Jimmy Kimmel

Early life

Jimmy Christian Kimmel was born on November 13, 1967, in Brooklyn, New York City, and grew up in the neighborhood of Mill Basin. He is the eldest of the three children of Joan (née Iacono) and James John Kimmel, who worked at American Express and was an IBM executive.

He was raised Catholic and was an altar boy as a child. Kimmel's mother is of Italian descent. Her grandparents migrated to the United States from Ischia, Naples, after the 1883 earthquake. Two of his paternal great-great-grandparents were German immigrants. His family's surname was Kümmel ('caraway' in German) several generations back. He obtained Italian citizenship in 2025.

He attended P.S. 236 elementary school before the family moved, when Kimmel was nine years old, to Las Vegas, where he befriended his neighbor Cleto Escobedo III, who would go on to be the bandleader on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He graduated from Ed W. Clark High School and attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), for one year before his family moved to Arizona. He attended Arizona State University for the 1985–86 academic year and left without graduating. He received an honorary degree from UNLV in 2013.

Kimmel's uncle, Frank Potenza ("Uncle Frank"), appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a regular from 2003 until he died in 2011. His cousin Sal Iacono performed Kimmel's former co-hosting duties during the last season of Win Ben Stein's Money and then became a writer and sketch performer on Jimmy Kimmel Live! His Aunt Chippy (Concetta Potenza) is also a featured part of the show. His brother Jonathan works on the show as a director. His sister, Jill, is a comedian.

Career

Radio career

Inspired by David Letterman's start in radio, Kimmel began working in radio while in high school. He was the host of a Sunday night interview show on UNLV's college station, KUNV. While attending Arizona State University, he became a popular caller to the KZZP-FM afternoon show hosted by radio personalities Mike Elliott and Kent Voss in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1989, Kimmel landed his first paying job alongside Voss as morning drive co-host of The Me and Him Show at KZOK-FM in Seattle, Washington. Over the next 10 months, the hosts performed several stunts on air, including one that led to the loss of an $8,000 advertising contract with the Seattle Mariners.

In 1990, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa. Kimmel went on to host his own show at KCMJ in Palm Springs, California, where he recruited as his intern Carson Daly, who had been a family friend since his childhood. After a morning stint at KRQQ in Tucson, Arizona, Kimmel landed at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. He spent five years as "Jimmy The Sports Guy" for the Kevin and Bean morning show. During that time, he met and befriended the comedian Adam Carolla.

Comedy Central

Kimmel initially did not want to do television; he began writing for Fox announcers and promotions and was quickly recruited to do the on-air promotions himself. He declined several offers for television shows from producer Michael Davies, being uninterested in the projects, until he was offered a place as the comedic counterpart to Ben Stein on the game show Win Ben Stein's Money, which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. His quick wit and "everyman" personality were counterpoints to Stein's monotonous vocal style and faux-patrician demeanor. The combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.

In 1999, during his time on Win Ben Stein's Money, Kimmel co-hosted (with Adam Carolla) and co-produced (with Daniel Kellison) Comedy Central's The Man Show. Kimmel left Win Ben Stein's Money in 2001 and was replaced by comedian Nancy Pimental, who was eventually replaced by Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono. The Man Show's success allowed Kimmel, Carolla, and Kellison to create and produce, under the banner Jackhole Productions, Crank Yankers for Comedy Central (on which Kimmel plays the characters "Elmer Higgins", "Terrence Catheter", "The Nudge", "Karl Malone" and himself) and later The Andy Milonakis Show for MTV2. Kimmel also produced and co-wrote the feature film Windy City Heat, Festival Prize winner of the Comedia Award for Best Film at the 2004 Montreal Comedy Festival.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

In January 2003, Kimmel permanently left The Man Show to host his own late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel Live! was created as a permanent replacement for Politically Incorrect, which ABC canceled in June 2002 following controversial comments by host Bill Maher about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In April 2007, Stuffmagazine.com named Kimmel the "biggest badass on TV". Kimmel said it was an honor, but clearly a mistake. Despite its name, the show has not actually aired live since 2004, when censors were unable to properly bleep censor a curse word from Thomas Jane. During the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit, Kimmel appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for his show. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Officials with Detroit's ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV, immediately announced that that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized.

