Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and is of German and Italian descent.^[1] The family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, when he was nine years old.^{[citation needed]} He graduated from Ed W. Clark High School and then attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas for one year and Arizona State University for two years without completing a degree. Kimmel and his ex-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, ending in the summer of 2008.^[2]

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, CA featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, when he took the stage and played bass clarinet on their hit song The Impression That I Get.^[3]

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 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 Tampa, Kimmel landed a job with Mike Elliott at 93.7 KRQ in Tucson. Kimmel and Elliott were fired after one year. From KRQ, Kimmel was hired as sports guy/comedy writer for the Kevin and Bean morning show at KROQ-FM, Los Angeles, where he was known as "Jimmy the Sports Guy." Kimmel spent five years at KROQ, leaving in 1999 to focus on television.

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 everyman personality was a counterpoint 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 Daniel 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.

In January 2003, Kimmel permanently left The Man Show to host his own late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. 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.

In February of 2008 Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck",^[4] 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".^[5] 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 and Joan Jett.

Kimmel often 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 if this was real or a joke. Kimmel confirmed that this was in fact a joke.^[6]

As a tradition, celebrites voted off of 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." ^[7] Kimmel started a tradition of burning the dancers' shoes after they were voted off of the 2008 season.

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. He has appeared on the The Late Show five times, most recently on April 21 2008.) Kimmel is a three-time host of the American Music Awards and 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.^[8] 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 criticized 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 guest hosted Live with Regis and Kelly during the week of October 22 - 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)) traveled in one work week. Kimmel has lent his voice to several movies playing dogs in animated movies. Some of the movies include, Garfield and Road Trip, and he appeared as Death's Dog on the show Family Guy in the episode Mr. Saturday Knight. On the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane presented Kimmel with a figurine of his brief Family Guy character, Death's Dog. Kimmel also did voice work for Robot Chicken. Kimmel's cousin "Sal" has accepted and won a wrestling match with WWE superstar Santino Marella.

• ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live website
• JimmyKimmel.Net
• Jimmy Kimmel appears on Michael Eisner's talkshow on CNBC
• Jimmy Kimmel at IMDb
• Jimmy Kimmel interview
• Appearance on HGTV's Designer's Challenge
• Jimmy is Maxim's #2 Dudeliest Dude 2007