John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. was born on April 23, 1977, in West Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of Carol (née Lupien) and John Felix Anthony Cena Sr. His mother is of English and French-Canadian descent, while his father has Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was baseball player Tony Lupien. He has an older brother named Stephen, and three younger brothers named Dan, Matt and Sean. He is a cousin of noted computer scientist Natalie Enright Jerger. Raised Catholic, he attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, before transferring to Cushing Academy, a private prep boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. He then attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was an NCAA Division III All-American center on their college football team. He wore the number 54, which is still used on some of his WWE merchandise. Cena graduated from Springfield College in 1998 with a degree in exercise physiology and body movement, after which he pursued a career in bodybuilding and worked as a limousine driver.

Cena began training to become a professional wrestler in 1999 at Ultimate Pro Wrestling’s (UPW) California-based Ultimate University operated by Rick Bassman. Once he was placed into an in-ring role, Cena began using a semi-robotic character known as The Prototype. Some of this period of his career was documented in the Discovery Channel program Inside Pro Wrestling School. He held the UPW Heavyweight Championship for 27 days in April 2000. Cena wrestled for the UPW until March 2001.

On October 10, 2000, while billed as The Prototype, Cena made his unofficial debut for then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on a SmackDown! taping in a dark match against Mikey Richardson, which he lost. He received another tryout on January 9, 2001, at a SmackDown! taping in Oakland, California, this time defeating Aaron Aguilera wrestling again in a dark match at a SmackDown! taping on March 13.

In 2001, Cena signed a developmental contract with the WWF and was assigned to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). During his time there, Cena wrestled under the ring name The Prototype and held the OVW Heavyweight Championship for three months and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (with Rico Constantino) for two months. Throughout 2001, he received four tryouts for the WWF main roster, as he wrestled multiple enhancement talent wrestlers on both WWF house shows and in dark matches before WWF televised events.

Before his WWE debut, Cena made an appearance on the webcast Go Sick as Bruebaker, an angry, cursing wrestler in 2001.

In 2001, between his training in Ultimate Pro Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling, Cena was involved in the UPN produced reality show Manhunt, in which he portrayed Big Tim Kingman, leader of the group of bounty hunters who chased down the contestants who acted as fugitives. The show, however, was mired in controversy when it was alleged that the portions of the show were rigged to eliminate certain players, scenes were re-shot or staged to enhance drama and contestants read from scripts.

Throughout the early months of 2002, Cena constantly found himself competing on house shows for the WWF, where he wrestled against the likes of Shelton Benjamin and Tommy Dreamer. After his main call up in June 2002, he continued to appear on OVW programming until September 25, when he lost to Kenny Brolin in a Loser Leaves OVW match. He would later appear in a one-off appearance for the developmental farm in November under the ring name Mr. P in a six-man tag team match, where he teamed with future WWE Hall of Famer Big Boss Man and Charlie Haas, in a winning effort against Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch and Sean O’Haire.

On the 2002 Halloween-themed episode of SmackDown!, Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice and performed a freestyle rap. The following week on SmackDown!, Cena received a new character: a rapper who cut promos while rhyming.Shortly after, he took on the nickname The Doctor of Thuganomics and expanded his gimmick to include rapping before his matches. He began wearing hats and sports jerseys as part of his ring gear. In a 2020 documentary on the WWE Network focusing on this period, Cena revealed that at the time, the gimmick change to The Doctor of Thuganomics saved his career. Before this, the WWE was planning to release Cena as the “ruthless aggression” gimmick wasn’t impressive enough. On a bus journey with other WWE superstars, Cena got involved in a freestyle rap session with Rikishi and Rey Mysterio, impressing Stephanie McMahon, leading to the gimmick’s adoption. As the character evolved, Cena began adopting a variant of the 1980s WWF logo—dropping the “F”—as his “signature symbol”, along with the slogan “Word Life”. At Rebellion, he teamed up with Dawn Marie in a losing effort against Kidman and Torrie Wilson in a mixed tag team match.

