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Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel, May 2007
Birth name	James Christian Kimmel
Born	November 13, 1967 (1967-11-13) (age 42) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Medium	Radio, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Observational comedy, news satire
Subject(s)	American culture, everyday life, pop culture
Influences	David Letterman, Howard Stern
Notable works and roles	Creator and Host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) and The Man Show, Co-host of Win Ben Stein's Money (Comedy Central)
Emmy Awards
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host: 1999 Win Ben Stein's Money

James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Before that program, Kimmel was also well-known as co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show. Kimmel is also a television producer, with shows including Crank Yankers and The Andy Milonakis Show to his credit.

Personal life

Kimmel was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the son of Joan, a homemaker, and James Kimmel, an IBM executive.¹² He was raised Catholic and is of Italian and German descent.³⁴ The family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, when he was nine years old.¹ He graduated from Ed W. Clark High School and then attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas for one year before attending Arizona State University for two years without completing a degree. Kimmel and his former wife, Gina, married in June 1988. They have a son, Kevin, and a daughter, Katie. The marriage ended in separation in early 2002. Kimmel then dated comedian Sarah Silverman for five years, splitting with her in March 2009.⁵

Kimmel is an avid music fan and plays the bass clarinet. He got a chance to showcase his talent during a July 20, 2008, concert in Costa Mesa, California, featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, when he took the stage and played bass clarinet on their hit song "The Impression That I Get."⁶

Kimmel has spoken publicly of being a narcoleptic.⁷⁸

Kimmel co-founded the annual LA Feast of San Gennaro, which celebrates Italian culture through entertainment, music and cuisine. The festival also honors outstanding members of the Los Angeles community and raises funds to aid needy children and families in the city. Kimmel served as host of Los Angeles' eighth annual feast of San Gennaro from September 28 to 30, 2009.⁹

Additionally, Kimmel served as Master of Ceremonies for the National Italian American Foundation's 34th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., on October 24, 2009.

Career

Early radio career

Kimmel began working in the radio industry while in high school, hosting 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. Ten months later, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK (for reasons unknown) and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida. Kimmel went from Tampa to host his own show at KCMJ-FM in Palm Springs, California (where Kimmel convinced a young Carson Daly to drop out of college and become his intern) From Palm Springs, Kimmel landed a job with Mike Elliott at 93.7 KRQ in Tucson. Kimmel and Elliott were fired after less than a year. From KRQ, Kimmel was hired as sports guy/comedy writer for the Kevin and Bean morning show at KROQ-FM (former employer of Carson Daly) , Los Angeles, where he was known as "Jimmy the Sports Guy." Kimmel spent five years at KROQ, leaving in 1999 to focus on television.

Comedy Central

Kimmel's television career began 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 loutish everyman personality were counterpoints to Ben Stein's monotone performing style and patrician demeanor. This combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.

In 1999, during his time with Win Ben Stein's Money, Kimmel was also co-host (with Adam Carolla) and co-creator (with Daniel Kellison) of Comedy Central's The Man Show. Kimmel permanently left Win Ben Stein's Money in 2001. He was replaced by comedian Nancy Pimental who was eventually replaced by Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono. Kimmel, Carolla, and Kellison's success with The Man Show allowed them to create and produce other TV shows under the banner Jackhole Industries, including 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, which won the Comedia Award for Best Film at the 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 briefly also broadcast on Irish digital TV channel 3e.¹⁰ In the April 2007 issue of Stuffmagazine.com, Kimmel was named the "biggest badass on TV". Kimmel said it was an honor but clearly a mistake.

Since the show's second season, it has not actually been broadcast live. This is due to an incident during the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit, when 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 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.¹¹ The incident led ABC officials to force Kimmel to tape his show an hour before it airs in most of the country to check for offending content.¹²

Kimmel usually ends his show with, "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." However, on one of his shows, he "interviewed" Matt Damon, only to say just a few seconds later, "Sorry, but once again we are completely out of time." Matt appeared to become angry, but people questioned whether this was real or a joke. Kimmel confirmed that this was in fact a joke.

In February 2008 Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called, "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck,"¹³ as "revenge" after his then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon recorded a similar video, "I'm Fucking Matt Damon". Silverman's video originally aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and became an "instant YouTube sensation."¹⁴ Kimmel's "revenge" video featured himself, Ben Affleck, and a big lineup of stars, particularly in scenes spoofing the 1985 "We Are the World" video: Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Dominic Monaghan, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Lance Bass, Macy Gray, Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Perry Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Pete Wentz, Meat Loaf, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Applegate, Dom Joly, Mike Shinoda, Lauren Conrad and Joan Jett.

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." ¹⁵ In the 2008 season of his show, Kimmel started another tradition of ceremonially burning the dancers' shoes after they were voted off DWTS.

Other television work

In Spring 1996, Kimmel appeared as "Jimmy the Fox Guy" in promos on the Fox network.

Kimmel's 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, but not limited to, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Howard Stern Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Late Show with David Letterman (Kimmel is a fan of David Letterman, who, together with Howard Stern, were his idols growing up^{citation needed}. He has appeared on the The Late Show five times, most recently on April 21, 2008.) Kimmel served as roastmaster for the New York Friars' Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and Comedy Central Roasts of Pamela Anderson. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, along with his parking lot security guard Guillermo.

In August 2006, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would be the host of their new game show Set for Life.¹⁶ The show debuted on July 20, 2007. On April 6, 2007, Kimmel filled in for Larry King on Larry King Live. That particular show was about the paparazzi. It was on that show that Kimmel decimated Emily Gould, an editor from Gawker.com about the web 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 (Houston and Pittsburgh). 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 four times, in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Kimmel guest hosted Live with Regis and Kelly during the week of October 22, 2007 – October 26, 2007, commuting every day between New York and Los Angeles. In the process, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest distance (22,406 miles (36,059 km)) travelled in one work week.¹⁷

Kimmel has performed in several animated films, often voicing dogs. His voice appeared in Garfield and Road Trip, and he portrayed Death's Dog in the Family Guy episode "Mr. Saturday Knight"; Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane 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" (Sal Iacono) has accepted and won a wrestling match with WWE superstar Santino Marella.

On January 14, 2010, during the midst of the 2010 Tonight Show host and timeslot conflict, Kimmel was the special guest of Jay Leno on The Jay Leno Show's "10 at 10" segment where Jay asks his guest ten questions to get ten random answers. Kimmel derided Leno in front of a live studio audience for taking back his old 11:35pm timeslot resulting in Conan O'Brien's awkward unseating from The Tonight Show. Kimmel proceeded to throw insults at Leno throughout the segment, later pleading Leno to "leave our shows alone".

Awards

nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for best COMEDY / VARIETY – MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES – SPECIALS 2008 for "Jimmy Kimmel’s Big Night of Stars", Written by Jimmy Kimmel, Gary Greenberg, Molly McNearney, Bryan Paulk, Ned Rice, Jon Bines, Will Burke, Rick Rosner, Jake Lentz, Sal Iacono, Tony Barbieri

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jimmy Kimmel

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