In a running gag that lasted for years, Kimmel would end his show with "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." When Matt Damon did actually appear on the show to be interviewed in 2006, he walked in and sat down only to be told just a few seconds later by Kimmel, "Unfortunately, we are totally out of time," followed by "my apologies to Matt Damon." Damon appeared angry, but both performers have since indicated that their faux-feud is a joke. In February 2008, Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck" as "revenge" after his then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Damon recorded a similar video titled "I'm Fucking Matt Damon". Silverman's video originally aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live! going viral on YouTube. Kimmel's "revenge" video featured himself, Ben Affleck, and a large lineup of stars, particularly in scenes spoofing the 1985 "We Are the World" video: Christina Applegate, Lance Bass, Don Cheadle, Lauren Conrad, Cameron Diaz, Perry Farrell, Harrison Ford, Macy Gray, Josh Groban, Joan Jett, Dom Joly, Huey Lewis, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Meat Loaf, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dominic Monaghan, Brad Pitt, Rebecca Romijn, Mike Shinoda, Pete Wentz, and Robin Williams, among others.

Afterwards, Kimmel's sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, appeared in a spoof of The Bourne Ultimatum, which starred Damon. He was then chased down by Damon, who was cursing about Kimmel being behind all this. Guillermo also stopped Damon on the red carpet one time and, before he could finish the interview, said, "Sorry, we are out of time." The most recent encounter was titled "The Handsome Men's Club" which featured Kimmel, along with the "Handsome Men", who were: Affleck, Ted Danson, Patrick Dempsey, Taye Diggs, Josh Hartnett, Ethan Hawke, John Krasinski, Lenny Kravitz, Rob Lowe, Gilles Marini, Matthew McConaughey, Tony Romo, Sting and Keith Urban, speaking about being handsome and all the jobs that come with it. At the end of the skit, Kimmel has a door slammed in his face by Damon, who says they have run out of time and gives a sinister laugh. Jennifer Garner makes a surprise appearance. As a tradition, celebrities voted off Dancing with the Stars appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, causing Kimmel to describe himself as "the three-headed dog the stars must pass on their way to No-Dancing Hell."

Other television work, 1996-2020

In spring 1996, Kimmel appeared as "Jimmy the Fox Guy" in promos on the Fox Network. His other television work included being the on-air football prognosticator for Fox NFL Sunday for four years. He has had numerous appearances on other talk shows, including Live with Regis and Kelly, The Howard Stern Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Late Show with David Letterman.

He has appeared on The Late Show five times, most recently in 2010. Kimmel served as roastmaster for the New York Friars' Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and the Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

In August 2006, ABC announced that Kimmel would be host of their new game show Set for Life. The show debuted on July 20, 2007. On April 6, 2007, Kimmel filled in for Larry King on Larry King Live. That particular broadcast dealt with paparazzi. Kimmel reproached Emily Gould, an editor at Gawker.com, for the site's alleged stalking of celebrities. On July 8, 2007, Kimmel managed the National League in the 2007 Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game in San Francisco. He played in the game in 2004 and 2006 (in Houston and Pittsburgh, respectively). On July 11, 2007, Kimmel, along with basketball player LeBron James, hosted the 2007 ESPY Awards. The show aired on ESPN on July 15, 2007. Kimmel hosted the American Music Awards on ABC five times, in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Kimmel guest-hosted Live with Regis and Kelly during the week of October 22–26, 2007, commuting every day between New York and Los Angeles. In the process, he broke the Guinness World Record for the longest distance (22,406 miles (36,059 km)) traveled in one work week. Kimmel himself has questioned the record, suggesting that a world leader or the Pope must actually hold the record.

