Bill Nye and Tyne Stecklein

[Dade]

Meet the Star: Bill Nye

Bill Nye is a mechanical engineer who wants the world to know and appreciate the passion, beauty, and joy (the P, B, & J) of science. While working on 747’s at Boeing, he entered and won a Steve Martin Look-Alike Contest in Seattle, which led to his performing as a standup comic. He met a few other comedians and started submitting jokes to Almost Live, Seattle’s own comedy show. There, Nye came up with the Science Guy® character and quickly realized that he wanted to create a kids’ show about science. Eleven years later, Bill Nye the Science Guy had won 18 Emmys. Nye won seven of them as host and head writer. These days, Nye travels around the globe exhorting his audiences to change the world. He also has a day job as the CEO of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest non-governmental space interest organization. The Society was started by Nye’s astronomy professor at Cornell, Carl Sagan, a man who had a tremendous influence on him, deepening his respect for science and what he likes to call “our place in space.” Nye has written six children’s books and is working on a seventh about space exploration. He’s also writing a general interest book about energy. Understand energy, Nye says, and you can change the world. He was awarded the Ralph Coats Roe Medal by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and holds honorary doctorates from Johns Hopkins, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Goucher, Quinnipiac, Willamette, and Lehigh Universities.

Meet the Pro: Tyne Stecklein

This is Tyne Stecklein's first season competing as a pro on Dancing with the Stars.

abc.com