Nik Richie

As of 2019, Richie was no longer associated with TheDirty, having 'retired' from the site in April 2018.

In March 2017, television and film production company Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films announced it was developing a new untitled scripted TV series based on Richie's 2013 Memoir, Sex, Lies and the Dirty. No release date has been announced for the show which will include "a pilot based on true events."

In 2016, Richie changed the format of TheDirty from a "gossip" format to a more traditional celebrity news site.

Richie's second child, a son named Lyon Lamas-Richie was born via surrogate on July 4, 2015.

Nik Richie was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2015.

Despite rumors that the couple may be headed for divorce, Richie and Lamas appeared together in a Couples Therapy "Reunion Special" which aired in 2014.

In addition to seeking dismissal of cases based on CDA immunity, Richie has raised other arguments. For example, on March 13, 2014, a federal court in Arkansas found that Richie was not subject to personal jurisdiction in that state because "posting defamatory material on the internet, standing alone, is insufficient to create personal jurisdiction over a defendant in the plaintiff's home state." On that basis, the court dismissed the case against Richie, who represented himself in the lawsuit without an attorney. Notably, the Kentucky district court reached the opposite conclusion in the Sarah Jones case, finding that Richie was subject to personal jurisdiction in that state.

In May 2013, Richie released a tell-all memoir entitled Sex, Lies and The Dirty. In the book, Richie describes the origins of his website and shares several stories about his celebrity encounters along the way, including watching Lindsay Lohan snort a "line of cocaine off her wrist" in a nightclub bathroom.

In 2013, wedding planner David Tutera threw a belated wedding reception for Richie and Lamas which was filmed as part of Tutera's reality TV series, David Tutera: Unveiled.

On March 13, 2013, Richie's wife Shayne was hospitalized citing "marital stress" allegedly caused by Richie's "non-stop partying". Richie released a photo of his wife in the hospital on Instagram, but has offered no details about the incident except a short apology posted on Twitter, stating "my personal life is a mess."

The Jones civil case was heard by a Kentucky jury on January 22–25, 2013. After two days of deliberation, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. On January 25, 2013, the court found the jury was deadlocked resulting in a mistrial. Subsequent media reports explained that although the hung jury failed to reach a verdict, "Jurors did unanimously agree that thedirty.com's operator, Nik Richie, did not act with malice when he posted the submissions. That means jurors would not have awarded Jones any money had they all been able to agree that the posts were substantially false." However, on the question of whether Jones was defamed, the jury was deadlocked 9-1 in favor of Jones. A retrial was set for July 8, 2013.

On July 11, 2013, after a two-day trial and 10–11 hours of deliberations, a jury of eight women and two men in Covington, Kentucky delivered a unanimous verdict in favor of Jones' claim of defamation. The jury awarded Jones $38,000 in compensatory damages and $300,000 in punitive damages for a total award of $338,000.

On July 13, 2013, Richie released a statement on TheDirty.com responding directly to the Jones verdict. In his response, Richie's attorney argued that the judge's instructions to the jury were legally incorrect because they allowed the jury to treat Richie as the "publisher" of content submitted to his site by a third party—exactly the result prohibited by Section 230 of the CDA.

On July 15, 2013, Richie filed a successful appeal before United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Sixth Circuit held that the district court's "adoption or ratification test" was inconsistient with Section 230 immunity and ordered the case vacated and dismissed. Richie's opening brief in the appeal was filed on November 12, 2013.

In the fall of 2012, Richie and his wife were featured on Season 2 of VH1 reality show Couples Therapy along with several other couples. In the season's final episode, Richie and Lamas renewed their wedding vows in a televised ceremony.

At least one federal court in Missouri has agreed with this argument, holding that a lawsuit against Richie was barred by the CDA. The case, S.C. v. Dirty World LLC, Case No. 11-CV-00392-DW (W.D. Mo. March 12, 2012), involved a post entitled "Dirty Church Girl" which was submitted to TheDirty.com by a third-party user. The young woman named in the post sued Richie for defamation and other claims, but the court held that Richie was entitled to immunity under the Communications Decency Act.