Kimmel has performed in several animated films, often voicing dogs. His voice appeared in Garfield: The Movie and Road Trip, and he portrayed Death's Dog in the Family Guy episode "Mr. Saturday Knight"; Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane later presented Kimmel with a figurine of his character on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Kimmel also did voice work for Robot Chicken. Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono has accepted and won a wrestling match with Santino Marella.

Books

In July 2019, Kimmel released his first book, The Serious Goose, an interactive children's picture book featuring his own illustrations that tasks readers with helping to make the serious goose smile.

Podcasts

From August 30 to October 10, 2023, Kimmel hosted Strike Force Five, a comedy podcast with Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver to support their staff members who were out of work due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.

Influences

Kimmel's biggest influences in comedy are David Letterman and Howard Stern. Kimmel has said of Letterman, "His show was just so weird and different. I'd never seen anything like it. I didn't know anyone who had a sense of humor like that." Kimmel has often joked that the only reason he got into show business was to be friends with Letterman; he has questioned why anybody would watch his show instead of Letterman's.

Kimmel wrote a piece for Time in 2015 about his love for Letterman:As I write this, there are only ten shows left before the funniest, most inventive and smartest man who ever wore an Alka Seltzer suit goes fishing for good. None of us who discovered Dave on our own and claimed him as our own will ever be able to satisfactorily explain to the younger people who didn't know what he did, what he meant, and what he means. I guess it doesn't matter. It's only an exhibition, not a competition. Thanks, Dave. For whatever it's worth, you're my favorite.

Personal life

Kimmel is a practicing Catholic. He has spoken publicly about having narcolepsy. In 2025, he obtained Italian citizenship.

Kimmel married Gina Maddy in 1988; they divorced in 2002. Their daughter was born in 1991 and their son was born in 1993. Kimmel became a grandfather when his oldest daughter gave birth to a girl in May 2025. He had a relationship with comedian Sarah Silverman from 2002 to March 2009.

Kimmel and Molly McNearney, a co-head writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live, started dating in October 2009. They were engaged in August 2012 and married in July 2013. Their daughter was born in July 2014 and they have homes in Hermosa Beach, California.

Their second child, another son, was born on April 21, 2017. He was born with a rare congenital heart defect, tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with pulmonary atresia, which was first detected when he had a purplish appearance at three hours after birth. He underwent successful surgery at three days of age. The first guests Kimmel had when his show returned following his son's birth were cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who explained the condition, and snowboarder Shaun White, who was born with TOF. Kimmel later cited his son's condition in a monologue criticizing a previous guest, Senator Bill Cassidy, who had co-authored a congressional healthcare bill, for not living up to the "Jimmy Kimmel test" regarding access for patients with pre-existing conditions. The monologue was widely discussed as part of the wider debate about the American healthcare system.

In 2020, a genealogy report conducted for the TV show Finding Your Roots determined that he and Martha Stewart are cousins.

Interests

Kimmel plays the bass clarinet, and he was a guest performer at a concert in Costa Mesa, California, on July 20, 2008, featuring The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, performing with the group on the song "The Impression That I Get".

Kimmel co-founded the annual Los Angeles Feast of San Gennaro, a New York City annual tradition, and co-hosted the eighth annual Los Angeles version in 2009. In 2018, he raised funds for Nevada U.S. Senate candidate (and eventual senator) Jacky Rosen.

In 2020, Kimmel and a partner purchased a fly fishing lodge in eastern Idaho, located along the Snake River. He has mentioned fly fishing as a personal hobby in prior media interviews.

In 2021, Kimmel became the title sponsor of the LA Bowl for the year; in 2022, a college football bowl game began to be played annually in Inglewood's SoFi Stadium. The game became officially known as the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl.

Filmography

Discography

"Joel the Lump of Coal" from Don't Waste Your Wishes with The Killers