58 Fun Facts About Mark Zuckerberg

Which Saturday Night Live star played Zuckerberg in a 2010 sketch that the real Zuckerberg called funny?

Andy Samberg played him on Weekend Update in October 2010, and Zuckerberg shared the sketch on Facebook, calling himself a big Samberg fan.

At a January 2024 Senate hearing, Zuckerberg stood and apologised to families over what issue?

Child safety on social media: Senator Lindsey Graham told the CEOs, Zuckerberg included, that though they didn't mean it, they had blood on their hands.

Zuckerberg was born in which New York town?

White Plains was only his birthplace: he grew up in nearby Dobbs Ferry and, while still in high school, took a graduate computer class at Mercy College.

What were the professions of Zuckerberg's parents Edward and Karen?

Dentist and psychiatrist: Edward's dental office was attached to the family home, and Karen gave up her psychiatry career to raise the children and manage his practice.

Which Roman emperor did Zuckerberg call one of the most fascinating, crediting him with two hundred years of world peace?

Augustus: Chan teased him about all his photos of Augustus statues on their Rome honeymoon, and the couple named a daughter August.

At about eleven, Zuckerberg wrote what program linking the family home to his father's office?

ZuckNet let the office receptionist message his father instead of yelling across the room.

Zuckerberg's high-school music player, which learned a user's listening habits, was called what?

Synapse drew buyout interest from AOL and Microsoft, but Zuckerberg turned the offers down and went to Harvard instead.

Zuckerberg was captain of which team at his prep school?

Fencing: he captained the team, and he took to Latin there because, he said, it was very much like coding or math.

Zuckerberg studied computer science and which other subject at Harvard?

Psychology: he later called Facebook as much psychology and sociology as it is technology, a business at the intersection of technology and psychology.

Zuckerberg's Facemash site let students do what?

Vote on which of two people was hotter: in hours, 450 visitors cast at least 22,000 votes on ID photos he had hacked from House websites.

What was Zuckerberg's second-year program that helped students pick classes from others' choices?

CourseMatch showed students who else was taking their classes, and Zuckerberg later built that class-search idea into Thefacebook.

Which web giant tried to buy Facebook in 2006, only for Zuckerberg to break off the talks?

Yahoo: CEO Terry Semel recalled Zuckerberg telling him, 'It's not about the price. This is my baby.'

Which Napster co-founder served as Facebook's first president?

Sean Parker later turned critic, calling himself something of a conscientious objector to using social media.

Which prep school's student photo directory may have inspired the name Facebook?

Phillips Exeter Academy had its Photo Address Book, and at Harvard he later pulled ID photos from House face books to build Facemash.

The Winklevoss twins accused Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for which social network?

HarvardConnection's founders had asked Zuckerberg to help build their site, but he soon abandoned their project to build his own.

Which city's public hospital was renamed for Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan after their $75 million gift?

San Francisco General Hospital took their names in 2015, a personal gift because Chan had worked there for years as a doctor.

Which co-founder sued Facebook after his stake was diluted, then settled while keeping his co-founder title?

Eduardo Saverin had run the business side, and Zuckerberg's lawyer had warned that diluting him could bring a claim of breach of fiduciary duty.

Which investor became Facebook's first outside backer in the summer of 2004?

Peter Thiel put in $500,000 and joined the board, but sold most of his shares in 2012, soon after Facebook's IPO.

To which California city did Zuckerberg and the co-founders move in 2004?

Palo Alto: they leased a small house there as an office, and in 2005 Zuckerberg announced he was leaving Harvard indefinitely.

Which celebrity did Forbes call a younger self-made billionaire than Zuckerberg in 2019, before recanting?

Kylie Jenner was hailed at 21, beating his record of 23, but in 2020 Forbes said she had likely forged tax returns and was not a billionaire.

Which messaging app did Facebook buy in 2014?

WhatsApp: Facebook had turned its co-founder Brian Acton down for a job in 2009.

What did Zuckerberg wear to meet investors before Facebook's 2012 IPO?

A hoodie: Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter called it a mark of immaturity, saying investors deserved respect because he was asking for their money.

Zuckerberg's annual base salary was cut to what on January 1, 2013?

His wealth comes from his shares, not his paycheck.

Zuckerberg conducted a 2014 Q&A at Tsinghua University in Beijing in which language?

Mandarin Chinese, even though Facebook itself was blocked in China by the country's Great Firewall.

Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for approximately how much?

$1 billion in cash and stock bought Instagram, and Zuckerberg promised to keep building and growing the app independently.

Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021, borrowing 'metaverse', a word coined in which 1992 novel?

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, coined metaverse from meta- and universe, and Meta took the name to signal its bet on that virtual world.

Which Facebook co-founder, once Zuckerberg's Harvard roommate, left to work on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign?

Chris Hughes later turned critic, calling for Facebook to be broken up in a 2019 New York Times op-ed.

Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. Senate in April 2018 over which data scandal?

Cambridge Analytica had improperly obtained data on up to 87 million Facebook users through an academic researcher's app.

Who played Zuckerberg in the 2010 film The Social Network?

Jesse Eisenberg played him in a film that framed Facebook as a bid to impress a girl, a motive Zuckerberg and his biographer both rejected.

The Social Network was based on which book by Ben Mezrich?

The Accidental Billionaires is written in what Mezrich called a thriller-esque style, though he maintains the book is not fiction.

