Jimmy Kimmel

James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show which premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California; and on April 1, 2019, at a secondary home, the Zappos Theater on the Las Vegas Strip. Kimmel hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012, 2016 and 2020. He also hosted the Academy Awards in 2017, 2018 and 2023. Before hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel was the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money. Kimmel has also produced shows including Crank Yankers, Sports Show with Norm Macdonald, and The Andy Milonakis Show. In 2018, Time named him as one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People". Kimmel has hosted a late-night talk show the longest of all current late night television hosts in the United States, after Conan O'Brien’s retirement from hosting a late-night program. Early life and family Kimmel was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the neighborhood of Mill Basin. He is the eldest of three children of Joan (Iacono) and James John Kimmel, who worked at American Express and was an IBM executive. He was raised Catholic and as a child, was an altar boy. Kimmel's mother is of Italian ancestry from Ischia, Naples and her family migrated to the United States 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. According to a DNA test, Kimmel is also of partial Albanian descent.