roll baby," he says. When he was a toddler, Fahey says, "my dad took me to this playground dressed like a punk rocker—spiked orange hair, ripped jeans—and he dressed me the same way, gave me a Mohawk." Dad also taught him to want his MTV: "I was totally fixated on MTV," says Richard, "and Damien spent a lot of time watching it as well."
•Big break:
At 14, he landed an on-air gig at a local adult-contemporary radio station. While spinning Michael Bolton records, "every now and again my voice would crack," he says. As a student at Boston's Northeastern University, Fahey worked as a deejay for a top Boston station, where he was discovered by MTV scouts. Not surprisingly, Dad approved when he dropped out of college and moved to New York.
•On the job:
Meeting original TRL host Carson Daly on his first day at MTV in 2001 "freaked me out," he says. Recalls MTV exec Tom DiSano: "Damien said he had grown up watching TRL, which made Carson and I feel old." Now that he's a pro at quizzing heroes like Dave Matthews, Fahey is smoother at making a first impression. When he chatted up Brad Pitt, his first question was: "How's my hair?"
•Where he's headed:
One day he'd like to have his own late-night show. For now, Fahey, who's single, can only dream of world domination from his Manhattan studio apartment, furnished with little more than a huge TV: "I just sit there with this giant remote and control the weather in Uganda."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
