Kato Kaelin

Kaelin was married to Cynthia Coulter from 1983 to 1989, and they had one child, Tiffany Elizabeth Kaelin. He married Nan Xue Kaelin in 2021, and IMDb lists a divorce filing.

Kaelin was also a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson. He met her during a skiing trip in Aspen in December 1992 and later lived in a guesthouse on her property, helping care for her children, Sydney and Justin.

Born Brian Gerard Kaelin, he grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin, in 1977. His childhood nickname, Kato, came from the character played by Bruce Lee on the television series The Green Hornet.

Kaelin attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire but did not graduate. While there, he created the student talk show Kato and Friends and hosted The Gameshow on the campus television station TV10. He later moved to Hollywood to pursue entertainment work.

In 1994, Kaelin was staying in a guesthouse on O. J. Simpson's Rockingham estate when Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed. Kaelin had spent part of the evening with Simpson and later testified about Simpson's movements before and after the murders.

Kaelin was a minor prosecution witness at Simpson's 1995 murder trial. His testimony left Simpson's whereabouts unaccounted for during part of the evening and appeared to contradict aspects of Simpson's account. Prosecutor Marcia Clark had Kaelin declared a hostile witness, and his appearance drew extensive media attention. One survey found that 74 percent of Americans could identify him during the trial.

After Simpson's acquittal, the National Examiner published a cover headline that read, "Cops think Kato did it!" Kaelin sued the tabloid's publisher, Globe Communications, arguing that the headline falsely implied that police suspected him of the murders.

A federal district court dismissed the case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed that decision. The appellate ruling held that a headline could be found defamatory even when a related story did not make the same accusation, making the case notable in libel law.

Before the Simpson trial, Kaelin appeared in the films Beach Fever (1987) and Night Shadow (1989). His later film credits included BASEketball, Pauly Shore Is Dead, The Still Life, National Lampoon's Dorm Daze 2, B.C. Butcher, and The Last Sharknado: It's About Time.

After the trial, he appeared on the first episode of MADtv and in an episode of Mr. Show with Bob and David. He also hosted a talk-radio program on Los Angeles station KLSX, co-hosted the syndicated daytime court show Eye for an Eye, and made recurring appearances on the video game review program X-Play.

Kaelin appeared in comedy and parody programs including Tosh.0, where he played Keyboard Kato, and Real Time with Bill Maher. Since 2011, he has hosted the television talk show Tailgating with Kato.

Kaelin participated in several reality and game-show programs, including Celebrity Boot Camp, The Weakest Link, Dog Eat Dog, Gimme My Reality Show, and Reality Bites Back. He was also featured on Sunset Tan and appeared in the National Lampoon's Strip Poker programs.

In 2019, Kaelin competed as a houseguest on the second American season of Celebrity Big Brother. He was evicted by a 5-0 vote and finished in eighth place out of 12 houseguests.