Background

Ethnicity: Jay Leno's mother had moved from Scotland to the United States when she was 11 years old, while his father had been born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy.

Jay Leno was born on April 28, 1950, in New Rochelle, New York, the United States, to Angelo Leno, an insurance salesman, and Cathryn Leno, a homemaker. He later moved to Andover, Massachusetts, where he spent the duration of his childhood. Leno also had a brother, Patrick, who was 10 years older than him.

Education

Jay Leno went to Andover High School, during that time he suffered from dyslexia. As a student in grade school, Leno displayed his comic tendencies with pranks and practical jokes. His fifth-grade teacher's report card comments - "if Jay spent as much time studying as he does trying to be a comedian, he'd be a big star" - turned out to be prophetic.

Leno attended Emerson College, a private institution, in Boston, in the early ’70s. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in speech therapy. While in college, he also started a comedy club. In 2014, Leno received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his alma mater.

Career

Moving to Los Angeles after graduation, Leno wrote for the television show Good Times alongside fellow future late-nighter David Letterman. Leno also worked as the warm-up act for Johnny Mathis and Tom Jones. Leno debuted on NBC’s The Tonight Show in 1977 and became Johnny Carson’s permanent guest host 10 years later. He also became a regular on the variety show The Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.

In the mid-1980s, Leno hosted his first comedy special on TV, Jay Leno, and the American Dream. Around this same period, he made numerous successful appearances on late-night TV, particularly on Late Night with David Letterman. In 1987, he signed a deal with NBC that made him one of two permanent guest hosts of The Tonight Show, a position he soon claimed solely for himself.

Leno forged a reputation as of the busiest performers in comedy; for years he booked more than 300 appearances annually. He also became famous for his clean, observational brand of humor and cartoon-like facial features, which he made reference to in the title of his 1996 autobiography, Leading With My Chin.

In 1992 NBC chose Leno over David Letterman to replace the retiring Carson. The selection spawned a rivalry between The Tonight Show and CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman, which competed in the same time slot. He would eventually go on to become the soul of the show for nearly two decades.

Initially, the transfer of hosting duties to Leno did not go smoothly. There was a well-documented falling out between Leno and his longtime manager, Helen Kushnick, who had assumed executive-producing duties for the show. In what had become a cutthroat environment in the late-night talk show world, Kushnick reportedly threatened potential guests not to appear on other talk shows if they wanted to be on The Tonight Show.

Kushnick was eventually fired, and the show gained momentum and a growing audience. In 1993, Leno's contract was extended by five years, at $40 million, and two years later, Leno won an Emmy Award for his performance as The Tonight Show host. In 1998, his show was renewed again for another five years, this time at $100 million.

In 2003, Leno announced that he planned to leave NBC by 2010. Conan O'Brien of Late Night with Conan O'Brien was soon named Leno's heir apparent on The Tonight Show. In December 2008, shortly before Leno's contract was set to expire, the network announced that his upcoming show would air in a prime-time slot.

In September Leno began hosting The Jay Leno Show, a prime-time hour-long program that aired Monday through Friday. The show, however, failed to catch on with viewers, and in January 2010 it was canceled; the last episode aired in February.

Later in January, it was announced that Leno would replace O’Brien as host of The Tonight Show, which had struggled in the ratings following Leno’s departure. He returned to the program in March, and the ratings soon rebounded. In February 2014 Leno stepped down as host; Jimmy Fallon succeeded him.

In addition to his comic fame, Leno was recognized as an automotive authority, in part because of his massive collection of rare and expensive cars. He wrote a column, Jay Leno’s Garage, for Popular Mechanics magazine and contributed to several books, including John Lamm’s Velocity: Supercar Revolution (2006), Steve Lehto’s Chrysler’s Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit’s Coolest Creation (2010), and Phil Berg’s Ultimate Garages III (2011). His column was adapted into an Internet series for NBC.com and was later turned into a television show on the network CNBC.

Leno also joined the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing in a recurring role. He went on to appear on the celebrity competition series Lip Sync Battle and serve as a guest judge on America's Got Talent.

Achievements

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  Jay Leno has been nominated in more than thirty award categories including a total of sixteen Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He was honored with a Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award in 2011. Leno was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000. In 2014, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and awarded the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Leading with My Chin

    (The comedian and host of The Tonight Show offers a hilari...)

    1996

• TV series

  • The Fairly OddParents

    (Timmy Turner is an average kid - sort of. He's an only ch...)

• TV show

  • Jay Leno's Garage

    (Jay Leno's Garage takes viewers on a ride-along to the in...)

  • Jay Leno: The American Dream 1986
  • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Politics

Jay Leno is a Democrat, a left-of-center liberal.

Views

Jay Leno and his spouse are known as generous philanthropists. Leno has made grants to quite a few colleges and universities. The Lenos have steadily supported Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Massachusetts, where they have supported scholarships. Other grantees have included Mount Holyoke College, Boston University, McPherson College, and Northeastern University. Leno has a longtime penchant for cars, and in Kansas, the McPherson College Automotive Restoration Technology program has received support from Leno for years.

The Lenos have steadily supported the Feminist Majority Foundation, where Jay's spouse, Mavis, sits on the board and chairs the Feminist Majority’s Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls. Other grantees have included Equality Now, an international human rights organization dedicated to action for the civil, political, economic, and social rights of girls and women.

The Lenos have supported health organizations like Huntsville Hospital Foundation and Health for Everyone. Leno has also supported Painted Turtle Camp, which offers camp-based programming for youth with serious medical conditions. Grantmaking has also included the support of community arts programs.

Quotations: "In America, we like everyone to know about the good work we're doing anonymously."

"Racecar driving is a lot like sex; all men think they're good at it."

"Stephen Hawking is getting a divorce. That's scary. If the smartest guy in the world can't figure out women, we're screwed."

Personality

Maintaining classic cars and motorcycles is one of Jay's hobbies. He is one of the few owners of the McLaren F1 supercar. Leno prefers to wear denim jeans and denim shirts as his casual clothing. He doesn't drink coffee, soup, or any hot beverages. If it doesn't have ice in it, he's generally not interested. He also does not drink or smoke, nor does he gamble. Leno is an extremely hard worker who reportedly only needs four to five hours of sleep a night.

Physical Characteristics: One of Leno’s characteristic traits is his prominent jaw. He has a condition that is known as mandibular prognathism, which is essentially an extended or bulging jaw. It can be hereditary and/or develop over time. The condition occurs when the teeth are improperly aligned due to the shape of the facial bones.

In his book Leading With My Chin, Leno explained that there is a surgical fix to reset his mandible. However, he didn’t want to go through the extensive recovery that involves wiring his jaw shut.

Interests

• Classic cars and motorcycles

• Sport & Clubs

  Racing

• Music & Bands

  Elvis Presley, Patrick Rondat, Johnny Cash

Connections

Jay Leno and Mavis Leno tied the knot in 1980 and have been together ever since. Mavis Elizabeth Nicholson-Leno is a philanthropist and feminist. She is a strong force who prefers to be a little more low key than her high-profile husband. The couple mutually decided to not have any kids.

Father:

Angelo Leno

Mother:

Cathryn Leno

Spouse:

Mavis Leno

Mavis first met her future husband, Jay Leno, when he was performing in a Los Angeles comedy club. She was in the audience and was laughing at all his jokes at the right time.

colleague:

Jimmy Fallon

colleague:

David Letterman

colleague:

Jimmy Kimmel

colleague:

James Corden

References

• Jay Leno on Twitter