Jay Shetty

Jay Shetty is a British podcaster, author, and life coach, best known for his podcast On Purpose.

Early life
Shetty was born in London to a Hindu family of Indian origin. He was raised in Barnet, North London and has a sister. From childhood, he was a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, known as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas. His mother is a Gujarati who was raised in Yemen and his father is a Tulu Bunt from Mangalore. He attended Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet, then went on to graduate from the Cass Business School at the City, University of London.

Career
In a 2008 interview, Shetty stated that at a 2006 event in France of the Iskcon Pandava Sena (the Hare Krishna youth group) he had undergone a "massive transformation" and become much more appreciative of the Hare Krishna movement.

In business school around 2007 (though Shetty had provided inconsistent accounts of when the event took place), Shetty met Gauranga Das, a monk invited to speak at the school on selflessness and living a minimalist lifestyle. Shetty spoke with Gauranga after his talk and followed him for the remainder of Gauranga's lecture circuit around the United Kingdom. Shetty claims to have spent four summers in India interning at corporations and training with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Shetty has often claimed that he spent three years, from 2010 to 2013, living the ISKCON lifestyle at an undisclosed ashram in Mumbai, India, but his own blog posts and people familiar with his movements in that period indicate he spent most of this time making promotional videos at Bhaktivedanta Manor in Watford, with Shetty writing in a blog post that he had arrived in India in October 2010 and had spent less than four months in the country before leaving again.

Shetty began his career at Accenture, working on digital strategy and as a social media coach for the company's executives. In 2016, Shetty broke away to become an independent content creator. His work caught the attention of Arianna Huffington, who hired him to produce videos for Huffington Post about topics such as relationships. Shetty stopped working for the HuffPost in early 2017, later releasing videos independently on Facebook and YouTube. By 2019, Shetty had over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and 20 million followers on Facebook.

Shetty won a 2016 Asian Media Award for Best Blog and a 2018 Streamy Awards in the Health and Wellness category.

In 2018, Shetty made appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Red Table Talk show (hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith) on Facebook, and became the "personal spiritual adviser" to Will Smith. In 2019, Shetty launched the podcast On Purpose. The podcast was downloaded 64 million times in its first year. On Purpose became the number one health podcast in the world according to Forbes. In July 2023, Shetty interviewed US President Joe Biden on his mental health initiatives in a podcast episode filmed at the White House.

In April 2019, Shetty was honoured with the Outstanding Achievement Online Award at The Asian Awards and in May 2019 he won Best in Health & Wellness at the 11th Shorty Awards.

In August 2019, YouTuber Nicole Arbour publicly criticized Shetty for plagiarizing quotes, leading him to remove 113 posts from his Instagram and begin adding attributions.

Shetty is the co-founder of a video production company, Icon Media, along with Alex Kushneir. In 2021, Shetty and his wife Radhi launched Sama Tea, an adaptogenic brand inspired by ayurveda. In 2022, Shetty joined meditation product company Calm as its "Chief Purpose Officer".

Shetty has conducted interviews with a number of public figures.

Jay Shetty Certification School
In 2020, Shetty founded the Jay Shetty Certification School, an online learning platform for becoming an accredited life coach. It claims to provide a Level 7 diploma, which is equivalent to a Master's degree in the United Kingdom. A 2024 article on Shetty's career in The Guardian said that the school made misleading claims of being Ofqual-regulated and in progression arrangements with the University of Chichester, as well as several other UK universities.

Books
Simon & Schuster published Shetty's 2020 book Think Like a Monk. The book offers advice on reducing stress and improving focus, based on Shetty's experiences from living at an ashram. The book was a bestseller. In 2023, Shetty published 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It and Let It Go which made The New York Times best-seller list.

Personal life
Shetty lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Radhi Devlukia Shetty. He is in the ownership group of Angel City of the National Women's Soccer League.

Shetty presided over the 2022 wedding of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.