Before his professional wrestling career, Cena appeared in an advertisement for Gold’s Gym. As a wrestler, he has endorsed the energy drink YJ Stinger, appearing in commercials beginning in October 2003, and Subway, for whom he filmed advertisements with their spokesperson Jared Fogle in November 2006 that began airing the following January. For a time in 2007, he also endorsed two “signature collections” of energy drinks and energy bars sold by American Body Builders. In 2008, Cena filmed a commercial as part of Gillette’s “Young Guns” NASCAR campaign.

In early 2004, Cena participated in the Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble, making it to the final six before being eliminated by Big Show. Chris Benoit was the eventual winner of the match. This led to a feud with Big Show. At No Way Out, Cena faced Big Show and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match for a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania XX, which Cena lost by submission to Angle. Cena won his first singles championship in WWE, the United States Championship from Big Show at WrestleMania. He held the title for four months with successful defenses against the likes of Rene Dupree, Rob Van Dam and Booker T, until he was stripped of the title on the July 8 episode of SmackDown! by Kurt Angle (who was the SmackDown! General Manager) after he accidentally attacked him in Angle’s wheelchair. Cena won the championship back by defeating Booker T in a best of five series that culminated at No Mercy, only to drop it to the débuting Carlito Caribbean Cool the following week on SmackDown!. After the loss to Carlito, the duo began a feud, resulting in Cena allegedly being stabbed in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub by Carlito’s bodyguard, Jesús, this worked “injury” was used to keep Cena out of action for a month while he was filming The Marine. Immediately after his return at Survivor Series, Cena won the United States Championship back from Carlito on the November 18 episode of SmackDown!. He later successfully defended the championship against Jesús at Armageddon in a street fight.

In 2005, Cena took part in the Royal Rumble match, making it to the final two along with Batista until both went over the top rope at the same time, at first ending the match, which was subsequently restarted and won by Batista. The next month, Cena participated in a number one contender’s tournament for the WWE Championship and made it to the finals at No Way Out, where he defeated Kurt Angle to earn a spot in the SmackDown! brand’s WrestleMania 21 main event match, beginning a feud with then WWE Champion John “Bradshaw” Layfield (JBL) and his Cabinet in the process. In the early stages of the feud, Cena lost the United States Championship to Cabinet member Orlando Jordan on the March 3 episode of SmackDown! after JBL interfered and hit Cena with his title belt.

WWE Studios, a division of WWE which produces and finances motion pictures, produced Cena’s first movie—The Marine, which was distributed theatrically by 20th Century Fox America beginning on October 13, 2006. In its first week, the film made approximately US$7 million at the United States box office. After ten weeks in theaters, the film grossed $18.7 million. Once the film was released on DVD, it fared better, making $30 million in rentals in the first twelve weeks.

During his WWE career, Cena has appeared on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! three times. He has also appeared on morning radio shows including the CBS and XM versions of Opie and Anthony as part of their “walkover” on October 10, 2006. Other appearances have included NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Fuse’s Celebrity Playlist, Fox Sports Net’s The Best Damn Sports Show Period, FOX’s MADtv, G4’s Training Camp (with Shelton Benjamin), and two appearances on MTV’s Punk’d (August 2006 and May 2007), as the victim of a practical joke. He also served as a co-presenter, with Hulk Hogan, at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, as a guest judge during the third week of the 2006 season of Nashville Star, and appeared at the 2007 Nickelodeon UK Kids Choice Awards.

2007 began with the end of his storyline with Kevin Federline. On the first Raw of the new year, Cena was pinned by Federline with an assist from Umaga, although later in the night he was able to get his hands on Federline performing an FU on him. At New Year’s Revolution, Cena defeated Umaga to end his undefeated streak and retain the WWE Championship. At the Royal Rumble, Cena defeated Umaga in a Last Man Standing match to retain the title. One night after the Royal Rumble, an impromptu team of Cena and Shawn Michaels defeated Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championship, making Cena a double champion. At WrestleMania 23, Cena defeated Michaels to retain the WWE Championship after forcing him to submit to the STF.

