Stephen Gary Wozniak (born August 11, 1950), also called Woz, is an American technology business person, electrical engineer, computer programmer, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) with his early business partner, Steve Jobs. During the 1970s and 1980s, his work at Apple helped make him widely known as an important leader in the personal computer revolution.

In 1975, Wozniak began creating the Apple I, which became the computer that started Apple when he and Jobs began selling it the next year. He was the main designer of the Apple II, introduced in 1977, which became one of the first widely successful computers made for the public. Steve Jobs managed the design of its plastic case, and an early Apple employee named Rod Holt created its power supply.

Working with human-computer interface expert Jef Raskin, Wozniak played a key role in the early development of the original Macintosh computer from 1979 to 1981. Jobs took over the project after Wozniak left Apple briefly due to a serious airplane accident. Wozniak permanently left Apple in 1985 and later started a company called CL9, where he created the first programmable universal remote control, released in 1987. He continued to work on business and charity projects throughout his career, especially focusing on helping schools use technology. In 1990, he helped bring computers to schools in the former Soviet Union.

Wozniak has received many awards for his work in technology and charity, including being added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000. As of June 2024, he is still employed by Apple in a special, non-working role after leaving the company in 1985. In recent years, he has supported new business ideas in areas like GPS, telecommunications, flash memory, technology events, education, ecology, and satellites. He is a citizen of the United States, Poland, and Serbia.

Early life

Stephen Gary Wozniak was born on August 11, 1950, in San Jose, California. His mother, Margaret Louise Wozniak (née Kern), was born in Washington state in 1923 and passed away in 2014. His father, Francis Jacob "Jerry" Wozniak, was born in Michigan in 1925 and died in 1994. He worked as an engineer for the Lockheed Corporation. Wozniak graduated from Homestead High School in 1968 in Cupertino, California. He has one brother, Mark, who was a former tech executive and lives in Menlo Park. He also has a sister named Leslie, who also attended Homestead High School in Cupertino. Leslie currently works as a grant adviser at Five Bridges Foundation, an organization that supports at-risk youth in San Francisco. Leslie has said that her mother was the one who introduced activism to her and her siblings.

The name on Wozniak's birth certificate is "Stephan Gary Wozniak," but his mother intended it to be spelled "Stephen," which he uses. Wozniak has Polish and German ancestry. In the early 1970s, Wozniak's blue box design earned him the nickname "Berkeley Blue" in the phreaking community. He has said that watching Star Trek and attending Star Trek conventions as a young person inspired him to start Apple Computer. In his autobiography, iWoz, he also mentioned that the Tom Swift Jr. books inspired him to become an engineer.

Career

In 1969, Wozniak returned to the San Francisco Bay Area after being removed from the University of Colorado Boulder in his first year for hacking the university's computer system. He later enrolled at De Anza College in Cupertino before moving to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971. In June of that year, Wozniak created his first computer as part of a self-taught engineering project with his friend Bill Fernandez.

Before microprocessors, screens, or keyboards existed, Wozniak and Fernandez built the computer using punch cards and only 20 TTL chips donated by a friend. They named it "Cream Soda" after their favorite drink. A newspaper reporter accidentally stepped on the power cable and damaged the computer, but Wozniak later called it "a good prelude to my thinking 5 years later with the Apple I and Apple II computers." Before focusing on Apple, Wozniak worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he designed calculators. During this time, he left Berkeley and met Steve Jobs.

Wozniak was introduced to Jobs by Fernandez, who had attended high school with Jobs in 1971. Jobs and Wozniak became friends when Jobs worked at HP during the summer, where Wozniak was also employed, working on a mainframe computer.

Their first business partnership began later that year when Wozniak read an article titled "Secrets of the Little Blue Box" from the October 1971 issue of Esquire and started building his own "blue boxes," which allowed people to make free long-distance phone calls. Jobs sold about 200 of these devices for $150 each and split the profit with Wozniak. Jobs later said that without Wozniak's blue boxes, "there wouldn't have been an Apple."

