Andy Dick’s public outbursts and persistent legal problems have made him a notorious figure in the comedy world.
Dick made a name for himself as a cast member on 1990s cult classic The Ben Stiller Show, where he appeared in sketches with future comedy titans like Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and Ben Stiller. He later starred in his own sketch show for MTV and appeared in hit movies such as Reality Bites, The Cable Guy and Zoolander.
However, the Dancing With the Stars alum’s career accomplishments have been often overshadowed by his struggle with addiction and numerous legal battles. In November 2022, The Los Angeles Times reported that Dick had to register as a sex offender after being convicted of groping a delivery driver.
“The main thing that I’ve struggled with over the years, as an actor and really as a person, is the abuse of drugs and alcohol,” he admitted in a 2025 video for The Artists Project LA.
Keep scrolling for a look back at Dick’s life and career.
Andy Dick Has Struggled With Addiction
The Reality Bites star has been arrested multiple times for drug-related offenses. He once estimated that he’d been in and out of rehab at least 20 times.
Dick told The Artists Project in 2025 that he finally was “in recovery [and] I have a lot of months behind me.”
“Hopefully many, many more years ahead of me,” he added. “It’s been a long, rough, up and down, winding, inside-out, tumbly rocky road for me. … My main advice [that] I give to people is keep going, don’t give up if you fall off the horse [and then] get back on it and go for it.”
In December 2025, Dick was administered Narcan medicine — which is used to reverse the effects of an opioid — when he reportedly overdosed on the streets of Los Angeles. A spokesperson for the L.A. Fire Department told TMZ that they responded to a call for “an overdose involving a 59-year-old man.”
Dick later told the outlet that he was “100% fine,” adding: “I don’t mind doing some crack every now and then.”
When asked if he planned to go back to rehab, Dick responded: “F*** no! No, I’m not going.”
Andy Dick Competed on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Dick joined the cast of Dancing With the Stars for season 16 in 2013. He was partnered with Sharna Burgess and they placed seventh overall.
When his casting was announced, Dick publicly pledged to stay sober throughout the season.
“I had to have a meeting with [production]. I think they basically just wanted me to show up not drunk,” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2013. “Everybody seems concerned. In fact, later on today I have a meeting with my therapist, and I have a case manager believe or not.”
Andy Dick Is a Father of 3
Andy Dick and his first wife, Ivone Kowalczyk, welcomed a son, Lucas Astrom, when the comedian was 21 years old. The couple divorced in 1990.
Dick was also in a relationship with Lena Sved, and they shared two children: Meg and Jacob.
Following a stint in treatment, Dick told Vice in 2016 that his son Jacob’s own addiction battle helped inspire him to pursue sobriety.
“[Jacob] was going crazy from speed, trying to set things on fire. I was drinking heavily, saying, ‘That kid needs help!’ Three months into his sobriety, it hit me hard that I’m an asshole,” Dick told the outlet. “I couldn’t even come to terms with what a dick I was. I was obviously the one with the real problem.”
The actor revealed, “I made a deal with him that I would stay in treatment as long as he did. He not only completed treatment, he works at the clinic as a technician.”
Meg works as a freelance video editor and announced in November 2025 that she is expecting a baby with her partner, Branden Donovan. Her half-brother, Jacob has described himself as a “proud father of two wonderful daughters.”
Andy shared via Instagram in 2017 that his son Lucas launched his own gaming startup called TripDik. He married his wife, Sofia, in 2018.
Andy Dick Has Been Arrested Numerous Times
The comedian has been notorious throughout his career for his run-ins with the law.
Dick’s first major brush with police occurred in 1999 when he was arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia and driving under the influence after allegedly ramming his car into a utility pole in Hollywood. Those charges were dismissed when he took part in a drug diversion program.
In July 2008, Dick pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and marijuana possession after allegedly pulling down a teenage girl’s top. He was ordered to serve three years probation and wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet for one year.
More legal trouble followed in January 2010 when Dick was accused of groping a bartender and a patron at a Huntington, West Virginia, establishment. A grand jury indicted Dick on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, though charges were eventually dismissed when Dick completed a pretrial diversion program.
Dick continued to have significant legal trouble throughout the 2010s. He pleaded not guilty to one count of misdemeanor sexual battery in October 2019, following accusations that he groped an Uber driver in West Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times reported that Dick was convicted in November 2022 after a two week trial and ordered to register as a sex offender. (Dick was also sentenced to 90 days in jail and 12 months of probation for the offense.)
Andy Dick Came Out as Bisexual in 2009
Dick was romantically linked to his Surreal Life costar Brande Roderick around the time they filmed the VH1 show in 2003.