In November 2011, Richie was interviewed by talk show host Anderson Cooper in an episode during which he was confronted by Sarah Jones, the former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader and high school teacher who, at the time, was suing Richie for defamation. Richie was featured in a second interview with Anderson Cooper which aired in January 2012.

In June 2011, ABC News program 20/20 ran a story about Richie and his legal battle with Sarah Jones.

In November 2010, Richie was interviewed by Phil McGraw on an episode of Dr. Phil devoted to the subject of online bullying and gossip entitled "Dirt, Lies and the Internet.". McGraw questioned Richie about the morality of a website which allows users to openly bash each other with hurtful and profane comments, to which Richie responded that there is a marketplace for such a website. McGraw replied, "Well, there's a marketplace for heroin too, but that doesn't justify being a heroin addict." After the show aired, viewers posted more than 700 comments about the program on McGraw's website.

Richie is married to actress and reality TV star Shayne Lamas. The pair met during a vacation to Las Vegas and were married on April 18, 2010 at the Little White Wedding Chapel 8 hours after the couple first met. On November 11, 2011, Lamas and Richie welcomed their first child, a daughter named Press Dahl Lamas-Richie. On January 19, 2014, Richie confirmed that Shayne was pregnant with their second child. On February 10, 2014, Shayne suffered a complication which caused doctors to terminate the pregnancy for the sake of Shayne's life after she was hospitalized with serious internal bleeding.

After losing his anonymity, Richie's public persona grew. In January 2009, Richie was named one of the "10 most fascinating people" by the Arizona Republic newspaper, behind other notable Arizonans such as Meghan McCain (daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain) and Stephenie Meyer, author of the vampire romance series of books and movies Twilight. In later interviews, Richie sought to defend his website on the basis that it helps hold people accountable: ""I think the site is changing lives; it holds people accountable for their actions," he says. "You do something stupid, it gets on the site and everyone calls you out for it, you don't do it again. You learn from it."

In the debate, some have questioned whether the site is actually a public nuisance or a public forum. In 2009, the Arizona Republic newspaper observed, "what makes him interesting is that his site has prompted a dialogue about public and private space and about what is and is not celebrity."

Richie's anonymity ended on September 4, 2008 after he was arrested for DUI and reckless driving in Scottsdale. On the police report, Richie (then Karamian) described his occupation as "web site writer" and his employer as "Dirty Scottsdale". Ironically, prior to his arrest Richie included a section on Dirtyscottsdale.com which prominently featured mugshots of drivers arrested for DUI with a message warning, "Learn to laugh at yourself or DON'T DO STUPID SHIT LOVERS!!!" Once news of his arrest surfaced, Richie publicly "outed" himself and admitted his real identity with a post entitled "Is Hooman Karamian the Real Nik Richie?"

Richie is best known as the founder of user-submitted gossip website TheDirty.com which he began in 2007 as DirtyScottsdale.com and ceased involvement with in April 2018.

Richie founded the online gossip and "reality internet" website TheDirty.com. He began the site in March 2007 as DirtyScottsdale.com while living in Scottsdale, Arizona. At the time, Richie was working as a credit card processor but was unhappy with that job, so he began Dirtyscottsdale.com "to chronicle the nightlife of the 'cool kids' in the Arizona town."

Although much of the content on TheDirty.com involves non-celebrities, since 2007 the site has been involved in breaking several national news stories, some featuring Richie himself. These stories include:

Nik Richie (born Hooman Karamian, February 12, 1979), is an American blogger, author, and Internet personality. Richie is currently the President and CEO of Relic Agency, Inc., a social media marketing firm based in Newport Beach, California. Richie is also currently pursuing a journalism degree from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, where he writes for the student-run paper Lariat News.