Leslie Jones Bio
Annette Leslie Jones, known professionally as Leslie Jones, is an American stand-up comedian and actress born on September 7, 1967, in Memphis, Tennessee. She first gained widespread recognition as a cast member and writer on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2014 to 2019, and later became the host of the ABC game show Supermarket Sweep. Jones also built her reputation through stand-up performances at major festivals, including Just for Laughs in Montreal and the Aspen Comedy Festival, and through a string of film roles in Hollywood comedies.
Beyond television, Leslie Jones has appeared in several high-profile films, most notably the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters, in which she played Patty Tolan, as well as Coming 2 America in 2021 and Good Burger 2 in 2023. Her energetic, physical style of comedy has made her a recognizable presence both on screen and in live performance. She earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2017 and 2018 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Saturday Night Live.
Early Life and Background
Annette Leslie Jones was born on September 7, 1967, in Memphis, Tennessee. She grew up with a younger brother, Rodney Keith Jones. Her father, Willie Jones Jr., served in the United States Army, and because of his military career, the family moved often during her childhood. The family eventually settled in Los Angeles after her father took a job as an electronics engineer at KJLH, the radio station owned by Stevie Wonder.
Jones attended high school in Lynwood, California, where she played on the basketball team. Her height led her father to encourage her to take up the sport, and she later earned a basketball scholarship to Chapman University. Once there, she worked as a disc jockey at the student radio station, KNAB, and briefly considered playing professional basketball overseas before her life took a different turn.
Path to Comedy
When her basketball coach at Chapman, Brian Berger, accepted the head-coaching job at Colorado State University, Jones followed him and transferred schools. At Colorado State, she changed her major several times, exploring pre-law, accounting, and computer science before settling on communications. She eventually left Colorado State without completing her degree, but it was during her college years that her comedy career began to take shape.
In 1987, a friend signed her up for a Funniest Person on Campus contest, which she won. The victory gave her the confidence to leave school and pursue comedy in Los Angeles, where she balanced stage time at comedy clubs with day jobs at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles and UPS. Fellow comedians Mother Love and Dave Chappelle encouraged her to move to New York City to sharpen her skills, and she spent more than two years there, including an appearance on BET’s ComicView, before returning to Los Angeles to continue her stand-up career.
Leslie Jones Career
Early Career (1987–2013)
Leslie Jones spent more than two decades refining her stand-up act, performing at clubs across Los Angeles and on tour. She opened for Jamie Foxx early in her career, an experience that, despite a difficult audience reception, led to valuable advice from Foxx, who encouraged her to live more life to inform her comedy. Jones stepped away from performing for about three years before returning to smaller clubs, gradually rebuilding her reputation as a sharp, high-energy performer.
By 2010, Jones had earned a one-hour Showtime comedy special titled Problem Child, and she was once again landing prime-time slots at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood. In 2012, comedian Chris Rock saw her perform and championed her to major managers in the comedy world. The following year, Rock helped her secure an audition for Saturday Night Live, setting the stage for her most significant career break.
Breakthrough (2014–2019)
In 2013, Saturday Night Live held a casting call aimed at adding at least one African American woman to its cast. Jones auditioned and, after a previous public critique of the show, was initially hired as a writer alongside LaKendra Tookes. She made an early on-air appearance during the Weekend Update segment of the May 3, 2014 episode hosted by Andrew Garfield, a moment that generated significant attention. On October 20, 2014, Jones was promoted to the cast as a featured player, making her official debut on the October 25, 2014 episode hosted by Jim Carrey. At 47, she became the oldest person ever to join the show as a cast member at the time.
Jones’s tenure on Saturday Night Live marked a series of historic moments for the program. Her promotion made her part of the first SNL cast in history to include more than one African American woman, and the 40th season, during which she joined, set a record with five concurrent African American cast members. She remained with the show through Seasons 41, 42 (when she was elevated to repertory status), 43, and 44, concluding her run on the program in 2019.
While building her profile on Saturday Night Live, Jones also expanded into film. In 2014, she appeared in Chris Rock’s directorial project Top Five, and in 2015, she joined the Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer comedy Trainwreck. Her biggest film role came in 2016, when she starred as Patty Tolan in the Ghostbusters reboot alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon. She later appeared in Coming 2 America with Tracy Morgan, Rick Ross, and KiKi Layne, and went on to star in Good Burger 2 in 2023.
Notable Works and Milestones
Leslie Jones’s signature works include her long run on Saturday Night Live, her role as Patty Tolan in Ghostbusters (2016), and her hosting duties on ABC’s Supermarket Sweep reboot, which she began fronting in 2020 and returned for in 2021. She also hosted the 2017 BET Awards and the 2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards, and has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Actors Branch since 2017. Her comedy special Problem Child aired on Showtime in 2010, and she was signed by Netflix for an additional stand-up special scheduled for release in 2020.
Leslie Jones Award Nominations
Leslie Jones has earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations during her career, both in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category. The first came in 2017 and the second in 2018, with each nomination recognizing her work as a performer on Saturday Night Live.
Leslie Jones Awards Won
Based on the available verified information, Leslie Jones has not been documented as a winner of a major televised entertainment award for her work in comedy or film. She has been recognized with two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Saturday Night Live in 2017 and 2018.
Leslie Jones Family
Leslie Jones was raised in a military family headed by her father, Willie Jones Jr., who served in the United States Army before working as an electronics engineer at KJLH, the radio station owned by Stevie Wonder, after the family relocated to Los Angeles. She had a younger brother, Rodney Keith Jones, who lived from 1971 to 2009. Her father’s career and frequent moves shaped much of her early childhood before the family eventually settled in Southern California.
Personal Life
Outside of her comedy and acting work, Leslie Jones is a devoted fan of Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC and an enthusiastic viewer of the reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race. She has cited Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, John Ritter, and Whoopi Goldberg among her comedic influences. Jones has also been a prominent public voice on social issues, particularly after facing online harassment following the release of Ghostbusters in 2016, and she later appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss the experience and her meeting with Twitter leadership.