Leslie Jones Biography

Leslie Jones (born September 7, 1967) is an American comedian and actress, currently a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Jones has been a featured performer at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and the Aspen Comedy Festival. In 2011, her one-hour comedy special, Problem Child, was broadcast on Showtime.

Early life

Leslie Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father was in the United States Army and her family moved frequently. Her family moved to Los Angeles, when her father took a job at Stevie Wonder's radio station, KJLH, as an electronic engineer. Jones attended high school in Lynwood, California, where she played basketball. She attended Chapman University on a basketball scholarship and transferred to Colorado State University when her coach left Chapman for Colorado State. She intended to become a lawyer, but changed her mind and changed her major a few times, including business accounting and computer science and eventually ended up majoring in communications. At Chapman, Jones became a radio DJ. She was unsure of what she wanted to do, and contemplated the possibility of a career playing basketball overseas.

Career

Jones started to do stand-up comedy in college in 1987, when a friend signed her up for a "Funniest Person on Campus" contest. After she won the contest, Jones left school and moved to Los Angeles. She performed at regular clubs and worked at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles and UPS to make ends meet. Mother Love and Dave Chappelle encouraged her to move to New York to hone her craft for two years, where she appeared on BET's ComicView before returning to Los Angeles. She performed at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood, but received unfavorable reviews. She opened up for Jamie Foxx and was booed by the audience. Feeling discouraged, Jones stopped performing for three years.

In 2010, Jones was part of Katt Williams' It's Pimpin' Pimpin' tour.

In December 2013, Saturday Night Live held a casting call to add at least one African-American female to the show, and Jones auditioned. Sasheer Zamata was added as a featured player, while Jones and LaKendra Tookes were hired as writers. Jones appeared during the Weekend Update segment of the May 3, 2014 Saturday Night Live, where her jokes about her current dating problems and her potential effectiveness as a breeding slave were met with controversy.

Jones appeared in the first and third episodes of the 40th season, hosted by Chris Pratt and Bill Hader, respectively. On October 20, 2014, Jones was promoted to the cast as a featured player, and made her official debut on the October 25, 2014 episode hosted by Jim Carrey. At the age of 47, she is the oldest person to become a cast member on the show (surpassing Michael McKean and George Coe, who were 46 when they joined the show in, respectively, 1994 and 1975). Jones' addition marks the first time in SNL history that the show's cast has included more than one African-American female; in addition, the 40th season has the most African-American cast members to date. Jones subsequently returned for Season 41.

In January 2015, she was cast in a starring role in the upcoming Ghostbusters film, alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1987	Home Is Where the Hart Is	Night Nurse
1998	Wrongfully Accused	Sergeant Tina Bagley
1998	Sploosh		Short film
1998	Does That Make Me a Bad Person?	Marilyn Dukekne	Short film
2000	Mermaid	Clerk	Television film
2000	A Feeling Called Glory	Vapid Nurse	Short film
2002	The New Beachcombers	Maud Wrecht	Television film
2003	National Security	Britney
2003	A Guy Thing	Sales Employee
2006	Repos	Lay La
2007	Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary	Mamma Rag
2008	Internet Dating	Too Sweett Jones
2010	Something Like a Business	Vanity
2010	Lottery Ticket	Tasha
2010	The Company We Keep	Beverly Blue
2012	House Arrest	Boss Lady
2014	Top Five	Lisa
2015	We Are Family	Leslie
2015	Trainwreck	Angry Subway Patron
2016	Masterminds	Detective
2016	Ghostbusters	Patty Tolan	Post-production
2016	Sing		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Dark Angel	Waitress	Episode: "Boo"
2012	Daddy Knows Best	Angry Woman	Episode: "Taser"
2013	Sullivan & Son	Bobbie	Episode: "Acceptance"
2013	The League	Stand Up Student	Episode: "The Bringer Show"
2014-present	Saturday Night Live	Various	Cast member and writer Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series (2015)
2014	Workaholics	Lynette	Episode: "The One Where the Guys Play Basketball and Do the Friends Title Thing"
2015	The Awesomes	Silent But Deadly	Voice, Episode: "The Final Showdown"
2016	The Blacklist (TV Series)	Citizen	Episode: "Lady Ambrosia"