Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos (/ˈsuːkələs/; Greek: Γεώργιος Τσούκαλος; born 14 March 1978) is a Swiss-born writer, and television presenter and producer. He is a ufologist and a promoter of the ancient astronauts hypothesis.^[2] He is best known for his appearances on Ancient Aliens, a History Channel series of which he is also producer.^[3]

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos
Tsoukalos at AlienCon 2016
Born	(1978-03-14) 14 March 1978 (age 47) Lucerne, Switzerland[1]
Education	Ithaca College
Occupations	Writer Television producer
Website	thealiensguy.com

Career

Tsoukalos is of Greek-Austrian heritage.^[4] He is a 1998 graduate of Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, with a bachelor's degree in Communications.^[5] From 1999 to 2007, he worked as a promoter of IFBB-sanctioned bodybuilding contests, including Mr. Olympia.^[6] He was lead promoter and contest director of the IFBB San Francisco Pro Grand Prix from 2001 to 2005.^[7][5]

Since 2002, Tsoukalos has appeared in programs broadcast by Travel Channel, History Channel, Syfy, and National Geographic. He was the editor of Legendary Times magazine from 1999 to 2008.^[8][9][10] He is a co-executive producer of Ancient Aliens, and he has appeared in more than 200 episodes since 2009.^[11] He presented and co-produced the 2014 H2 series In Search of Aliens.^[12]

Ancient Aliens meme

Tsoukalos's appearances in Ancient Aliens inspired a meme highlighting his unusual hairstyle overlaid with the caption: "I'm not saying it was aliens … but …"^[13] Variations of the meme were uploaded by users as early as November 2010.^[13][14] According to Dictionary.com, the meme mimicked "the tone of conviction used by Tsoukalos to present unfounded far-fetched pseudo-logic as fact."^[14]

In a 2015 Reddit AMA, Tsoukalos said he loved the meme, adding "it's a great honor to have been embraced" by Internet users.^[4][15] During a 2016 appearance on CNN Philippines, Tsoukalos's meme-ification was discussed at length. A partial transcript of the interview was later published online as "Meet the Hair Guy from Ancient Aliens."^[16]

In 2021, Tsoukalos made a cameo appearance in the Resident Alien episode "Welcome Aliens". He was described by the lead character as "that high-haired gentleman".^[17] The episode included several references to the Ancient Aliens meme.^[18] Tsoukalos reprised his cameo in the 2022 episode "Best of Enemies".

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	In Search of	Self	1 episode; Credited as an Egyptologist
2003	Is It Real?		Episode: "Ancient Astronauts"
	Is There a Stargate?		Documentary short
2007	Mysterious Journeys		3 episodes[5]
2008	Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest		TV documentary[5]
2008–2016	Coast to Coast AM		Syndicated radio program; 9 episodes[19]
2009	Race to Witch Mountain	Giorgio (cameo)	Uncredited appearance
	UFO Hunters	Self	3 episodes[5]
2009–2024	Ancient Aliens	Self / Producer	240 episodes Consulting producer (2009–2015) Co-executive producer (2015–2024)
2010	Extreme Universe	Self	Episode: "Star Gates"
2011	The Mo'Nique Show		1 episode; Archive footage appeared in later episodes
2011–12	The Joe Rogan Experience		Podcast; Episodes #125 and #232
2013	Contacto Extraterrestre		Episode: "Caídos a Tierra"
	America's Book of Secrets		Episode: "The Ancient Astronaut Cover-Up"
2014	In Search of Aliens	Self / Presenter	10 episodes; Credited as co-executive producer
2017	Ancient Aliens Declassified	Self	6 episodes; Highlights from Ancients Aliens
	Next Week with Jeff Durbin		Episode: "Conspiracy Theories and Sam McClure"; Archive footage
2018	BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural		Episode: "The Unexplained Phoenix Lights Phenomenon"
	The Noite com Danilo Gentili		Episode: "Ufólogos"
2019	Truth-Seekers	Giorgio Tsoukalos (cameo)	Short film
2020	The UnXplained	Self	Episode: "The Truth About UFO's"
2021–22	Resident Alien	Giorgio Tsoukalos (cameo)	2 episodes
2022	Les Secrets du miracle de Fatima	Self	TV documentary; Archive footage