Back in 2010, Isaiah Mustafa set the internet on fire with a steamy series of Old Spice commercials. Declaring himself “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” the Old Spice pitchman insisted that ladies should have their fellas buy Old Spice so they no longer smelled like women. The commercial also featured a number of scene changes and quirky special effects, perfectly feeding into the early social media era’s love of randomness (and its enforcement of strict gender roles — like we said, it was 2010).

Thanks to the ultra-virality of those commercials, Mustafa himself became a cultural figure. He parlayed those appearances into a number of high-profile acting roles, proving that there was more to him than just a guy who looked good in the shower or on a beach or on a horse. While most viewers likely still think of Mustafa as the Old Spice guy, there’s a lot more to his journey. He’s dabbled in a number of different careers, and in 2025, he circled right back to where most people first encountered him: yet another role as The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.

Isaiah Mustafa was born in Oregon, the youngest child of a Muslim family that already had six kids. When he was still very young, the family moved to California, where Mustafa’s father ran a limousine business. “I think my optimistic spirit and nature come from him,” Mustafa later told Dr. Saturday. “He never allowed me to say ‘can’t,’ which was frustrating for a 7-year-old … But that must have stuck.”

Unfortunately, tragedy soon struck young Mustafa’s family. His father was driving late one night when he fell asleep at the wheel, and the resulting car crash killed him. Mustafa’s mother was left to raise those seven kids on her own. That experience left Mustafa with certain life lessons that he carried forward with him into his entertainment career. When those Old Spice ads took off online, for example, Mustafa insisted on X (which was still Twitter at the time) that he wasn’t going to let the newfound fame change who he was. “Raised in a house of women,” he wrote (via People). “I’ll get backhanded if I even attempted to get bigheaded.”

Mustafa still acknowledges his upbringing frequently on social media. “I am a BLACK MAN… and I was raised by a STRONG BLACK WOMAN,” he wrote on Instagram in June 2020, a month full of Black Lives Matter protests around the country. The following year, he shared a throwback snap of himself as a child sitting in his mother’s lap. He captioned it, “Happy Birthday to my Hero.”

For a while, it looked like Isaiah Mustafa might find fame in sports rather than as a bodywash spokesperson. At first, he hoped to follow in an older brother’s footsteps, looking into playing basketball for UCLA. They didn’t want him, so he wound up going to Santa Monica College and giving up on basketball. Next, he transferred to Moorpark Junior College and competed in track, but he decided to try out for football. While he was initially a safety, he was one day asked to practice as a wideout. “For whatever reason, our receivers on our team decided not to come to practice because they were protesting our offense,” he explained to Dr. Saturday. 

He turned out to be an excellent receiver, and the offers finally came. He zeroed in on Arizona State, because Mustafa wanted to play with Jake “The Snake” Plummer, the team’s quarterback. When Mustafa went to visit the school, he ran across Plummer coincidentally and told him he was thinking about transferring. “He said, ‘I hope you make the right decision. It’d be nice to have a nice, tall receiver to throw to,'” Mustafa recalled. “At that moment, I knew I was going to Arizona State.”

While his college football career was impressive, and he was invited to the Houston Oilers training camp, mainstream NFL stardom never came calling for Mustafa. He spent a few years playing for NFL Europe, and then it was time to figure out what was next.

After Isaiah Mustafa returned to the United States, having played in the NFL Europe league, he found himself unsure about what he was going to do next. The Oilers and the Raiders both released him from their practice squads, so it seemed like the NFL wasn’t going to happen. It was 2000, and he was once more back in California with his mother. They decided to open Jo Jo’s Barbecue, located on the storied Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

It seems that his mother loved it — she also opened Just BBQ in Ventura, which didn’t close until 2019 — but Mustafa himself seems to not have been cut out for the restaurant business. Jo Jo’s Barbecue closed down, but then Mustafa received an important call. The Seattle Seahawks were interested in having him try out for the team, so he decided to re-enter the sports world. They signed him at their training camp, but he was released from the team a mere two months later.

After he was let go from the Seattle Seahawks and no longer had his barbecue restaurant to focus on, Isaiah Mustafa told Dr. Saturday, “[I was] a bit of a lost soul.” The man who had gone to numerous colleges, been associated with numerous NFL teams, and had even played for NFL Europe was left couch-surfing with friends. One night, he was watching television and happened across an episode of “The Weakest Link,” a game show where contestants competed together and could “bank” their winnings, but if someone got a question wrong and no one had banked the money, they all lost everything. The so-called “weakest link” was eliminated each round, and the show was so popular that British host Anne Robinson became one of the richest game show hosts of all time.

