Nicholas Theodore Nemeth was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 27, 1980. He has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was five years old, when he attended a wrestling event at the Richfield Coliseum, and he decided to become a professional wrestler at age 12. He later revealed on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling Podcast that he chose his WWE name “Dolph” because that was his great-grandfather’s name, and his friend suggested the surname “Ziggler”. Nemeth attended St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, where he was an amateur wrestler and holds the school record for most pins in a career with 82. At St. Edward, he was teammates with Gray Maynard and Andy Hrovat.

Nemeth signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2004. He was assigned to their developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), debuting as “Nick Nemeth”. He feuded with Paul Burchill and challenged unsuccessfully for the OVW Television Championship, losing a championship match against then-champion Ken Doane on August 12, 2005.

During his time at St. Edward, the wrestling team won the National Championships on two occasions. He was a collegiate wrestler at Kent State University, eventually setting what was then the record for most career wins in the team’s history. His record was passed in 2006; as of 2010, he stands second all-time in career victories at Kent State. He had 121 career wins between 2000 and 2003. He majored in political science with a pre-law minor. Prior to his WWE tryout, he had been accepted to the law school at Arizona State University, where he was due to start his first semester. Nemeth won championships in three consecutive years. He was a three-time All-Mid-American Conference champion, winning the 165 lb (75 kg) tournament in 2000, 2002, and 2003; as of 2010, he is the last wrestler from Kent State University to have won three amateur wrestling championships.

Nemeth became a part of The Spirit Squad faction, a group of five wrestlers who used the in-ring personas of male cheerleaders, and adopted the name Nicky in OVW during late 2005. The Spirit Squad members trained with real cheerleaders and gymnasts to ensure their characters were believable. On January 23, 2006, they had their WWE television debut as a group, appearing on Raw and helping Jonathan Coachman win a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Jerry “The King” Lawler by performing cheers for Coachman and distracting Lawler. They later became a part of the ongoing scripted feud between WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels. The heel McMahon brought in the Squad to attack Michaels on numerous occasions, including placing them in multiple handicap matches.

Nemeth returned to OVW on January 17, 2007, at the television tapings, again using his Nick Nemeth ring name, along with Mike Mondo, formerly Mikey in the Spirit Squad, as the “Frat Pack”. The pair teamed with Mike Kruel in a match against Seth Skyfire, Shawn Spears, and Cody Runnels. The team disbanded in the early parts of 2007. Nemeth then competed in several dark matches before the OVW television tapings, competing against several wrestlers including Chris Cage, Bradley Jay and Jake Hager, before he began teaming with Mondo again in August.

At the end of August, Nemeth and Mike Mondo were moved to the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental territory and in his debut there, Nemeth gained the nickname “The Natural” and defeated Hade Vansen. In November 2007, Nemeth gained Big Rob as his manager, but their alliance was short-lived. At the start of 2008, he tweaked his name to “Nic Nemeth” and began teaming with Brad Allen, with the pair gaining Taryn Terrell as their valet. Nemeth and Allen started a frat boy type ring character with Terrell as a sorority girl. On March 22, Nemeth and Allen won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship by defeating defending champions Eddie Colón and Eric Pérez, but lost the championship to Colón and Pérez on April 15. Throughout April and May 2008, Nemeth wrestled in several dark matches prior to Raw, losing to Kofi Kingston and Ron Killings on several occasions. Soon after, he returned to the name “Nic Nemeth”, and began teaming with Gavin Spears. The pair defeated Colón and Pérez to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship on August 16, but lost it to Heath Miller and Joe Hennig less than a month later.

On September 15, 2008, Nemeth re-debuted on Raw (as a heel), introducing himself in a backstage segment under the name “Dolph Ziggler”. On October 10, Nemeth was suspended for 30 days for a violation of WWE’s Wellness Program policy. He returned to Raw on November 17 in a backstage segment with Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels. In his first match on Raw under the Ziggler name, he lost to Batista on the December 1, 2008 episode. The following week he got his first victory as Ziggler, by countout, against R-Truth. The next week on Raw, he picked up his first televised pinfall victory, when he defeated Charlie Haas. Ziggler would compete in the 2009 Royal Rumble match, in which he was eliminated by Kane after 21 seconds.