In 1973, Jobs worked for Atari, Inc., an arcade game company in Los Gatos, California. He was asked to design a circuit board for the game Breakout. Atari offered $100 (about $725 in 2025) for each chip removed from the machine. Jobs, who knew little about circuit board design, asked Wozniak to help. Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50 using RAM for the brick representation. Though the prototype was not usable due to missing features, Jobs received the full bonus. Jobs told Wozniak he received $700 (about $2,500 in 2025), but Wozniak later learned the actual bonus was $5,000 (about $36,300 in 2025). Wozniak said he would have given the money to Jobs if he had known.

In 1975, Wozniak began designing the Apple I, the computer that would make him famous. He worked on it to impress members of the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, a group of electronics hobbyists. The club helped start the home hobbyist era, which led to the creation of the microcomputer industry. The Apple I had a feature that made it easy to display video, which attracted attention when it was shown.

Wozniak also created a fake computer called "Zaltair" as a joke. He and others made fake brochures for it at a computer conference. The brochures included false claims about a new programming language called "BAZIC" and a feature called "perZonality." To make the brochure seem real, Wozniak used fake trademarks and a shipping label from MITS, the company that made the popular Altair 8800 computer. He believed MITS would not be at the conference, but a representative there took many copies of the brochures. The brochure also included a fake quote from MITS's president that hinted at a rival company. Steve Jobs, Wozniak's friend, believed the brochure was real and even took pride in how the Apple II compared to the Zaltair. He only realized Wozniak had created it when Wozniak gave him a framed copy of the brochure in 1985.

By March 1, 1976, Wozniak completed the basic design of the Apple I. He designed the hardware, circuit boards, and operating system alone. He tried offering the design to HP while working there but was refused five times. Jobs encouraged Wozniak to start a business to build and sell the Apple I. To fund the project, Wozniak sold his HP calculator, and Jobs sold his Volkswagen van.

On April 1, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) with Ronald Wayne, who left the company quickly. They chose the name "Apple" after Jobs visited an apple orchard in Oregon.

After forming the company, Jobs and Wozniak presented the Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club. Paul Terrell, who was starting a computer store called the Byte Shop, saw the presentation and ordered 50 units of the Apple I for $500 each, provided they were fully assembled. Jobs and Wozniak built the first Apple I boards in Jobs's parents' home in Los Altos. Wozniak's apartment in San Jose was filled with monitors, electronic devices, and games he had created. The Apple I sold for $666.66. Wozniak said he chose the price because he liked repeating digits and had no connection to the number's religious meaning. They sold the first 50 units to Terrell later that year.

In November 1976, Jobs and Wozniak received funding from Mike Markkula, a former Intel employee. At Markkula's request, Wozniak left HP and became Apple's vice president for research and development. The Apple I was similar to the Altair 8800, the first commercially available microcomputer, but it did not support internal expansion cards.

Inventions

Wozniak is the only inventor listed on the following Apple patents:

• US Patent No. 4,136,359: "Microcomputer for use with video display" — and was honored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• US Patent No. 4,210,959: "Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like"
• US Patent No. 4,217,604: "Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display"
• US Patent No. 4,278,972: "Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display"

Other

In 1990, Wozniak helped create the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He gave money to start the group and was part of the team that first led it. He also helped start the Tech Museum, the Silicon Valley Ballet, and the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.

Views on artificial superintelligence

In March 2015, Wozniak said he did not believe Ray Kurzweil's idea that machines would become smarter than humans. However, over the next few decades, Wozniak changed his view.

Wozniak began to feel worried about the future of artificial intelligence, even though he still supported technological progress. By June 2015, he changed his view again, saying that if superintelligent systems emerged, they could benefit humans.

In 2016, Wozniak changed his view once more. He said he no longer worried about superintelligent systems because he doubted computers could match human intuition. He explained, "A computer can solve logical problems, but that is not how humans use intelligence." Wozniak also said that if computers became superintelligent, "they would become partners with humans, not replace them."

In 2023, Wozniak signed a letter from the Future of Life Institute asking all AI research groups to stop training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. During a BBC interview in May 2023, Wozniak said AI could make scams harder to detect because "AI is so smart, it can be used by dishonest people to trick others."

Personal life

Steve Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California. In 2012, he applied for Australian citizenship and has said he would like to live in Melbourne, Australia, someday. He is often called "Woz" or "The Woz." Other names used for him include "The Wonderful Wizard of Woz" and "The Second Steve," which refers to his longtime friend and business partner, Steve Jobs. "WoZ" is the name of a company he started in 2002, which closed in 2006.

