Joe Manganiello's interests are broad – a glimpse into his resume is a testimony to this.
The 48-year-old star started to rise in 2009 after werewolf took on a breakthrough role Alcide Herveaux in the Supernatural Series “True Blood”. Then, when the first film came out in 2012, he entered the Magic Mike universe as Big Dick Richie, who recently starred with Vince Vaughn in the 2025 Netflix comedy Nonnas.
But Manganiello is not only defined by his acting career: in 2023, he appeared on Finding Your Roots and has been publishing voices about how ancestral revelations have changed his life ever since. He is also the pet parent of his senior dog Bubbles, who is often around him (and of course her own Instagram account).
Now, Manganiello seems to be in his custody era. In addition to hosting NBC’s “Trade or No Trading Island,” he now airs his passion for theme parks as a one-hour special offer for the network called “Epic World of the Universe.”
Joe Manganiello is in Season 2 of “Trade or No Trading Island”.Monty Brington/NBC
The program premieres on NBC on August 20 at 9 a.m. ET and plays on the Peacock the next day, exploring the five worlds that make up the universal epic universe At Universal City Resort Orlando: Celestial Park, Super Nintendo World, Harry Potter's Wizard World – Magic Magic, How to Train Your Dragon – Burke and the Dark Universe.
Before the theme park’s opening date on May 22, Manganiello sat down with Today.com while talking about his multifaceted identity and career while filming at the Epic Universe, and how his world collided.
Universal and Peacock are part of our parent company NBCUniversal. This interview is for clear condensation and editing.
Joe Manganiello explores how to train your dragons in the global epic universe – the “Epic World of the Universe” of Burke Island World.Parrish Lewis/NBC
So you're shooting epic cosmic TV shows here. Tell me about your involvement.
Well, I assume it because I'm an NBCuniversal employee and I'm asked to host and launch a particularly cool employee for the park, which is cool, so I saw it first. Then, you know, hanging out with some actors, some projects, Warwick Davis of Harry Potter, the two stars of “How to Train Your Dragon” are coming.
Toothless?
actor. OK, no, then we go see Toothless, it's nuts. That animated dragon, this is crazy. Then you grabbed his chin and he started to croak and growl.
We are not used to engaging in such technology ourselves.
Just like those robots, like the President Hall (Disney World). Now it's like, yes, it's amazing. Even in the Dark Cosmic Journey (the monster has no links), all of these animated creatures are incredible. Frankenstein, this is crazy.
Yes, it's very fun to finish all of this. When you do this, you will return to (return) your childhood and you will start thinking about what you thought of as a kid. Yes, it kind of shocks you to see that all of this stuff is real and able to walk around in it. This is incredible.
What childhood memories have come back to you?
As a werewolf, I have been on “real blood” for many years. I do think I show it to my adult kids because Halloween is always a huge holiday for me and my mom will make me dress and stuff. So you know, I was dressed like Dracula when I was a kid, and in your mind, when you were a little kid, you pretended to be a vampire. I remember my parents took me to a haunted house when they were kids, and I thought there was another vampire coming out of the coffin, and I was dressed in Dracula, so I walked up to the coffin and put my hand on it and he lifted my hand and he picked me up and put me in the coffin and sealed it in it.
Joe Manganiello is in “True Blood” Season 6.Alamy Stock Photo
What? ! Are you frightened?
No, I am a vampire, this is a vampire! So you think, “This is what I should do,” yes, like, I’m a kid, I know, I know, “Why am I scared? I’m going to live with a vampire.”
It's very brave for a child.
You are very diplomatic. But here's the thing: I think as a kid, you know… I think that's what he said, and he said, “Kids dream of being Batman, not being a guy in a Batman suit, not an actor in a Batman suit.” So, you know, I never dreamed of being an actor playing a werewolf. I dream of being a werewolf. So here you can walk around and pretend you might be in this medieval village, this Gothic Romanian village.
Last night, you brought the dog, bubbles into the dark universe. Will you dress up a dog for Halloween?
I've dressed up for Cinco de Mayo over the past year. OK, she is a Chihuahua, so we celebrate Cinco de Mayo. …The previous year we actually spent Halloween in Firenze, Italy, and we had a little dragon costume and we wore small wings and put on her. …People send me all kinds of things. I think there are avocado costumes in the closet. She is a bat of the year – cool, fragile wings.
Another thing I know that is important to you is your bloodline. You are “finding the roots” in 2023.
Actually, I got results that year. They took a year because I made some discoveries that year and then pushed the plot to the next season.
I also want to make it clear that due to my mother's family side, I'm interested in family tree due to the Armenian German components I know. I knew I was Armenian since I was a kid and I knew I was German but didn’t know how or who it was from, which was what prompted me to apply (“find your roots”), and it took 10 years. Finally, they got to the point where they thought: “Yes, it will work.” The technology is just not there, and they think they will run into obstacles due to the Armenian genocide. …And then, ten years later, their team thought, “Well, I think science is in a place where we have access to enough databases, and we think we can do something. So let's try it.” So they actually came back about six months later and said, “We don't think we're going to be able to do that,” but a month later, they made a breakthrough and then they said that.
Wow.
Then they called me back about a month later and gave me a choice to opt out of the episode because of the parent-child relationship issues involving my father. Unless all parties involved agree and know, they cannot reveal the parent-child relationship issues and because my father is still alive and needs to be informed whether he is going to move forward to reveal his father’s identity. So, that blows one, that’s a big discovery, and then blows the side of my father’s family tree.
It's been three years since I got these results and I have multiple historians working on the endpoint of salary reduction. I found my German family members, with a portion of the German family living in Canada, and I contacted them, and they had a handwritten German genealogy dating back to the 1400s. I became obsessed with a German historian, went to everything, and I found my ancestors fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. There is a famous architect, all of whom are from the mayor of the town. Then I have another historian specializing in New England and Virginia who has been working for the past two years, revealing all of this and immersing myself in my Irish descent. My great-great-grandfather came during the potato famine, joined the United Army, fought in the American Civil War, and disappeared somewhere in the west shortly thereafter. In fact, I will go from here to New England for my cousin’s wedding and then to the memorial and grave of my fifth great-grandfather (Plato Turner), an African slave who fought against the British revolution in the American Revolution.
Then, about a year and a half ago, I got a ping on 23andme, my dad had a half-sister living in Ohio. Eight years later, the same biological grandfather had another child, so I went to see her, I had an aunt and half in Ohio.
It keeps going.
So the conversation with “Find the Roots” is about doing their first sequel, because it was also discovered that she proved at the time that she did not doubt who my biological grandfather was. I left behind “Find Your Source” and didn't know who my biological grandfather was, but her DNA proved that, so we knew that was this person. Then I did some digging and found the proof of marriage from the 1800s, which proved where my European Y chromosome cuts… It also proved that I think my last name is because there are multiple, but I need to perform again (again) to test some people’s genetic tests. We are sorting out a gene gallery of people in Rogues, we want to test to see if I match their Y chromosomes and then there is a village on the border between Wales and England, and I think my last name is from…
I struck the string. Thank you for sharing all of this.
I know, don't let me start.