Asked on SNL by the actor who played him what he thought of The Social Network, Zuckerberg replied what?

"It was interesting." The actor had just told him how much he liked him on 60 Minutes, and happily accepted that verdict.

Zuckerberg voiced himself in a 2010 episode of which animated series?

The Simpsons episode Loan-a Lisa has him meet Lisa and Nelson at an entrepreneurs' convention and remind them how many billionaires dropped out.

Zuckerberg pledged $100 million in 2010 to the public schools of which city?

Newark, New Jersey: Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Chris Christie teamed up to enlist him for a remake of the city's public schools.

Which event did Zuckerberg and Chan mark by pledging 99% of their Facebook stock in December 2015?

The birth of their first daughter, Max, came with the pledge, which they announced in an open letter addressed to her.

Zuckerberg co-founded Breakthrough Starshot in 2016 with Yuri Milner and whom?

The project aims to send tiny light-propelled probes to Alpha Centauri.

Zuckerberg's Internet.org was shut down in which country in 2016 after a backlash?

India's telecoms regulator banned discriminatory data pricing in February 2016, weeks after Egypt had also cut the free service off.

Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan in May 2012 in an event that also celebrated what?

Her graduation from medical school was the cover story: guests gathered in his backyard found a surprise wedding, a day after Facebook's IPO.

Which actor voiced Jarvis, the AI home assistant Zuckerberg built in 2016?

Morgan Freeman got the part after Zuckerberg crowdsourced the choice, asking his Facebook followers who should voice the assistant.

Zuckerberg's dog Beast, who had over two million Facebook followers, is what breed?

Puli: Hungarian shepherds used the breed to herd sheep by day, while bigger, lighter-coloured dogs guarded the flock at night.

On which Hawaiian island did Zuckerberg buy 700 acres in 2014 for a huge retreat?

Kauaʻi: in 2017 he filed 'quiet title' lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians to claim small plots of land inside the estate.

Zuckerberg took up which two combat sports in 2022?

MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu: in 2023 he and Elon Musk teased a cage fight, until Zuckerberg said Musk wasn't serious and it was time to move on.

Zuckerberg's planned competitive fighting debut was delayed by which 2023 training injury?

A torn ACL, suffered while sparring, needed surgery, but he said he still looked forward to the fight once he recovered.

Time made Zuckerberg its 2010 Person of the Year, but its online readers' poll picked which man?

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, topped Time's 2010 readers' poll, while the editors chose Zuckerberg as Facebook passed 500 million users.

Zuckerberg was long known for wearing what in almost every public appearance?

A gray T-shirt and jeans was his standard look, until a 2024 makeover brought gold chains and streetwear.

Which fellow Harvard dropout gave the 2007 Harvard commencement address, a decade before Zuckerberg?

Bill Gates also received an honorary degree in 2007, a year before he stepped back from Microsoft to focus on his charity.

Zuckerberg co-founded the lobbying group FWD.us in 2013 to push for what?

Immigration reform was its first priority, but groups such as MoveOn and the Sierra Club pulled Facebook ads over FWD.us-funded ads backing Keystone XL.

Which three Oscars did The Social Network win at the 2011 ceremony?

Adapted Screenplay, Original Score and Film Editing were its three wins, but The King's Speech took Best Picture among its four Oscars.

Whose face was digitally grafted onto double Josh Pence to create the Winklevoss twins?

Armie Hammer played both twins, yet the credits still list Josh Pence beside him, the man in the Facebook movie without a face.

Which prep-school classmate built a music-recommendation program with Zuckerberg?

Adam D'Angelo later teamed up with another former Facebook employee, Charlie Cheever, to start Quora.

How is the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative legally structured, unlike most big philanthropies?

As a limited liability company, CZI can invest in for-profit firms, and in 2016 it led a $24 million funding round for Andela, which trains African engineers.

Who was named first president of science when CZI launched its $3 billion science programme in 2016?

Cornelia Bargmann led the science work, whose first project was a $600 million Biohub teaming Stanford with two University of California campuses.

Besides $20 million in cash, what did the Winklevoss twins receive in their 2008 settlement?

Facebook shares: the twins later tried to undo the deal, saying the stock was worth $11 million rather than the $45 million Facebook represented.

What business did Paul Ceglia, who claimed 84% of Facebook in a 2010 lawsuit, actually run?

A wood pellet fuel company: in 2012 federal agents arrested Ceglia on charges of fabricating evidence behind his claim.

Which satirist awarded Zuckerberg a 'Medal of Fear' in 2010 for valuing his privacy over yours?

Stephen Colbert was playing the fear-promoting half of a dueling rally, so while Jon Stewart gave out medals of reasonableness, he gave out Medals of Fear.

Which philanthropic commitment did Zuckerberg sign in 2010?

The Giving Pledge was only a start: five years later he and Chan promised 99% of their Facebook stock to good causes.

In which Harvard house did Zuckerberg live while building Facebook?

Kirkland House is where he launched Facebook, yet in his 2017 Harvard speech he said his best memory of Harvard was meeting Priscilla Chan.

Which Harvard body summoned Zuckerberg over his Facemash site in November 2003?

The Administrative Board weighed charges of breaching security and violating copyrights and privacy, but he was not forced to leave Harvard.

In a 2016 photo, what had Zuckerberg put over his laptop's webcam?

A piece of tape covered the camera, and more covered the mic jack, a guard against hackers that FBI director James Comey also used.