In January 2007, Cena, Batista, and Ashley Massaro appeared representing WWE on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, giving the children of the family whose house was being renovated WWE merchandise and eight tickets to WrestleMania 23. Two months later, he and Bobby Lashley appeared on the NBC game show Deal or No Deal as “moral support” to longtime WWE fan and front row staple, Rick “Sign Guy” Achberger. Edge and Randy Orton also appeared, but as antagonists. On April 9, 2008, Cena, along with fellow wrestlers Triple H and Chris Jericho, appeared on the Idol Gives Back fund-raising special. In March 2009, Cena made an appearance on Saturday Night Live during the show’s cold opening sequence. On March 7, 2009, he was a guest on NPR’s quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! in a Not My Job sequence titled “Sure, pro wrestling is a good gig, but when you win, do they throw teddy bears into the ring?”.

Cena was featured on the ABC reality series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, which aired in June 2007, making it to the final round before being eliminated on June 24, placing third in the competition overall.

In 2007, Cena was interviewed for the CNN Special Investigations Unit documentary, Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling, which focused on steroid and drug use in professional wrestling. When asked if he had taken steroids he was heard to reply, “I can’t tell you that I haven’t, but you will never prove that I have”. The day after the documentary aired, WWE accused CNN of taking Cena’s comments out of context to present a biased point of view, backing up their claim by posting an unedited video of Cena answering the same question – filmed by WWE cameras from another angle – in which he is heard beginning the same statement with “absolutely not”. A text interview on the website with Cena later had him saying the news outlet should apologize for misrepresenting him, which CNN refused, saying they felt the true answer to the question began with the phrase “my answer to that question”. However, they did edit the documentary on subsequent airings to include the “absolutely not”.

His second film, also produced by WWE Studios, was 12 Rounds. Filming began on February 25, 2008, in New Orleans; the film was released on March 27, 2009.

Cena hosted the Australian Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards with Natalie Bassingthwaighte on October 11, 2008, in Melbourne. Cena guest starred as Ewan O’Hara, brother of Juliet O’Hara, in an episode of the fourth season of the comedy drama Psych. He also guest starred as himself in the seventh episode of Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana Forever.

In 2009, Cena expanded his relationship with Gillette by introducing a new online campaign called “Be A Superstar” featuring himself alongside fellow WWE wrestlers Chris Jericho and Cody Rhodes. The campaign features motivational videos. After Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson called Cena “Fruity Pebbles” during their feud (in reference to Cena’s colorful merchandise) Cena appeared on the box of Fruity Pebbles cereal in 2013.

Cena has granted over 500 wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses through the Make-A-Wish Foundation—the most in Make-A-Wish history. In 2009, Cena received the Chris Greicius Celebrity Award.

While promoting his 2009 film 12 Rounds, Cena announced his engagement to Elizabeth Huberdeau. They were married on July 11, 2009. On May 1, 2012, Cena filed for divorce, which was finalized on July 18. Later that year, he began dating fellow wrestler Nikki Bella. They became engaged when Cena proposed to her at WrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017 but ended their relationship in April 2018. They were scheduled to marry on May 5, 2018.

Cena co-starred in his third film produced by WWE Studios, titled Legendary, which was played in selected theaters beginning on September 10, 2010, for a limited time. It was then released on DVD on September 28, 2010. That same year, Cena starred in the children’s film Fred: The Movie, a film based on Lucas Cruikshank’s YouTube videos of the same name, where he plays Fred’s imaginary father. The movie was first aired on Nickelodeon in September 2010.

From late 2011 until WrestleMania XXVIII, Cena wore a black “Rise Above Hate” T-shirt promoting WWE’s “Be a Star” anti-bullying campaign. In September and October 2012, Cena wore pink and black with the phrase “Rise Above Cancer” in partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Cena’s original gimmick was portraying a white rapper who wore jerseys, backwards hats, and a chain with a padlock around his neck, was known as the “Doctor of Thuganomics”. First as “The Prototype”, and later under his real name, Cena sometimes used underhanded tactics to score victories, such as using his chain as a weapon behind the referee’s back. Cena often rapped before his matches, insulting his opponents, events that happened in the media and even the crowd. Cena also regularly performed “rap battles”, where he and his opponent took turns rapping on each other. Cena has reverted to this persona twice: during his feud with The Rock in 2012, and again at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 during a confrontation with Elias. In 2006, shortly after his debut film, The Marine, his wrestling character shifted from that of a rapper to a young military upstart, wearing dog tags and cargo shorts to the ring and also performing a salute to the crowd. Cena said in a 2011 interview with WWE.com that “every night when I do that salute, it’s also a sign of respect to the men and women that don the uniform of the Armed Forces.”

