Before Jimmy Kimmel would be named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People
in the World and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Before Jimmy Kimmel would host the American Music Awards, the EPSY awards, the Emmy's
and the Oscars.
Before Jimmy Kimmel would have an on going feud with Matt Damon on on Jimmy
Kimmel Live.
Before Jimmy Kimmel would clock in 10 Million Subscribers on YouTube and go viral online
with his Celebrities Read Mean Tweets, Celbrities Undercover and his worst Twerk Fail ever prank.
You know him now as the king of late night but Jimmy Kimmel has benn on practically everything..
Growing up he was in the church choir, he was an alter boy and in the school band but
this was all a clever disguise for young Jimmy, when his parents wernt looking he was a notorious
prankster who would terrorize his neighbourhood and teaching staff.
Jimmy Kimmel fell in love with David Letterman and worked long and hard to climb to the top
of Hollywood.
His pranks would result in him getting fired time after time and he watched his closest
friends find fame and fortune untill he would catch his big break with Jimmy Kimmel Live!
What's going on guys?
My name is Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Jimmy Kimmel prior to fame,
here for you on Before They Were Famous.
Jimmel is my fav of the late night hosts, but in the past we have done videos on James
Corden & I covered Jimmy Fallon way back in the day – that could use an update.
As always, be sure to let me know who is next in the comments down below.
Also, let me know who your favorite Late Night host is.
Aright, now let's roll that intro.
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Jimmy Kimmel was born James Christian Kimmel on November 13, 1967 in Brooklyn, New York
City, New York and Jimmy grew up the eldest of three in the working class neighborhood
of Jamaica Bay.
His father James John Kimmel worked as an IBM executive and is of Irish, German, and
Welsh ancestry, his mother Joan, a homemaker is of Italian descent.
Jimmy likes to keep his family close and has had involved them in his work throughout his
career.
In fact the first guest he's ever had on the air was his uncle frank.
He also features his Aunt Chippy and his Cousin Sal as regulars on his show.
Although I'm pretty certain that Sal isn't his actual cousin.
His family moved to Las Vegas when he was 9 years old where Jimmy would spend his formative
years running around the neighborhood of Meadowlark Lane, playing sports, building clubhouses,
and getting into fights.
He built up a tight group of frinds Escobedo and Jim Gentleman.
The boys kept up a clean image taking band class together at Kenny Guin Junior High and
all went to church at Christ the King Catholic Community, where they sang in the choir and
where Kimmel was an altar boy for seven years.
Outside of school and in the afternoons him and his pals
were hell raisers.
One woman in particular by the name of Karen Schilling.
They would prank order food and cabs to her door, tie empty cans to the back of her car
and Jimmy mastered the art of placing a small charge in each of her cigarettes causing them
to explode.
Outside of pranks, Jimmy had found an early obsession watching Late Night with David Letterman.
Jimmy didn't have a VCR growing up and wasn't allowed to stay up late enough to watch his
favourite show so he would have his friends record it and then he would make his rounds
around the neighbourhood to watch.
Jimmy attended Ed W Clarke High school where he was an A student although he didn't put
in a ton of effort.
His high school actually built a shrine to honour the 1985 alumni.
He was far from a ladies man but thrived as a class clown with his favorite class was
visual art, he's actually a fantasic illustrator.
Jimmy never took acting or comedy classes.
It was when he was 16 he was working at a clothing store when a co-worker, who worked
on a college radio station, invited him to come check out his act.
Jimmy new that David Letterman had started out on radio so he though, yea, what the hell.
He started doing a local interviews and the joy he got out of having his friends and family
tune in ignited his never ending passion for show business.
He was so determined that even bought a custom licesnse plate for his first car an Isuzu
I-Mark which read L8 NITE.
He enrolled at the University of Las Vegas but then moved to the University of Arizona
where he got a job on a professional radio show.
It was here he also met his first wife Gina Maddy who he married at the age of 20 and
soon after had their first of two children.
It was time for Jimmy to get to work so he dropped out of school and started working
full time on the radio.
The next few years were a tough break for Jimmy and his young family.
He was laid off from his first radio gig and then they moved to Seattle and Tampa where
he was fired from both gigs.
It was the prankster inside Jimmy that led to his demise, he would tormet his bosses
calling their wives, posting naked photos of them, sneaking into their offices through
the roof that always got him canned.
He finally got a steady gig in Palm Springs California where he hired Carson Daly as his
intern.
Soon after, Jimmy got working at KROQ in Los Angeles, he started off as a producer worked
his way on air and made life long friends with Adam Corolla who he booked as a guest
on the show.
In a strange turn of events, both Adam and Carson found fame and fortune before Jimmy
Kimmel.
It wasn't until 1997 that he finally got a gig on TV as a co-host on Win Ben Stein's
money.
The gig paid a measley $550 an episode so Jimmy had to keep his day job on the radio
waking up at 5am and working well into the night.
Now rubbing shoulders with those in television, Jimmy got to work pitching an original concept
titled The Man Show.
Kimmel asked Carolla to be his co-host on the show, which premiered on Comedy Central
in June 1999 which involved them drinking beer, watching women jump on trampolines and
stuff like this...
Actually looks like my kinda show.
The show was a huge success with males between the ages of 18 to 34 and stayed on air for
6 seasons.
When the show was cancelled Jimmy also went through a divorce.
Things were looking bleek but ABC had wanted to get into the Late Night game and decided
to take a chance on Jimmy Kimmel allowing to fulfill his destiny.
For the first few weeks of the show, Jimmy had trouble booking guests, especially women.
The ratings were mediocre and reviews were worse.
With one critic from The New Yorker describing the show as “dead on arrival”.
Jimmy percevered and entered into a 7 year relationship with Sarah Silverman.
As he shed his Man Show schtick and began appealing to a wider audience Jimmy began
to creep up in the ratings.
Still today he's labelled as a dark horse in the late night community, he's actually
one of the veterans in the game these days.
I could go into more detail about his career while the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
But I'm gonna wrap this one up – because this is Before They Were Famous.
My name is Michael McCrudden and we make all sorts of celebrity bio's here for you on this
channel.
Be sure to check out these other two beauties and let me know who you want me to document
next in the comments down below.