Leslie Jones was born Annette Jones in Memphis, Tennessee on September 7, 1967. Leslie’s family travelled frequently because her father was in the United States Army, and when they went to Los Angeles, he found work as an electronics engineer at Stevie Wonder’s radio station, KJLH. Jones attended a high school in Lynwood, California, and when her father advised that she play basketball due to her height, she got a basketball scholarship to Chapman University in Orange, California.
Leslie worked as a DJ at KNAB, the student radio station, while attending Chapman. Jones transferred to Colorado State University in 1986 after her basketball coach, Brian Berger, accepted a coaching position there. She studied in computer science and accounting before settling on a concentration in communication. Leslie gained the title of “Funniest Person on Campus” as a Colorado State student in 1987 after being surreptitiously entered into a comedy contest by a buddy. Jones had a younger brother named Rodney, but he died in 2009.
Personal Life
Following the premiere of “Ghostbusters” in July 2016, internet trolls subjected Leslie to horrible racist and sexist abuse on Twitter. Following Jones’ meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, several Twitter users, including “Breitbart” editor Milo Yiannopoulos, were banned from the platform. Later that month, on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Leslie discussed the abuse, saying that “hate speech and freedom of speech are two different things.” Jones was targeted again the following month when someone hacked into her website and posted images of her driver’s licence and passport, as well as alleged nude photos of Leslie and a video tribute to the late Cincinnati Zoo gorilla Harambe (in reference to some of the racist Twitter remarks directed at Jones the previous month).
Leslie’s staff later removed her webpage. The sexist and racist abuse Jones endured prompted an outpouring of love from fans and celebrities, including Hillary Clinton, Gabourey Sidibe, Ava DuVernay, Ellen DeGeneres, Octavia Spencer, Katy Perry, Anna Kendrick, and Leslie’s “Ghostbusters” director, Paul Feig, who tweeted, “Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know.” Any personal assaults on Hillary are attacks on all of us.”
Leslie spent $3.875 million for a 3,860-square-foot property in Beverly Hills, California in November 2020. Jones paid about $1.75 million for a nearly 1,100-square-foot Manhattan condo three years before purchasing the four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom L.A. residence.
Career
Leslie departed Colorado State after being named “Funniest Person on Campus,” and returned to Los Angeles. She worked at UPS and Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles during the day and performed at night at comedy clubs. Jones was pushed by comedians Dave Chappelle and Mother Love to spend two years polishing her comic abilities in New York City, where she made an appearance on BET’s “ComicView” before returning to Los Angeles. Leslie performed in the legendary Comedy Store in West Hollywood, then toured with Jamie Foxx before meeting Chris Rock, who helped her get a job on “Saturday Night Live.”
Jones made her acting debut in a 1996 episode of “In the House,” and she went on to star in the short films “Sploosh” (1998), “Does That Make Me a Bad Person?” (1999), and “A Feeling Called Glory” (2000). She first appeared in the Martin Lawrence comedy “National Security” in 2003, followed by “Repos” in 2006, “Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary” in 2007, and “Internet Dating” in 2008. She had her own Showtime comedy special, “Problem Child: Leslie Jones,” in 2010, and has acted in films such as “Something Like a Business,” “Lottery Ticket,” and “The Company We Keep.”
Jones participated in “House Arrest” and “Christmas in Compton” in 2012, and she auditioned for “Saturday Night Live” in December 2013 when the show held a casting call for African-American women. She was hired to write for the show, but she first appeared on “Weekend Update” in May 2014 and then in two early Season 40 episodes. Leslie was elevated to the featured player in October 2014, and at the age of 47, she became the show’s oldest cast member. Leslie stayed on “SNL” until the 44th season, performing in over 100 episodes and earning two Primetime Emmy nominations for her work.