Wozniak joined the Freemasons in 1979 because his wife at the time, Alice Robertson, was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, which is connected to the Freemasons. He was initiated at Charity Lodge No. 362 in Campbell, California, which later became part of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 292 in Los Gatos. Today, he is no longer involved with the Freemasons. He said he does not feel the group fits his personality as a tech person, but he remains respectful of others from different backgrounds. After his divorce from Alice Robertson, he stopped attending meetings and contributed enough money for a lifetime membership.

Wozniak was married to Candice Clark, a slalom canoe gold-medalist, from 1981 to 1987. They have three children together, with the youngest born after their divorce. He was in a well-known relationship with actress Kathy Griffin, who called him "the biggest techno-nerd in the Universe" on a TV show in 2008. He later married Janet Hill, his current spouse. Wozniak describes his religious views as "atheist or agnostic."

He is a member of a Segway Polo team called the Silicon Valley Aftershocks and is a big fan of the San Jose Sharks, an NHL hockey team. In 1998, he co-wrote The Official Computer Freaks Joke Book with Larry Wilde. In 2006, he co-authored his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon, with Gina Smith. The book was on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Wozniak has said he does not like having a lot of money, as he believes it could harm his values. He told Fortune magazine in 2017 that he only invests in things that matter to him. When Apple went public in 1980, he gave $10 million of his own stock to early Apple employees, which Steve Jobs did not do. In 2017, he received Polish citizenship and visited Poland to meet government and technology leaders and visit his father's ancestral hometown.

Wozniak has a condition called prosopagnosia, which means he has trouble recognizing faces. He supports the right to repair movement, which helps people fix their own electronics. In 2021, he made a video for activist Louis Rossmann, explaining how the issue affected him emotionally and how Apple's early success relied on open technology. In 2023, he had a minor stroke while preparing to speak in Mexico City. He was hospitalized briefly but returned home.

In December 2023, Wozniak spoke at a conference in Belgrade, Serbia, where he was granted Serbian citizenship through a "Citizenship by Exception" program. This program allows individuals who can help Serbia's national interests to become citizens. The event received attention in Serbian media, but some political groups criticized the government for using it as a way to promote itself before an election. The government denied these claims. Wozniak said he was invited by Janko Tipsarević, a former Serbian tennis player who is now part of the ruling party. During his visit, he said he supports Serbia and plans to promote its interests, including events like EXPO 2027, an international exhibition to be held in Belgrade. He also said he will work to support Serbia from the United States.

Honors and awards

Steve Wozniak has received many awards and honors throughout his life for his work in technology. These include:

• In 1979, he was given the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award.
• In 1985, he and Steve Jobs were honored with the National Medal of Technology by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. This is the highest award in the United States for achievements in technology.
• Later, he donated money to help create the "Woz Lab" at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1998, he was named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for helping to start Apple Computer and inventing the Apple I personal computer.
• In 2000, he received the George R. Stibitz Computing and Communications Innovator Award from the American Computer & Robotics Museum for inventing the Apple I and Apple II computers and helping to start Apple Computer. In 2022, the museum gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in creating the Apple I and II computers and helping to start Apple. He also donated an Apple I computer to the museum and is listed as a "founders" level donor.
• In September 2000, he was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2001, he received the 7th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy, and Employment.
• In 2011, the American Humanist Association gave him the Isaac Asimov Science Award.
• In 2004, he was awarded the 5th Annual Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology.
• In 2011, he received the Global Award of the President of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity Through IT.
• On February 17, 2014, in Los Angeles, he was given the 66th Hoover Medal by IEEE President & CEO J. Roberto de Marca. This award honors an engineer whose work has helped improve the lives of people around the world. It is managed by a group of five engineering organizations.
• In October 2014, the New York City Chapter of Young Presidents' Organization gave him their Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Museum of Natural History.
• In November 2014, Industry Week added him to the Manufacturing Hall of Fame.
• On June 19, 2015, he received the Legacy for Children Award from the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. This award honors someone whose work has helped children learn and grow. A street near the museum was named "Woz Way" in his honor.
• On June 20, 2015, the Cal Alumni Association (UC Berkeley's Alumni Association) gave him the 2015 Alumnus of the Year Award.
• In March 2016, High Point University announced that he would serve as their Innovator in Residence. He had spoken at their graduation ceremony in 2013.
• In March 2017, he was listed by Richtopia, a UK-based company, as number 18 on its list of the 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs.
• In 2021, he received the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for helping to design the first personal computers that were easy for people to use.

