Travis McElroy was born in 1983 to Clint McElroy, former co-host of WTCR-FM’s morning radio show in Huntington, West Virginia, and his wife Leslie. Travis McElroy is an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma. He married Teresa McElroy in 2013. They have two children, Barbara or “Bebe,” born on October 25th 2016, and Dorothy “Baby Dot,” born on January 7th 2020. Travis has indicated on Twitter that he has narcissistic personality disorder.

Since 2010, Travis McElroy, along with his brothers Justin and Griffin, has co-hosted the comedy podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me, an “advice show for the modern era” hosted as part of the Maximum Fun network. The brothers also starred in a 2017 TV show based on the podcast, which originally aired on Seeso.

In 2014, the McElroy brothers, along with their father Clint McElroy, launched a tabletop role-playing game podcast entitled The Adventure Zone. Initially playing Dungeons & Dragons, the show moved into other game systems in later seasons.

From 2015 to 2016, McElroy also co-hosted the podcast Can I Pet Your Dog? with Allegra Ringo and Renee Colvert, leaving after the 57th episode due to the fact that he was moving house and expecting a child. However, McElroy did later return as a guest star for episodes 71 and 81. McElroy also co-hosted the “doomsday prepping” comedy podcast Bunker Buddies with Andie Bolt from 2014 to 2018, at which point he retired from the show and was replaced by Ben Ellis, and Trends Like These with former roommate Brent Black and writer Courtney Enlow from 2015 until its conclusion in 2020. He currently co-hosts Shmanners since 2016 with his wife, Teresa.

The first sub-arc of The Adventure Zone: Balance, named Here There Be Gerblins, was later adapted into a graphic novel in cooperation with artist Carey Pietsch, and was published by First Second Books in 2018. The book topped the New York Times’ best-selling trade fiction list, becoming the first graphic novel to do so. It was followed by a second graphic novel, Murder on the Rockport Limited!, in 2019, and a third installment, Petals to the Metal, in 2020.

In 2018, Travis McElroy appeared as a guest star on Dice, Camera, Action as part of the Stream of Many Eyes, a Dungeons & Dragons event promoting the new Waterdeep storyline.

In September 2018, following a successful podcasting campaign, Travis, Justin and Griffin confirmed that they would be voicing the character Skyscraper in the animated film Trolls World Tour, with Travis also voicing Rock Tear.