Oz Pearlman
Born (1982-07-19) July 19, 1982 (age 43)
Israel
Other names Oz the Mentalist
Citizenship Israeli
American
Education electrical engineering
Alma mater University of Michigan
Occupations
  • Magician
  • mentalist
  • athlete
Spouse
Elisa Rosen
​
(m. 2010)​
Children 5
Website ozpearlman.com

Oz Pearlman (born July 19, 1982), also known as "Oz the Mentalist", is an Israeli-American mentalist, author, magician, and long-distance runner of marathons and ultramarathons. He is best known for major media appearances performing mentalism for sports teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

NBC (national) aired a travel show about Pearlman titled Oz Knows.[1] He won an Emmy Award for the show.[2]

According to a 2025 article in Leaders Magazine, Pearlman is the most televised mentalist in the world and the most followed mentalist on social media.[3] Pearlman has appeared in televised media outside of the United States, such as ESPN Philippines[4] and a TV commercial for Mohegan Sun in China.[5]

In 2025, Pearlman delivered a TED Talk titled The Art of Reading Minds. He discussed a mnemonic related to remembering names of people.[6] Oz served as the host of the 2026 White House Correspondents' dinner, which was aborted due to shots fired.

Early life

Pearlman was born on July 19, 1982, in northern Israel.[7] Pearlman moved to the United States due to his father’s career as an engineer (also a Lieutenant Commander in Israeli Navy) when he was three then lived in Wisconsin and mainly in Michigan (Farmington). When he turned twelve, he was informed that he had had a twin brother who died at birth. Pearlman attended and graduated from the University of Michigan in 2003.[8] He performed magic at restaurants, children’s shows and corporate events at the age of 14, and has stated that he always had a deck of cards with him between the ages of 13 and 18.[9][10]

Career

Pearlman was originally employed at Merrill Lynch in its global technology-services department, only performing magic and mentalism as a part-time profession. After he was allowed to deliver a corporate entertainment show to upper management within the company, he quit his full-time job at Merrill Lynch to become a full-time entertainer.[10]

Pearlman appeared on HBO's Hard Knocks,[11] the NBC Golf Channel[12] and as a guest on CBS Sports coverage of NCAA March Madness.[13] Pearlman won third place in Season 10 of America's Got Talent in 2015.[14][15] On January 13, 2020, he returned as a contestant for America's Got Talent: The Champions.[16]

NBC TV (national) aired a travel show called Oz Knows in 2018, which followed Pearlman to various tourist attractions where he would perform his mentalism. Pearlman won an Emmy Award in May 2018 for the show.[2][1] In July 2023, Pearlman was a featured performer for ESPY Awards on ESPN.[17][18] He also made guest appearances on NBC Today Show on August 23, 2015[19] and in 2016[20][21][22][23] and predicted the Super Bowl result on January 26, 2017.[24]

On December 17, 2024, Pearlman was a guest on The Howard Stern Show. Ten years earlier, in 2014, Stern's guest Valerie Harper, while discussing her terminal illness, had privately shared a secret code word with Stern that only the two of them would know, which could be used after her death to prove whether psychics are real.[citation needed] The idea for using a secret word was based on a pact that the illusionist Harry Houdini had made with his wife Bess in which they promised each other that the first one to die would attempt to contact the other from the afterlife, using a code that the couple had created to confirm the veracity of any spiritualists or psychics who might claim that they had made contact. Pearlman correctly guessed that Harper's secret word was "curly", greatly shocking Stern.[25][26]

On June 4, 2025, Pearlman appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience. According to Rogan, Pearlman correctly guessed the ATM PIN code of Rogan's bank account.[27][28][29] Rogan appeared visibly disturbed by this and stated "Yeah... that's weird," followed by "Yeah, I don't like that."[30][28] The hosts of FLAGRANT hosted Pearlman on their podcast the following week.[31][32]

On November 18, 2025, Pearlman appeared on The View and revealed host Sara Haines's real PIN number live on the air. Later, Haines stated that she felt "violated" by Pearlman. "I don't like someone that will sell a human violation for click bait," said Haines.[33] Pearlman even told Haines before the show that he would never share her real PIN number on the air, so he asked her to think of a fake one. Haines called the moment a “little bit of a betrayal”.[34]

2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner

Main article: 2026 White House Correspondents' dinner shooting

On February 26, 2026, Pearlman was announced to serve as the host of the 2026 White House Correspondents' dinner.[35] The dinner was held on April 25, 2026, but was interrupted when gunshots were fired,[36] which left the dinner cancelled and necessitated its rescheduling.[37] After comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s skit on April 24, 2026, where Kimmel roasted the guests, which included a joke regarding First Lady Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow,” Pearlman did not appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he was to be a guest on April 27, 2026.[38]

Book

On October 28, 2025, Penguin Random House released a book by Pearlman called Read Your Mind.[39][40]

Criticism

"I don't read minds," Pearlman says, "I read people." Critics have called this statement of Pearlman's his main deception, as he often scouts audience members prior to performances and carries out investigative discovery into guests to get answers instead of expertly reading subtle body language or other cues in the moment.[41] The five-hour documentary Metadeception: the Truth about Oz Pearlman presents various magic tricks and deceptions as employed by Pearlman to achieve the illusion of "reading people."[42] His critics cite Pearlman selling books on how to "read people" as fraud.

Not all mentalism attempts by Pearlman have been successful. On The Today Show in 2016, Pearlman asked Al Roker to pick a celebrity who he thought might run for President. Roker chose George Clooney; but Pearlman had incorrectly predicted he would say Taylor Swift by revealing a pre-printed T-Shirt with an image of Swift underneath the slogan: "T-Swift for President". Before he revealed the t-shirt Pearlman told Roker to choose a woman instead, and he replied, "Taylor Swift."[41][43] Pearlman spoke about the televised moment in a later interview with 60 Minutes, saying, "And what if it could be anybody else?" What if—and—and so, I was steering him back on track to what I thought would work. And—and so it looked even more amazing, because it seemed like he changed his mind at the last moment."[44]

Long-distance running achievements

On April 4, 2022, Pearlman broke the world record for most miles run in Central Park in New York. The total distance that he ran was more than 116 miles (16 loops), and it was completed in 17 hours, 40 minutes and 59 seconds. The New York Times, Reuters, Runner's World, and CBS News published articles about the event. The event raised money to help Ukrainian citizens affected by the war against Russia.[45][46][47][48][49] On August 5, 2022, Pearlman ran 130 miles in 21 hours, 52 minutes and 33 seconds from Montauk to Manhattan. The Audacious Report produced a short documentary about the run and The New York Times published an article about it.[50][51][52] Pearlman won the New Jersey Marathon four times. He won the 50-mile Chicago Ultra Marathon in 2015 in 5 hours, 25 minutes, and 26 seconds,[53] and has ranked within the top 30 fastest Americans for 50-mile races. He has also participated in the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, Western States 100 Mile Run, Spartathlon 153 Mile Run, Leadville 100 Mile Run and Badwater 135 Mile Run.[54]

Media appearances

Onscreen and podcast appearances

Sports appearances

Pearlman has performed mentalism for major sports teams, including:

References

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  5. ^ Schiller, Nathan (July 9, 2013). "Oz Pearlman Can Read Your Mind, but Is He the Next Great Jewish Magician?". Tablet. Archived from the original on April 27, 2026. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
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