Jimmy Kimmel

Kimmel married Gina Maddy in 1988; they divorced in 2002. Their daughter Katherine was born in 1991 and their son Kevin was born in 1993. He had a relationship with comedian Sarah Silverman from 2002 until they broke up in March 2009.

Inspired by David Letterman's start in radio, 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. Over the next 10 months, the hosts performed several stunts on air, including one that led to an $8,000 loss in advertising.

In 1990, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida. Kimmel went on to host his own show at KCMJ in Palm Springs, California, where he recruited Carson Daly, who had been a family friend since his childhood, to become his intern. 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 this time he met and befriended a comedian named Adam Carolla.

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, but not limited to, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Howard Stern Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and the Late Show with David Letterman.

Kimmel, who initially did not want to do television, 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 with 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.

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 August 2006, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would be the 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 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 (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.

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! and became an "instant YouTube sensation." 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: Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Dominic Monaghan, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Lance Bass, Macy Gray, 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, among others.

Kimmel plays the bass clarinet, and 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".

He started dating Molly McNearney, a co-head writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live, in October 2009. They became engaged in August 2012 and married in July 2013. Their daughter Jane was born in July 2014.

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.

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 Comedy Central Roasts of Pamela Anderson. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

On January 14, 2010, in the midst of the 2010 Tonight Show host and time slot conflict, Kimmel was the special guest of Jay Leno on The Jay Leno Show's "10 at 10" segment. Kimmel derided Leno in front of a live studio audience for taking back the 11:35 pm time slot from Conan O'Brien, and repeatedly insulted Leno. He ended the segment with a plea that Leno "leave our shows alone," as Kimmel and O'Brien had "kids" while Leno only had "cars."

Kimmel's uncle, Frank Potenza ("Uncle Frank"), appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a regular from 2003 until his death 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. He has a son, Kevin (born 1993), who works on the show as a production assistant. He has a daughter, Katie (born 1991), who is a ceramics artist. He also has a daughter named Jane (born 2014) and a son named Billy (born 2017).

He hosted the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 23, 2012, and the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 18, 2016. With the Presidential Election only weeks away, Kimmel pointed out the role Mark Burnett played in the rise of Trump.

The family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, when he was nine years old. He graduated from Ed W. Clark High School, and then attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas for one year before transferring to Arizona State University. He received an honorary degree from UNLV in 2013.

In October 2013, a new segment of the show, "Kids Table", showcased five- and six-year-olds discussing the U.S. government shutdown and U.S. debts. When one of the children suggested "killing all the people in China", as a way of resolving the U.S. debt, Kimmel responded that that was "an interesting idea" and soon jokingly asked a follow up: "Should we allow the Chinese to live?" The incident triggered discussions and protests on Internet, even from Mainland China. In an October 25 letter to a group called the 80-20 Initiative, which identifies itself as a pan-Asian-American political organization, ABC apologized for the segment, saying "We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large."

Kimmel hosted the 89th edition of the Academy Awards ceremony on February 26, 2017. Kimmel returned as host for the 90th edition of the Academy Awards on March 4, 2018.

Their second child, son William ("Billy") John, was born on April 21, 2017. The infant 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 surrounding the American healthcare system.

In June 2018, Kimmel was challenged by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz to a one-on-one basketball game after Kimmel compared Cruz's appearance to that of a blobfish. Kimmel accepted and the game (known as the Blobfish Basketball Classic) was scheduled to take place at Texas Southern University on June 16, with the loser donating $5000 to the non-political charity of the winner's choice. Cruz defeated Kimmel 11–9, and over $80,000 was raised from the game and donated to the charities. In the November of 2018, he launched his second production company, Kimmelot.

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.

Kimmel is the host of a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for the show's 20th anniversary. It premiered on April 8, 2020 on ABC.

In June 2020, it was announced that Kimmel would return to host the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20, 2020. It was also announced that he was taking the summer off amid a brewing blackface controversy. Later, videos surfaced of Kimmel using racial slurs in a music video. Also, during an interview in 2009 with Megan Fox, Kimmel made a joke in response to Fox speaking out about being sexualized at age 15 by Michael Bay. Kimmel later issued an apology for his actions and for taking long to address the criticism. He stated: "There is nothing more important to me than your respect, and I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke." Kimmel explained the blackface was part of a recurring impression of basketball player Karl Malone which continued on The Man Show: "We hired makeup artists to make me look as much like Karl Malone as possible. I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl's skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head." He also denied that him going on vacation was due to the blackface controversy, stating the vacation had been planned for over a year. He did not, however, address the interview with Megan Fox.

Maren Morris serenades Jimmy Kimmel on 52nd birthday with special song

The 29-year-old pregnant country singer serenaded Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday with a 'special' song for his 52nd birthday on his ABC chat show.