Dave Holmes

David Robert "Dave" Holmes (born March 14, 1971) is an American writer, producer, and television personality who gained national attention as the runner-up on MTV's first Wanna Be a VJ contest in 1998. From the beginning, he distinguished himself from other candidates with an encyclopedic knowledge of music trivia. Despite his loss to Jesse Camp, MTV hired Holmes as a VJ shortly after Wanna Be a VJ. He went on to host several MTV shows, including 120 Minutes, Video Clichés, a Real World reunion special, and the popular Say What? Karaoke until 2001. He also was a substitute host on Total Request Live. His MTV career lasted about three years longer than Camp's. After leaving MTV in 2002, Holmes hosted FX's weekly movie night DVD on TV for 10 seasons, and Court TV's Saturday Night Solution for six. He also hosted CBS's reality comedy series Fire Me Please in 2005. On July 7, 2007, he co-hosted Bravo's coverage of the Live Earth concerts with Karen Duffy. He also appeared on a variety of talking-head shows for VH1, E!, Tru TV on BBC. Holmes had a recurring role as "Leslie Frost" on Comedy Central's Reno 911! Holmes came out as a gay man in Out magazine in 2002. On September 23, 2010, Holmes contributed a video to the "It Gets Better" project, spearheaded by advice columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage.He has been an editor-at-large for Esquire since 2015. Currently, he is the host of the LGBTQ-themed Earwolf podcast Homophilia, which Entertainment Weekly called "thoughtful and charming." He also hosts the Maximum Fun comedy quiz show International Waters, and, along with musician Mike Doughty, the Real World–themed Feral Audio podcast Truu Stowray. He also appeared in a series of commercials for Ford motors. Since 2003, Holmes has co-hosted the live comedy game show The Friday Forty with The Walking Dead executive producer Scott M. Gimple. He is also an on-air personality on the SiriusXM music channel The Spectrum.