Jimmy Fallon Biography

James Thomas ‘Jimmy’ Fallon was born to James W. Fallon and Gloria, in Brooklyn, New York. He has an elder sister, Gloria.

As kids, Gloria and Jimmy would watch a number of ‘Saturday Night Live’ videos and would re-enact them in front of their parents, friends, or family. Apart from impersonating the characters on ‘Saturday Night Live’, he also had a keen ear for music and would regularly perform in comedy and music contests.

He studied at St. Mary of the Snow and then The College of Saint Rose, where he majored in Computer Science. However, he dropped the subject and switched to Communication. He graduated in the subject much later in his life.

He received his BA in Communication on May 9, 2009, and an honorary degree from The College of Saint Rose.

His stand-up career took off when he started impersonating various celebrities and started performing stand-up tours around the country. He took up improvisation classes with ‘The Groundlings’.

He appeared on the show, ‘Spin City’, in 1998 and was then asked to audition for the long-running late-night sketch comedy show, ‘Saturday Night Live’. It was during the auditions he impersonated a number of personalities including Jerry Seinfeld, Hilary Swank, Eddie Murphy, and Adam Sandler.

He was finally cast in his dream job with ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1998. The following year, he authored ‘I Hate This Place: The Pessimist’s Guide for Life’ along with his sister, Gloria.

After two years, he ventured into films with ‘Almost Famous’ as Dennis Hope. The same year, he also released the comedy album, ‘The Bathroom Wall’, which was rated as a great ‘parody’ album and was even nominated for prestigious awards.

In 2002, he also appeared in the famous mockumentary, ‘The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch’, where he plays the son of Melvin Hall. Two years later, he was cast as ‘Andrew Washburn’ in the film, Taxi.

In 2005, he hosted the MTV Movie Awards and even played Anakin Skywalker in the comedic parody of a ‘Star Wars’ episode.

In 2006, he was cast in ‘Spontaneous Combustion’ a television commercial with Parker Posey, and also starred in ‘Doogal’. The same year, he was invited to the ‘The Secret Policeman’s Ball’, where he made a total of three appearances.

He wrote the song, ‘Car Wash for Peace’ in 2007 and donated all of the proceeds to charity. He performed the same song on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’.

In 2009, he appeared as himself in ’30 Rock’ for four episodes and also appeared in other popular television shows including, ‘The Electric Company’, ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Family Guy’.

His very own television show, ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ was aired in 2009. The show ran for 5 seasons and went off-air in 2014. 

In 2010, he hosted the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. Two years later, he released his second album, ‘Blow Your Pants Off’.

From 2012 to 2013, he became the executive producer of NBC’s ‘Guys with Kids’.

In February 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut on the "Tonight Show" on NBC and the show attracted around 11.3 million viewers.

He has also appeared in films like ‘Jurassic World’ (2015), ‘Jem and the Holograms’ (2015), ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ (2016), ‘Dads’ (2019), ‘The Stand In’ (2020), ‘Marry Me’ (2022), and ‘Spirited’ (2022).

In 2023, he along with Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, and John Oliver, hosted a podcast series named ‘Strike Force Five.’ The show was in support of the staff and crew members who lost their work due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.

‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ was a popular late-night talk show, which premiered on March 2, 2009, on NBC. After a successful trial run, the show became one of the highest-rated television shows around the world and was rated as ‘one of the best’ from the ‘Late Night’ series. The show itself earned Emmy Award nominations and was lauded for its ‘original ideas’.

He won an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series’ for ‘Saturday Night Live’, in 2012.

He won a Grammy Award for ‘Best Comedy Album’ for ‘Blow Your Pants Off’, in 2013.

On December 22, 2007, he married Nancy Juvonen, with whom he has a baby girl through gestational carrier.

He has a Golden Retriever, who has accompanied him on the sets of and has also appeared alongside Fallon in a couple of episodes on ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’.

This famous TV host and comedian-actor from the ‘Saturday Night Live’ fame got a mole removed from his hand live, by a cosmetic surgeon on ‘The Dr. Oz Show’.

In November 2022, the Twitter hashtag #RIPJimmyFallon went viral. Fallon asked Elon Musk for help and the latter jokingly replied "Say something that only the real Jimmy would say..."

In early 2022, Fallon received heavy criticism for discussing NFTs in an interview with Paris Hilton on his show. It was argued that it was a direct breach of Comcast’s, the parent company of NBCUniversal, conflict of interest policies. However, NBCUniversal later came out and clarified that Fallon had not contravened any conflict of interest regulations.

In August 2022, a woman came forward and accused Horatio Sanz, who is famous for appearing on the late-night show SNL, had sexually assaulted her in 2002 when she was a minor. She also alleged that Fallon had allowed Sanz’s behavior and requested his name to be added to the lawsuit. However, in November of that year, Sanz and the woman settled the lawsuit, thus dismissing the case.