Eddie Jackson

American chef and former footballer Eddie Jackson was born in Georgia. He played college football for Arkansas and was signed by the Carolina Panthers in 2004, the Miami Dolphins in 2005, the New England Patriots in 2007, and the Washington Redskins in 2008. He eventually retired from football and opened the Caribbean Grill food truck in Houston.

Jackson earned notoriety in the culinary world when he participated in the fourth season of the reality show "Masterchef" (Fox, 2010- ), coming up in seventh place. He went on to win the eleventh season of reality competition "Food Network Star" (Food Network, 2005-18) in 2015, which got him his own series as a host, "BBQ Blitz" (Food Network, 2015). The following years, he would host and judge a variety of cooking shows and competitive food reality shows, such as "Kids BBQ Championship" (Food Network, 2016-17), "Chopped" (Food Network, 2009- ), "Halloween Wars" (Food Network, 2011- ) and "Supermarket Stakeout" (Food Network, 2019- )