[2] Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba and grew up in Toronto, Ontario, where he attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute and York University in 1995.
[4] From France, he travelled extensively in the western and eastern parts of European continent and North Africa, shooting, and editing his own stories.
Common has filed reports from across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as helped cover conflicts in Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
He was one of the main weekday anchor of CBC Radio One's morning newscast World Report for a number of years in the 2010s.
[6] In 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic (2020–21), Common announced that he was a guest host for several weeks on Metro Morning, CBC Radio's local morning show on CBLA-FM in Toronto, and was named the program's permanent host by October 2023.