In October 2014, Cena was featured on two songs with rapper Wiz Khalifa for his two singles “All Day” and “Breaks” for the soundtrack to the WWE 2K15 video game.

In 2015, Cena made appearances in the comedy films Trainwreck, Sisters and a cameo in Daddy’s Home. In 2017, Cena lent his voice for the animated films, Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania and Ferdinand. He also appeared in Daddy’s Home 2, reprising his role in a larger capacity than the 2015 film. In 2018, Cena starred in the comedy Blockers, and had a leading role in the Transformers spin-off prequel, Bumblebee. In 2020, he voiced Yoshi, a polar bear, in the adventure comedy film Dolittle.

On August 17, 2015, Cena guest co-hosted Today on NBC. He co-hosted the show again on December 28 and 29, 2015. Cena appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers on August 21, 2015. Cena co-hosted Today again on March 28–30 and May 9, 10, 13 and 30, 2016.

Cena returned at WrestleMania 32, helping The Rock fend off The Wyatt Family. Cena then made his full return on the Memorial Day edition of Raw on May 30, four months earlier than had been expected for his type of injury. He was confronted by AJ Styles, only to be betrayed by Styles, who joined his former Club teammates Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in attacking Cena. This set up a match between Cena and Styles at Money in the Bank, which Styles won with interference from Gallows and Anderson. On the July 4 episode of Raw, Cena was again attacked by the Club, but was saved by Enzo Amore and Big Cass. Subsequently, a six-man tag team match was fought between the two teams for Battleground. On the July 19 episode of SmackDown at the 2016 WWE draft, Cena was drafted to the SmackDown brand, while also defeating Club member Luke Gallows using a pinfall in a singles contest. Cena, Amore and Cass defeated The Club at Battleground after Cena pinned Styles. Cena continued his feud with Styles, which resulted in him losing their match at SummerSlam on August 21, 2016. With Styles later winning the renamed WWE World Championship, Cena challenged him and Dean Ambrose in a triple threat match for the title at No Mercy. He lost the match after being pinned by Styles, which came after Ambrose and Cena simultaneously made Styles submit, therefore restarting the match. Cena took a sabbatical from WWE to film American Grit season 2.

Cena has portrayed a heroic character throughout his WWE career, except for a villainous run in 2002–2003. His signature ring gear includes jean shorts, sneakers, wristbands, and armbands. He also wears a variety of T-shirts and baseball caps, which commonly include one of his catchphrases: “Never Give Up”, “You Can’t See Me”, “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect”, and “Respect. Earn it”. He has a history of returning from both real and scripted injuries much sooner than expected. ESPN reporter David Shoemaker said in April 2016, “Never underestimate Cena’s recuperative abilities. He’s somewhere on the recovery scale between German platelet-rich plasma therapy and Deadpool.” Fellow wrestler Big Show said he felt most stable being lifted by Cena, despite Cena being over 200 lbs lighter and almost a foot shorter—a testament to Cena’s functional strength.

Cena hosted two seasons of American Grit on Fox, a reality television series with 10 episodes. 16 men and women were split into four teams, where challenges were given. A US$1 million prize was given to the winning team. American Grit premiered on Fox on April 14, 2016. Cena has been retweeting motivational tweets from his followers on Twitter who used the hashtag #ShowYourGrit, in a way that the fan did something motivational to his/her friends in a real-life scenario. The finale of Season 1 aired on June 9, 2016. Cena hosted the ESPN ESPY Awards on July 13, 2016, in Los Angeles. On December 10, 2016, Cena was the guest host of Saturday Night Live (SNL) on NBC.

