Jimmy Kimmel: Oscars 2024 Host and 4-Time Presenter at the Academy Awards
Back in 2021, the Academy Awards didn’t have a host. As a result, viewership reached its lowest level at 10.4 million. This development showed the award-giving body how urgently it needed a host. Fortunately, they found an entertaining, charming, and disarming host in late-night TV personality Jimmy Kimmel. Counting this year’s Academy Awards, he has been its host for four times.
Let’s take a closer look at Jimmy’s colorful and fascinating life so far.
Jimmy Kimmel is a television producer, TV talk show host, writer and comedian. He became a household name because of his late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Jimmy was born in New York City on November 13, 1967. When he was in high school, his family relocated to Las Vegas, where he started getting involved in radio broadcasting. He then attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for a year and transferred to Arizona State University.
Jimmy worked with several radio stations before landing a role as co-host of the Comedy Central show Win Ben Stein’s Money in 1997. This stint made him famous globally. He left the show in 2001 and became co-producer and co-host of The Man Show while producing other programs like Sports Show with Norm McDonald, The Andy Milonakis Show, and Crank Yankers.
He then joined ABC and debuted his talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003—and the rest is history. His show has since become the longest-running late-night TV show in ABC’s history, covering dynamic topics and featuring interesting guests at every episode.
Jimmy has had policitical clashes with ex-president Donald Trump. As a host, he was also involved in a feud with conservative Sean Hannity, a Fox News TV personality. Aside from Jimmy’s politically charged skirmishes, which, for some reason, many enjoy witnessing, he also found success in some of the recurring segments of his show. Great examples include Mean Tweets and the yearly Halloween prank where parents pretend to have eaten their kid’s candies.
Jimmy found success in TV hosting and was duly recognized for it. He has been nominated several times for the People’s Choice Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, and even the Emmy Awards to name a few.
He has been onstage for some of the Academy Awards’ most dramatic and memorable moments. For instance, the “envelope-gate” incident in 2017 when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were given the incorrect result cards. This led them to announce La La Land as the Best Picture instead of Moonlight.
Jimmy came forward to let the cast know that the real official winner was Moonlight, even showing the inside of the envelope as evidence. He tried to make light of the situation by joking, “I knew I would screw this up. I promise to never come back.”
But Jimmy came back the following year and then again in 2023. After being tapped to host the prestigious event a third time, Jimmy even humorously said that the invitation was either a trap or a considerable honor.
