The Science Guy
Nye began his professional entertainment career as an actor on a local sketch comedy television show in Seattle,Washington Almost Live!; he attempted to correct the show host's pronunciation of "gigawatt" as "jigowatt." The host responded, "Who do you think you are—Bill Nye the Science Guy?" and Nye was thereafter known as such on the program. His other main recurring role on Almost Live! was as Speedwalker, a speedwalking Seattle superhero.
From 1991 to 1993, he appeared in the live-action educational segments of Back to the Future: The Animated Series in the nonspeaking role of assistant to Dr. Emmett Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd), in which he would demonstrate science while Lloyd explained. The segments' national popularity led to Nye hosting an educational television program, Bill Nye the Science Guy, from 1993 to 1998. Each of the 100 episodes aimed to teach a specific topic in science to a preteen audience, yet it garnered a wide adult audience as well. The show became popular as a teaching aid in schools. They teach science to children in a rather comedic way.
Nye has written several books as The Science Guy. In addition to hosting, he was a writer and producer for the show, which was filmed entirely in Seattle.
When portraying "The Science Guy", Nye wears a light blue lab coat and bow tie, and takes on the persona of an excited, jocular science educator. This popular image of Nye has been parodied by numerous sources, including the webcomic xkcd and the satirical news organization The Onion. In response to the fake headline "Crack Nearly Killed Me", Nye took the joke in good humor and sent The Onion an email thanking them for "dealing compassionately with this matter."
Nye's Science Guy persona appears alongside Ellen DeGeneres and Alex Trebek in a video at Ellen's Energy Adventure, an attraction that has played since 1996 at the Universe of Energy pavilion inside Epcot at Walt Disney World. His voice is heard in the DINOSAUR attraction in Disney's Animal Kingdom park, teaching guests about the dinosaurs while they queue for the ride. He appears in video form in the "Design Lab" of CyberSpace Mountain, inside DisneyQuest at Walt Disney World, where he refers to himself as "Bill Nye the Coaster Guy."
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