He was the pace car driver for the 58th annual Daytona 500. On October 13, 2016, Cena made his debut as the voice of Ernie the Elephant in a new commercial campaign launched by Wonderful Pistachios. He was named to Adweek’s “Creative 100” and received praise for his performance. In 2020, Cena and Honda announced a partnership, with Cena becoming the new voice of Honda.

In November 2016, Cena appeared in a public service announcement, “We Are America”, sponsored by the Ad Council as part of its “Love Has No Labels” campaign.

Cena started learning Mandarin Chinese in 2016 to help the WWE expand its reach, and he spoke in Mandarin at a press conference in China. He also revealed in April 2018 that he had learned to play the piano.

On January 29, 2017, Cena defeated Styles at the Royal Rumble to win the WWE Championship and tie Ric Flair for the most recognized world title reigns at 16. However, Cena would lose the championship two weeks later in an Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber to Bray Wyatt. Two nights later on SmackDown, Cena lost a triple threat match against Wyatt for the championship in a match also featuring Styles. Cena then began a feud with The Miz, with Miz accusing Cena of being a hypocrite because of his movie commitments, while Cena accused Miz of stealing other wrestlers’ moves and personalities. Miz’s wife Maryse then slapped Cena before Cena and his girlfriend Nikki Bella sent Miz and Maryse retreating. SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan then set up a mixed tag team match between the two pairs for WrestleMania 33, which Cena and Bella won. Cena proposed marriage to Bella after the match and she accepted. After WrestleMania, Cena then went on another hiatus.

In July 2017, WWE dubbed Cena a “free agent” during the Superstar Shake-up, meaning he could work for both the Raw and SmackDown brands. Following his return, Cena feuded and defeated Rusev in a flag match at Battleground, Baron Corbin at SummerSlam, and was defeated by Roman Reigns at No Mercy. During his feud with Reigns, the two cut various worked shoot promos on each other, going back and forth about what they perceive the other to be and why the crowds react the way they do. Despite sparking rumors of his retirement after the match by endorsing Reigns, taking a bow, thanking the crowd, and waving goodbye to them before leaving, Cena returned to SmackDown the next month after Commissioner Shane McMahon named him the final member of Team SmackDown for the men’s 5-on-5 elimination match against Team Raw at Survivor Series; at the event, Cena was eliminated by Kurt Angle and Team SmackDown was later defeated.

On January 24, 2017, Nickelodeon announced that Cena would host the 2017 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards ceremony on March 11. On January 11, 2018, it was announced that he would be hosting the awards ceremony again on March 24, 2018, becoming the third host behind Whitney Houston, and Rosie O’Donnell to host the ceremony back to back years. Two days later, the game show Keep It Spotless premiered with him as an executive producer. In addition, he was cast on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the voice of the villain Baron Draxum. The series premiered in July 2018. On February 14, 2019, it was announced that Cena would host a revival of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader on the network, which premiered June 10, 2019.

In December 2017, the Ford Motor Company filed a lawsuit against Cena for selling his 2017 Ford GT, therefore violating his purchase agreement. According to Ford, he signed a contract to keep the car for at least two years but breached the agreement by selling it to make a net profit shortly after receiving it.

In July 2018, Cena briefly moved to China, where he settled in Yinchuan. He went on to create a YouTube show on WWE’s channel, highlighting his trips to local stores and markets. He explained that he would be living there for five months while working on a film with Jackie Chan. The shoot concluded in November 2018.

In 2019, Cena was cast in the F9. Cena also was cast for an undisclosed role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, a role originally intended for Dave Bautista.

In 2020 he appeared in a video produced by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on thetruetruetruth.com refuting coronavirus conspiracy theories. Clips from the video also appeared on the main show.

Cena made a $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter in June 2020 as part of the #MatchAMillion initiative made popular by k-pop band, BTS.

On October 12, 2020, Cena reportedly married girlfriend Shay Shariatzadeh in a private ceremony in Tampa, Florida, who he had been dating since early 2019. The two met during the production of Cena’a 2019 film Playing with Fire, which was filmed in Vancouver, Canada where Shariatzadeh works.