For his contributions to technology, he has also been given honorary doctoral degrees from these universities:
– University of Colorado Boulder: 1989
– North Carolina State University: 2004
– Kettering University: 2005
– Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale: 2005
– ESPOL University in Ecuador: 2008
– Michigan State University, East Lansing: 2011
– Concordia University, Montreal, Canada: June 22, 2011
– State Engineering University of Armenia: November 11, 2011
– Santa Clara University: June 16, 2012
– University Camilo José Cela in Madrid, Spain: November 8, 2013
– Lincoln Law School in San Jose, California: May 19, 2023
– Technical University of Moldova (UTM) in Chișinău, Moldova: October 19, 2025

In media

Wozniak has appeared in many media stories, books, and films since Apple was created.

• Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)
• Camp Woz: The Admirable Lunacy of Philanthropy – a 2009 documentary
• Geeks On Board – a 2007 documentary
• The Secret History of Hacking – a 2001 documentary film that includes Wozniak and others who studied telephone systems and computers.
• Triumph of the Nerds – a 1996 PBS documentary about the development of personal computers.
• Steve Wozniak's Formative Moment – a March 15, 2016, short film created by Reddit.

• 1999: Pirates of Silicon Valley – a TNT movie directed by Martyn Burke. Wozniak is shown as Joey Slotnick, and Jobs is shown as Noah Wyle.
• 2013: Jobs – a movie directed by Joshua Michael Stern. Wozniak is shown as Josh Gad, and Jobs is shown as Ashton Kutcher.
• 2015: Steve Jobs – a movie directed by Danny Boyle, with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Wozniak is shown as Seth Rogen, and Jobs is shown as Michael Fassbender.
• 2015: Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates: The Competition to Control the Personal Computer, 1974–1999 – a film from the National Geographic Channel for the American Genius series.

• TechTV – The Screen Savers (2002-09-27): An interview with Steve Wozniak and Kevin Mitnick (a convicted hacker) featuring Adrian Lamo.
• After seeing Kathy Griffin perform comedy in Saratoga, California, Wozniak began dating her. They attended the 2007 Emmy Awards and later appeared on the fourth season of her show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Wozniak appeared as her guest at the Producers Guild of America awards. However, on June 19, 2008, Griffin said they were no longer dating and decided to stay friends.
• Wozniak plays a version of himself in the first episode of the TV show Code Monkeys. He is the owner of a company called Gameavision before selling it to fund another business. He appears again in the 12th episode, where he is in Las Vegas at a video game convention and sees two characters named Dave and Jerry. He also appears in a parody of the "Get a Mac" ads in the final episode of the second season of Code Monkeys.
• Wozniak is interviewed in the documentary Hackers Wanted.
• Wozniak competed on Season 8 of Dancing with the Stars in 2009 with Karina Smirnoff. Although they received 10 points total from judges, the lowest score of the evening, Wozniak stayed in the competition. He later said he believed the vote count was incorrect and suggested the judges lied about the numbers to keep him on the show. After learning how the voting worked, he took back his statements and apologized. Despite injuries, he continued to compete but was eliminated on March 31 with a score of 12 out of 30 for an Argentine Tango.
• On September 30, 2010, Wozniak appeared as himself in the Big Bang Theory Season 4 episode "The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification." While eating at The Cheesecake Factory, where Penny works, he is approached by Sheldon using a robot called Texai. Leonard tries to explain who Wozniak is to Penny, but she says she already knows him from Dancing with the Stars.
• On September 30, 2013, Wozniak appeared with early Apple employees Daniel Kottke and Andy Hertzfeld on the TV show John Wants Answers to discuss the movie Jobs.
• In April 2021, Wozniak became a guest on the new TV show Unicorn Hunters, a business investment program created by the same company that makes The Masked Singer.