Daniel Robert Gheesling (; born September 1, 1983) is an American reality television and YouTube personality. Gheesling is best known for winning the tenth season of the CBS reality show Big Brother in 2008. He subsequently returned to Big Brother for the fourteenth season where he finished as runner-up, and he later competed on the second season of The Traitors, where he was the first traitor eliminated.
Outside of reality television, Gheesling has a Twitch channel where he primarily streams video game content.
Dan Gheesling was born on September 1, 1983 in Dearborn, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in human resource management in May 2005 and a master's degree in Kinesiology in 2006.
During his tenure at Michigan State University, Gheesling pursued a career in football coaching. He joined the Michigan State Spartans football program in 2002 and earned the Frank Cowing Award as the outgoing senior manager in 2004. During that time Gheesling also interned with the National Football LeagueâÂÂs Detroit Lions. In 2006, Gheesling continued to work with the Spartans as the team's Defensive Graduate Assistant.
After several auditions, a private school teacher Gheesling was selected to participate in the tenth season of Big Brother US. He won $500,000 against its runner-up Robert "Memphis" Garrett by the unanimous 7âÂÂ0 jury vote, despite the jury's dislike toward the finalists especially for their eliminations. He became the first winner with the unanimous jury votes.
Gheesling re-participated in the fourteenth season of Big Brother US. He became the runner-up to the eventual winner Ian Terry by the 1âÂÂ6 jury vote, earning Gheesling $50,000.
Gheesling made a cameo appearance in the nineteenth season of Big Brother US as The Funeral Director in a fictional trailer for a film titled The Revengers, which was shown to contestants.
Gheesling participated on the second season of The Traitors in 2024. He was the first "Traitor" to be voted off in the sixth episode. Polygon described Gheesling's appearance on The Traitors as "facing an uphill battle" and doing "too little, too late."
Gheesling has been streaming on Twitch since 2012. Gheesling played an early version of a video game Balatro and beat Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree with no upgrades. The creator of Balatro, LocalThunk, recognized Gheesling's gameplay on Twitch for making the game increasingly popular. Gheesling frequently collaborates with other streamers such as Northernlion.
Following his appearances on Big Brother, Gheesling began work in personal coaching and public speaking.
In 2011, Gheesling married his wife Chelsea. They have three children.