Ed Bassmaster

Edwin Rodriguez (born February 4, 1973) In Bassmaster's videos, he is typically acting as one of his many characters: Chip Diamond, Always Teste, Skippy, Randy, Emillio, I-Work guy, Girard Douche, a CIA agent, Swollen Man, Hacker, Tequila, Mumbles, Bluetooth Man, Ugly Face, Bushman, and Zombie Face.

Early life
Rodriguez was born in the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Career
Bassmaster began posting videos in 2006, and gained wide attention in 2015 with his and fellow YouTuber Jesse Wellens' faux surveillance video purporting to show the destruction of the Canadian hitchhiking robot hitchBOT, whose real-life destruction was not filmed. Some news organizations were fooled by the video. During the YouTube Comedy Week live event in 2013, Skippy, one of Bassmaster's characters, went on stage unannounced and was kicked out of the event. In January 2015, producers Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley said their company DiGa Vision was producing CMT's The Ed Bassmaster Show, a reality-TV series where Bassmaster would play his characters and prank people as he does in his YouTube videos. Bassmaster would stir up controversy at the 2019 Indiana 250 race, during a shooting for a new video paid for by Rockford, Illinois-based company Insurance King. During the event, he would play one of his characters, Chip Diamond and go around the track, causing distractions and chaos (including kicking tires in the garage area and walking out of the driver's meeting). The sanctioning body that held the race, NASCAR proceeded to ban Bassmaster from attending any other race for life. In response, Bassmaster would say in response to the ban “Like I give a rat’s ass!” Ed has more recently started his own podcast on his YouTube channel, which started on 31 October 2019. His first official guest on the show was Steve-O of Jackass.

Personal life
As of 2014, Rodriguez is a married father of four who lives in Northeast Philadelphia.