Jones appeared alongside Chris Rock in 2014’s “Top Five” (which Rock also directed), and with Amy Schumer and Bill Hader in 2015’s “Trainwreck.” Leslie participated in “Masterminds” in 2016 and played Patty Tolan in “Ghostbusters” (also known as “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call”) starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon. Despite the incredible amount of misogyny directed towards the picture, which includes countless males on the internet declaring that the very presence of an all-female “Ghostbusters” film would ruin their childhoods, the film grossed $229.1 million at the box office.
In 2020, Leslie starred in the Netflix comedy special “Leslie Jones: Time Machine,” which appeared in “Death to 2020,” and started presenting the reboot of “Supermarket Sweep.” In 2021, she co-starred with Eddie Murphy, Tracy Morgan, Arsenio Hall, Wesley Snipes, and James Earl Jones in “Coming 2 America,” which earned her an MTV Movie + TV Award, and in August of that year, it was announced that Jones had been cast in a recurring role on the HBO Max series “Our Flag Means Death.”
Leslie is well-known for her live-tweeting of the Olympics, which led to NBC flying her out to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to cover beach volleyball, track and field, swimming and gymnastics for the 2016 Summer Olympics. She also went to South Korea to cover the 2018 Winter Olympics. Jones has also been in Allstate Insurance commercials alongside “Workaholics” and “Pitch Perfect” star Adam DeVine, and she has hosted the 2017 BET Awards and the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards.
Jones received three Primetime Emmy nominations for “Saturday Night Live”: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017 and 2018, and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the song “The Upper East Side” (co-written with Eli Brueggemann and Bryan H. Tucker) in 2019. Leslie, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Kate McKinnon shared a Women’s Film Critics Circle Award for Best Female Action Hero in 2016 for “Ghostbusters,” while Jones earned an MTV Movie + TV Award for Best Comedic Performance in 2021 for “Coming 2 America.”
She was nominated for a Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female for “Ghostbusters” in 2017 and for Outstanding Supporting Actress, Comedy Series for “Saturday Night Live” in 2017 and 2019.
Leslie has been nominated for three Online Film & Television Association Awards: Best Female Performance in a Variety Programme for “Saturday Night Live” (2017 and 2018), and Best Host or Individual Performance in a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programme for “Supermarket Sweep” (2021). Her performance on “Saturday Night Live” also earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (2018), a People’s Choice Award nomination for Favourite Comedy TV Star (2019), and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series (2015).
Jones was nominated for a Legionnaires of Laughter Legacy Award for Best Comedy Artist Female in 2018, and she was nominated for a Leo Award for Best Performance by a Female in a Short Drama in 1999 for “Does That Make Me a Bad Person?” Leslie and her “Ghostbusters” co-stars were nominated for a Kids’ Choice Award for #SQUAD in 2017.
Net Worth
Leslie Jones is a $7 million net-worth American comedian, actress, and writer. Jones rose to prominence as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” (2014-2019), where she also wrote for the show. She has acted in the films “Top Five” (2014), “Trainwreck” (2015), “Ghostbusters” (2016), and “Coming 2 America” (2021), and she will host the ABC game show “Supermarket Sweep” beginning in 2020.
Leslie Jones has appeared in the stand-up comedy specials “Problem Child: Leslie Jones” (2010) and “Leslie Jones: Time Machine” (2020), as well as the animated films “Sing” (2016) and “The Angry Birds Movie 2” (2019). Jones was named one of the world’s most influential persons by “Time” magazine in 2017.
The average season of “SNL” has 21 episodes, and first-year cast members earn $7,000 per episode or $147,000 per season. Cast members in their second year get $8,000 per episode or $168,000 per season. If a cast member makes it to the fifth season, they will be paid $15,000 per episode, for a total of $315,000 per season. The biggest wage at SNL is for those who have been there the longest or are the most significant to the show. They get $25,000 per episode, for a total of $525,000 per year. Leslie’s compensation was most likely in the middle to upper range of that range when she quit the show.
Facts
| Net Worth | $7 Million |
| Date of Birth | Sep 7, 1967 (55 years old) |
| Place of Birth | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Gender | Female |
| Profession | Film Editor |
| Nationality | United States of America |