“I could do that,” Mustafa thought to himself. He applied and was selected to compete, and it turned out that Mustafa could, indeed, do that. He got all the way to the final question, which asked him to name the first name of the classic literary character Dr. Frankenstein. Leaning on his knowledge of comic books, Mustafa wondered whether “Fantastic Four” villain Victor von Doom had been named after this other doctor. He guessed “Victor” and he won, netting an impressive $47,000. Always with an eye toward the future, Mustafa used that money to sign up for acting classes, and the rest is history.

In 2010, Old Spice dropped “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” on YouTube, the first of many commercials featuring Isaiah Mustafa. The inventive ad included a number of impressive production tricks; they rapidly changed sets, switched out props in the blink of an eye, and directed the viewer’s gaze with Mustafa’s sonorous voice. In other words, its approach was perfect for capturing the attention of an increasingly scattershot internet where people were already unable to concentrate on anything for too long. (You can click here to see what this popular commercial looked like before the special effects).

Speaking of that voice, Mustafa’s seductive persona wasn’t exactly part of the initial plan for the character. He told the Los Angeles Times that he’d gotten the script shortly before he called up his old football teammate Jake Plummer to catch up, but the call went to voicemail. Instead, Mustafa improvised, working out the character on the fly on his friend’s answering machine. “I just did it for him, and I did it extra big, and then when I hung up, I thought, ‘Maybe I should try it that way and see if they like it,'” Mustafa recalled. Like it they did, and so did everyone else; at press time, the original ad has 62 million views on YouTube.

Though Isaiah Mustafa’s face and body were now incredibly internet-famous, he wasn’t content to stop there. Mustafa wanted an actual acting career, one that proved he was more talented than the average commercial actor. He assembled a respectable resume in the years following the Old Spice ad, appearing on shows like “Anger Management,” “Chuck,” “Hot In Cleveland,” and “Charlie’s Angels,” in which he played Miami cop Detective Ray Goodson. For two episodes, he was even part of the cast of “Nikita,” appearing as high-end arms dealer and Dirty Thirty member Cyrus.

In 2016, Mustafa finally landed his first major part when he was cast as Luke Garroway on “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments.” The Freeform show was an adaptation of the popular YA novels, and Mustafa played a character involved in lots of bloody, action-packed drama. “‘Shadowhunters’ was the perfect job to work on at that point in my career,” Mustafa told Parade when the show came to a close in 2019. “It allowed me to be on set all the time and learn.” The show gave Mustafa something else: fans outside of his Old Spice commercials. “The fanbase is so loving and appreciative,” he reflected. “That’s probably the biggest [thing] I took away from ‘Shadowhunters,’ how awesome the fanbase was.”

Now that Isaiah Mustafa has solidified his respectable acting career and no longer has to sleep on friends’ couches, he loves to spend a chunk of that sizable income on travel. Speaking about his jet-set lifestyle with the Los Angeles Times, Mustafa reflected, “I’ve never had a really bad experience. I’ve never gotten really sick from food on a trip and when I got lost, it was never bad. It ended up kind of interesting and fun.” That being said, now that he’s recognizable, Mustafa doesn’t enjoy getting lost the way he used to. “I used to say getting lost is the best way to find a place, but that’s not always safe to do these days,” he said. “I do like walking around, but I’m very aware of my surroundings.”

If you do happen to bump into him on his travels, there’s a good chance that you’ll see him snapping away: In his spare time, Mustafa loves photography, and he even has a second Instagram account dedicated to his photos. It’s only natural that this hobby would figure heavily into his love of travel. “What I do is look for a place with either great architecture or amazing landscapes or a really interesting street culture,” he told the Los Angeles Times, revealing, “Bali and some island in Greece are at the top of the list.” He developed a love for European cities during his time playing football on the continent, with Paris, Marseilles, and Barcelona being particular highlights.

When Isaiah Mustafa first broke through into the mainstream, there was of course a lot of interest in his dating life; after all, he was famous for that body! That interest got Mustafa in trouble when he spoke with Giuliana Rancic on “E! News,” because he wound up saying some unfortunate things about hair. Rancic asked what he wanted in a woman, and Mustafa answered, “Good hair.” He said that he felt his own hair was too “nappy,” so for the sake of his future children, he wanted a wife with better hair than his.

Understandably, this set off a controversy related to the long, long history of discrimination against African American hairstyles. “It was an ignorant statement and I am truly sorry,” he told Essence. “I see how polarizing the topic of hair can be. I irresponsibly used words that carry a negative stigma. I need to be better than that.” He added that he only intended to criticize himself. “I wasn’t feeling that my hair was at its healthiest during my ‘E! News’ interview and that’s where my comments stemmed from.”