By 2008, he was repackaged as Dolph Ziggler, a bleached-bonde, self-absorbed narcissist. Debuting as a heel, Ziggler repeadelty declared himself as “perfection” and would display an extremely arrogant attitude, while at the same time using dirty tactics. When he turned face in 2013, his character shifted towards a man out to prove himself and never giving up. In September 2017, Ziggler would begin a new short-lived gimmick where he would come out to the entrance themes and dress as other popular wrestlers and legends to irritate the crowd. This lasted a few months. After that, his gimmick tweaked towards a whiny heel destined for greatness, that would constantly blame bad luck or others for his lack of opportunity and would always come up short, culminating in his feud with Kofi Kingston in 2019, where he would blame Kingston for stealing his non-existent chance to become WWE champion and turn face, stating that “it should’ve been me.”

On April 15, 2009, Ziggler was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. He made his debut on the April 17 episode of SmackDown, defeating the United States Champion, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in a non-title match, and, as a result, the following week he demanded a match for the championship. On the May 1 episode of SmackDown, however, he failed to win the championship, after he was pinned by MVP. Ziggler then started a rivalry with The Great Khali, losing to him by disqualification after attacking Khali with a steel chair. As a result, Khali began coming out to the ring during and after Ziggler’s matches, in attempt to gain revenge and to stop Ziggler from cheating. Over the next few weeks, Ziggler would defeat Khali by countout and disqualification after making it look like Khali had struck him with a steel chair. At The Bash pay-per-view, Ziggler defeated Khali in a No Disqualification match by pinfall, after Kane interfered and attacked Khali.

In June 2010, he began a romantic storyline with Vickie Guerrero, who began accompanying him to the ring. On the July 9 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler defeated Chavo Guerrero and Montel Vontavious Porter in a triple threat match to qualify for the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, where he once again failed to win the match. On July 28 at the tapings of the August 6 episode of SmackDown Ziggler defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the first time. In his first title defense at SummerSlam, he retained the championship against Kingston when the match ended in a no contest due to interference from The Nexus. Ziggler was able to make a successful title defense against Kingston at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, and against Kaval at Survivor Series. In November 2010, Ziggler was chosen a Pro for the fourth season of NXT, with Jacob Novak as his Rookie. On the January 4, 2011, episode of NXT, Ziggler won a battle royal to earn the right to choose a new rookie, and chose Byron Saxton. His original rookie, Novak, was the first rookie eliminated later that night. On February 8, 2011, Ziggler’s second rookie, Byron Saxton, was also voted off of NXT.

Ziggler appeared on the November 3, 2009, episode of Deal or No Deal with Maria Kanellis and Eve Torres. He appeared on Lopez Tonight on August 9, 2010. Nemeth appeared in a 2011 episode of Silent Library alongside Chris Masters, Trent Baretta, JTG, Caylen Croft, and Curt Hawkins. Nemeth made regular appearances on fellow WWE wrestler Zack Ryder’s YouTube web series, Z! True Long Island Story, via his own segment named ‘Ask Z Heel’.

On February 1, 2012, Nemeth debuted WWEFanNation’s WWE Download and was the host of the YouTube series. The official WWE Download playlist on YouTube described the series as “Dolph Ziggler’s sarcastic wit vs. your videos” and each episode consisted of Ziggler reviewing both viral and WWE videos. A new episode of WWE Download was uploaded every Monday until the show ended on January 28, 2013, after 53 episodes but returned for one time only on September 30, 2014. In August 2013, Nemeth was cast by Max Landis to appear in the 2015 film Me Him Her.

Ziggler grew up a fan of comedians such as Johnny Carson, Jon Lovitz, Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, George Wallace and Brian Regan. It was around 2010 that he got the idea to start doing comedy. In 2013, Ziggler performed stand-up comedy for the first time in a small venue in Los Angeles and began getting offers to perform at various comedy clubs nearby WWE events. At this point he had been studying comedy almost ten years in preparation for a comedy career. He also began hosting a monthly improv comedy show called Flying Chuck alongside fellow professional wrestlers John Morrison and his brother Ryan Nemeth. A few years later he started working as an opening act for his friend Sarah Tiana. In July 2018 he appeared on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle III facing off against Tiana.