He opened up about his sexuality while appearing on The Tyra Banks Show in 2009 by saying that he identifies as bisexual.
“I’ll try anything,” he told host Tyra Banks. “I really have tried everything, except nothing with animals. There’s only room for one animal – that would be me.”
He went on, “I say, ‘I’m bi, my love knows no gender,’ and the straight community says, ‘Oh right, that’s just a cover-up – you’re gay!’ And the gay community says, ‘Yeah right, that’s just a cover-up – you’re gay.’ They both want to push me gay.”
Andy Dick Has Had Notorious Public Outbursts
Dick’s two appearances on Comedy Central Roasts went down in infamy. In 2005, he pretended to be roast honoree Pamela Anderson’s plastic surgeon and groped her breasts on stage.
“This is just a clinical adjustment,” Dick claimed as Anderson groped her breasts.
When Dick told the audience that Anderson couldn’t “feel any of this,” she shot back: “I can so!”
At the next year’s Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner, Dick caused a commotion by licking the faces of panelists Farrah Fawcett and Carrie Fisher during his performance.
Two weeks after former Seinfeld star Michael Richards landed in hot water for a racist tirade at L.A. comedy club The Laugh Factory, Dick was thrown off stage at the nearby Improv in 2006 for using a racial slur after an improvised set with comedian Ian Bagg.
Dick told The Los Angeles Times that he was sorry for making “a joke about a subject that is not funny.”
“In an attempt to make light of a serious subject, I have offended a lot of people, and I am sorry for my insensitivity,” he conceded. “I wish to apologize to Ian, to the club and its patrons and to anyone who was hurt or offended by my remark.”
Jimmy Kimmel had Dick escorted off the set of his late night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, in February 2007 for repeatedly touching fellow guest Ivanka Trump. Kimmel initially restrained Dick himself before having security take the comedian away.
“Andy did a segment, he was a little out of it. [When Ivanka] came out, he wanted a big, wet kiss,” Kimmel told Extra. “It was time for Andy to go, so I escorted him out by his feet … He always makes me a little uncomfortable, you have no idea what he’s going to do next.”
More recently, Dick was fired from the independent movie Raising Buchanan in October 2017 over accusations that he groped and tried to kiss multiple staff members, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I didn’t grope anybody,” Dick told the publication at the time. “I might have kissed somebody on the cheek to say goodbye and then licked them. That’s my thing — I licked Carrie Fisher at a roast. It’s me being funny. I’m not trying to sexually harass people.”
That same month, Dick was fired from a second movie — this time, horror comedy Vampire Dad — for “multiple, flagrant acts of improper conduct and inappropriate contact with several crew members,” producer Kathryn Moseley alleged.
Dick responded to the fresh accusations by telling The Hollywood Reporter that he “overtook [his] medication.”
“I took too many Xanax and I was a bit loopy … I won’t do it anymore,” he said. “I won’t lick anyone’s face anymore. We have an agreement.”
Andy Dick Had a Physical Fight With ‘Newsradio’ Costar
Dick’s beef with former Newsradio costar Jon Lovitz started when the latter joined the NBC sitcom’s cast following Phil Hartman’s murder. (Brynn Hartman killed her husband and then herself at their Los Angeles home in March 1998.)
Like Dick, Brynn struggled with her sobriety and he later admitted to 20/20 that he gave her cocaine at a 1997 Christmas party.
“She was already in relapse mode, which I didn’t even know she had a problem [with] at all in the first place,” Dick told the ABC News series.
According to Lopez, he butted heads with Dick on the set of Newsradio. Speaking to Page Six, Lovitz recalled once telling his costar that they wouldn’t have had to work together “if [Dick] hadn’t given Brynn that cocaine.” (Lovitz said he eventually apologized for the comment.)
Lovitz told the same outlet in 2007 that Dick approached him at a West Hollywood restaurant and said: “I put the ‘Phil Hartman hex’ on you – you’re the next one to die.”
The two men eventually had a physical fight at the Laugh Factory in July 2007 when Lovitz demanded an apology from Dick.
“Jon picked Andy up by the head and smashed him into the bar four or five times, and blood started pouring out of his nose,” Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada told Page Six.
Lovitz defended his behavior and called Dick an “asshole.”
“I grabbed him by the shirt and leaned him over and said, ‘I don’t want to be in your movie! I don’t want to be in your life,’” Lovitz claimed. “I pushed him against the rail. Then I pushed him again really hard. A security guard broke it up. I’m not proud of it . . . but he’s a disgusting human being.”
Dick declined to comment on the alleged altercation.
