[8] Brown studied film at the University of Georgia in the early 1980s, and got his start in television as the cinematographer for music videos, including "The One I Love" by R.E.M.

[11][12] Brown says[13] he was a poor science student in high school and college, but he focused on the subject to understand the underlying processes of cooking.

[15] The pilot for Good Eats first aired in July 1999 on the PBS member TV station WTTW in Chicago.

In June 2021, the episodes premiered on Food Network as a companion to the Chopped: Alton's Maniacal Baskets tournament.

Brown served as the expert commentator, a modified version of the role played by Dr. Yukio Hattori in the original show.

When the show became a series, Brown began serving as the play-by-play announcer, with Kevin Brauch as kitchen reporter.

Brown and his crew traveled around the United States via motorcycle in a four-part miniseries about the history of road food.

He includes a "history of food" segment documenting famous road trips and interviews many of the foodies he meets en route.

The third season uses the title Feasting on Waves and has Brown traveling the Caribbean by boat in search of local cuisine.

[citation needed] In 2013, Brown began hosting the cooking competition series Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network.

In each episode, four chefs are each given $25,000 with which to bid on items that can be used to hinder their opponents' cooking, such as confiscating ingredients or forcing them to use unorthodox tools and equipment.

[27] After a hiatus of several months while Brown worked on his Food Network shows, the tour resumed in October 2014 and concluded on April 4, 2015, in Houston, Texas, after visiting more than 60 cities.

[31] Brown served as a mentor on Season 8 of The Next Food Network Star alongside Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis.

[32] Brown guest-starred in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants titled "House Fancy" where he provides the voice of Nicholas Withers, the host of the titular show.

Brown appeared on the Travel Channel show The Layover with Anthony Bourdain which focused on the city of Atlanta in 2013.

In June 2022, he appeared on the web series Good Mythical Morning episode "Match the Flavor to the Doritos".

Brown has done commercial work for General Electric products,[39] including five infomercials touting the benefits of GE refrigerators, washers and dryers, water purifiers, Trivection ovens, and dishwashers.

[40] The infomercials are produced in the Good Eats style, employing the use of unusual camera angles, informational text, props, visual aids, scientific explanations, and the same method of delivery.

[42] Brown has promoted Colgate toothpaste,[43] Dannon yogurt, Welch's, Shun knives, and Heifer International.

[46] In 2012, Brown gained popularity by pioneering the use of humorous "Analog Tweets", wherein he posts pictures of hand-drawn Twitter responses on Post-it Notes which he has stuck to his computer monitor.

Pantry Raid was a series of once-weekly shorts (usually released on Fridays or Saturdays) for making palatable foods while staying safe at home.

The episodes were filmed in the Good Eats test kitchens at Brain Food Productions and consisted of Alton and a cameraman as the only personnel onsite.

Twenty years after the Omega Seamaster watch his father left him was stolen, Brown bought it from an eBay seller and had it restored.

I don't hit people over the head with the Bible [...] I still feel a funny little tinge in my stomach when I'm out to dinner with my wife and daughter in New York.

[63]Brown said in a December 2014 interview in Time that he "could no longer abide the Southern Baptist Convention's indoctrination of children and its anti-gay stance" adding that he is now "searching for a new belief system.