At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, Ziggler entered the Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by Roman Reigns. On April 6 at WrestleMania XXX, Ziggler competed in the 31-man Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but was eliminated by Alberto Del Rio. On June 29 at Money in the Bank, Ziggler competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship contract, but the match was won by Seth Rollins. Ziggler later competed in a Battle Royal for the vacant Intercontinental Championship on July 20 at Battleground; however, he was abruptly eliminated from behind by The Miz. After Ziggler defeated Miz in a non-title match the following night on Raw, he received a rematch at SummerSlam, where he defeated Miz to win the championship for a second time. The next night on Raw, Ziggler successfully retained his title against Miz, after he was counted out. At Night of Champions, Ziggler dropped the title to Miz, only for Ziggler to win it back the following night on Raw. Ziggler then retained the championship against Cesaro on September 26 episode of SmackDown, in a triple threat match against Cesaro and Miz the next week on Raw and at Hell in a Cell against Cesaro in a 2-out-of-3 falls match.

On the January 19 episode of Raw, Sting provided another assist, as John Cena won Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan’s jobs back. Ziggler returned to television on the next SmackDown and qualified for the Royal Rumble match by beating Barrett in a non-title match. In the 2015 Royal Rumble match, Ziggler entered as the last entrant, scored two eliminations but was quickly eliminated by Big Show and Kane. At Fastlane, Ziggler competed together with Rowan and Ryback in a six-man tag team match against Rollins, Big Show and Kane, which they lost. On the March 5 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler was announced as a participant in the 7-man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 31, which was won by Daniel Bryan.

Nemeth has two brothers. His younger brother Ryan is also a professional wrestler who previously worked with WWE and wrestled in NXT under the ring name Briley Pierce. His other brother, Donald, was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping, and robbery for his role in a botched robbery attempt that led to the murder of a former Marine in January 2016.

Nemeth began appearing on the Fox Business Network program Kennedy hosted by Lisa Kennedy Montgomery in 2017. As of 2018, he has appeared on the show close to 10 times.

Ziggler returned at the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2018, as the surprise #30 entrant in the men’s Royal Rumble match. After eliminating Goldust, however, Ziggler was eliminated by Finn Bálor. He would be involved at Fastlane in a six pack challenge for the WWE Championship, where the champion AJ Styles retained. Next month, Ziggler took part in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34, but did not win the trophy.

In 2018, Ziggler started seriously moonlighting in stand-up, while still wrestling for WWE. This led to him headlining shows close to the arenas for 2018’s SummerSlam and Survivor Series pay-per-views. His first major shows he used the big WWE events to piggyback on, due to there being a lot of wrestling fans in the area. Following the 2019 Royal Rumble event, Ziggler embarked on his first headlining tour from January 27, through the end of March 2019. He would take a break from WWE television to focus on the tour. He later continued the tour, announcing two shows in Texas taking place in late-May.

On the August 26 episode of Raw, Ziggler teamed with Robert Roode to win a tag-team turmoil match to earn a Raw Tag Team Championship match at Clash of Champions. At the event, Ziggler and Roode won the titles from Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman. On the October 14 episode of Raw, Ziggler and Roode lost the titles to The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar), ending their reign at 29 days. and they were drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2019 WWE Draft. At Survivor Series, Ziggler and Roode won a 10-team Interbrand Tag Team Battle Royal. On January 26, 2020, at the Royal Rumble, Ziggler entered the Royal Rumble match at number 19, but was eliminated by Roman Reigns. At Super ShowDown, Ziggler suffered a loss to Mansoor. A week later at Elimination Chamber, Ziggler and Roode competed in the namesake match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, where the champions The Miz and John Morrison retained.

In the early stages of his career, Ziggler was introduced to the audiences as a sidekick with a caddie gimmick. This, however, lasted only a few weeks, because Chavo Guerrero aborted his golfer gimmick after the death of his uncle. While there were initial plannings within the company to give him a new gimmick based on his successful career in amateur wrestling and pair him with Kurt Angle, this idea never surfaced. Instead, his first longer lasting gimmick became that of male cheerleader Nicky, where he was partnered with four other wrestlers as The Spirit Squad. To ensure their characters were believable, they trained with real cheerleaders and gymnasts. With this gimmick, he saw moderate success, winning the World Tag Team Championship once. After the disbanding of the Spirit Squad he was again sent back to developmental, where he and fellow Spirit Squad member Mike Mondo tweaked the gimmick into a jock and fraternity based new gimmick, now going by the name of “Frat Pack”. He would continue this gimmick alongside Brad Allen and Gavin Spears, with whom he won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship once each. In a 2020 interview, Ziggler voiced amusement as well as creative frustration towards his early gimmicks, stating that he tried to make them work, knowing they could only fail, just to break through in professional wrestling.