In 2018, Mustafa married publicist Lisa Mitchell, who he met at a comic convention. “I just never met someone who was so well put together as far as the way she spoke and carried herself,” he told People. “I had to know her more.” They started dating shortly thereafter, and it was meant to be. They married in Austin, halfway between his California family and hers in Florida. “It was just everything we dreamed it would be,” Mitchell gushed.

While Isaiah Mustafa had initially become known for his pitch-perfect comedic timing in that Old Spice commercial, “Shadowhunters” helped him expand his range from comedy to action. In 2019, he dabbled in horror. Fans of 2017’s “It” understandably wondered what the characters would look like as adults in “It: Chapter Two;” in the case of Mike Hanlon, he grew up to look just like the Old Spice Guy, as Mustafa picked up the role of grown-up Mike.

“It was a whole new world. To be in a horror movie, that’s one of my favorite genres. I had to go back and look at a bunch of horror movies,” Mustafa told Variety. He revisited some classics for inspiration, including “Friday the 13th” and “The Evil Dead.” Mustafa explained, “My daughter and I have these midnight movie marathons where we watch a lot of horror movies.”

The film boasted a star-studded cast, many of whom had significantly more high-profile experience than Mustafa. He starred alongside Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Bill Hader, but he didn’t feel intimidated, instead looking at it like a learning opportunity. As he explained to Variety, “They always say you get better by working with people who are better than you.”

Isaiah Mustafa has returned to Old Spice several times in the many years since that first ad dropped, which means he might be asked to show off his body at any given moment. As such, he sticks to a pretty intense diet and exercise routine, and he’s happy to share tips as often as people ask — and will even admit to the odd cheat day. “Sometimes I just want to eat a pizza!” he joked to Parade. “I always have to stay within striking distance of being lean. I do some of the same stuff I did warming up back when I played football. I do a general warm-up that I used to do, which is just going out and doing about 40 minutes of cardio.”

That’s the exercise part. Diet, on the other hand, is a more complicated question. “The diet’s always changing. I’m a sucker for fad diets,” he confessed, adding, “I try them all.” Mustafa then went on to say that he’d been intermittent fasting and had enjoyed it so far. “I’ve tried basically everything but Paleo,” he concluded. “For some reason, it just doesn’t strike me as something that would work for me.” Perhaps that’s for the best; after all, Scarlett Johansson got ripped to play Black Widow in part by quitting Paleo.

Back in 2022, Amazon announced that Aldis Hodge had been cast as iconic detective Alex Cross in a new Prime Video series. The show — eventually titled “Cross” — didn’t premiere until 2024. When it finally aired, Isaiah Mustafa turned out to be the show’s second lead. He plays John Sampson, Cross’ best friend and investigative partner. It seems that Hodge and Mustafa, too, formed a fast friendship, leading to some gentle ribbing about Mustafa’s past as an Old Spice model. In fact, Hodge ad-libbed a line about John Sampson smelling like Old Spice, cracking up the crew. “I’m older than him in real life, but he treats me like a little brother,” Mustafa jokingly complained to Deadline.

When the show premiered, Mustafa shared a message of support for Hodge on Instagram. “You deserve all the praise and accolades that come your way,” he wrote before thanking his co-star for showing him all “the love and respect that one hopes for when they enter a new work space.” One photo in the carousel revealed that Mustafa’s chair on set is marked “Old & Spicyyyy.” Intriguingly, “Cross” filmed a second season before the first aired. Mustafa told Screen Rant that he wasn’t sure when Season 2 would drop, but he knew they had something special up their sleeve. “From what I saw, it’s different and just as good,” he said. “I’m looking forward for people to see it.”

In 2025, Isaiah Mustafa once again revisited The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. He reprised the role of the Old Spice Guy in a Super Bowl commercial for Instacart, an ad that wound up including numerous other iconic brands as a way to convey Instacart’s ability to help you shop nearly anywhere. Mustafa was happy to share the screen, telling Screen Rant, “I think anytime you get to be in a Super Bowl commercial — and in a Super Bowl commercial with so many other great spokespersons, or great spokes-entities, some of them aren’t real — it’s an honor.”

The commercial ended up being as kooky as ever — at one point, bodywash-esque foam gushes out of the phone Mustafa is holding — but all these years later, he doesn’t mind the zaniness. In fact, he’s learned to love it. “I’ll be honest with you, every single time I get up on whichever horse is there, I always have to laugh at myself,” he said. “I’m like, ‘This is what my job is, I guess. Get up on a horse sometimes backwards. This is too crazy.'” It’s a feeling that other commercial actors know well — now that you’re all caught up on the Old Spice Guy, here’s what you didn’t know about the Allstate Mayhem Guy.