Jennifer Lynne Brown (born March 23, 1981) is an American sports broadcaster and television host. A former Division I Collegiate Athlete for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, she spent eight years as a reporter and host for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and ''

American Ninja Warrior American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

''. Brown spent two years working for the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...

as a studio host and reporter. She also served as a reporter for '' College GameDay'', the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...

, Summer and Winter

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

, and the

ESPYs An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

. She was a Los Angeles-based Bureau reporter for ESPN contributing interviews and reports for ESPN’s news-gathering operation for SportsCenter, College GameDay and College Football Live. She co-hosted

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...

's college football show RoadTrip with Jonathan Drubner.

Early life and education

Brown was born in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

and raised in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Her parents were Olympic gymnastics coaches, and her mother founded several gymnastics schools across the country that trained gymnasts to compete in the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. Brown grew up with a passion for sports. She played seven sports at

Bishop Moore High School Bishop Moore Catholic High School is a private Roman Catholic high school in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando, Florida. The school is located within the Diocese of Orlando, and remains the only Catholic high school in Greater Orlando. Th ...

and broke the record for the most varsity letters by a male or female athlete with 14. Brown captained and played five sports in one year (diving, volleyball, basketball, softball and track). She was also chosen as one of the top 10 athletes in Central Florida in 1999. On August 7, 2000, Brown's younger sister Carrie was killed in a car accident at the age of 13. Brown went on to attend the

on an academic scholarship and played four years on the

Florida Gators softball The Florida Gators softball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of softball. Florida competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Gators play their h ...

team. Brown captained the team her senior year, and she finished fifth on the team's career stolen base list. Brown received several academic honors while at the University of Florida including being named a two time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Academic All-American, four time SEC Academic Honor Roll, National Society of Collegiate Honors, Verizon Academic All-District, two time academic Dean's List and two time academic President's List. Brown graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' and was planning to attend law school to become a sports agent, but got her big break hosting a travel TV show on

HDNet AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat sport ...

called ''The Wild Side'', which was a remake of the famous show '' Wild On'' on E!.

Personal life

Brown resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She is married to actor

Wes Chatham John Wesley Chatham (born October 11, 1978) is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as ''In the Valley of Elah'', '' W.'', ''The Help'', and '' The Philly Kid'', and played Castor in '' The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1'' and '' ...

. Together they have two sons, John Nash, born in 2014, and Rhett Jameson, born in 2016.

Career

TV hosting

From 2003 to 2008, Brown has hosted various episodes of the

Hdnet AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat sport ...

reality TV show, Bikini Destinations. Prior to ESPN, Brown worked for Showtime Sports as a reporter in 2008 and 2009. Brown was a special correspondent on

Inside the NFL ''Inside the NFL'' is an American weekly television sports show that focuses on the National Football League (NFL). It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008. Following Super Bowl XLII, HBO announced that it would be dropping the progra ...

for 2 seasons, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Studio Show in 2008. She was also a live event reporter for boxing and MMA events for both Showtime Sports and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. In 2009, Brown was one of the hosts on ABC's Primetime show '' The Superstars''. Brown worked for E! Entertainment the summer of 2008 as a correspondent on '' E! News Now''. Prior to joining E!, Brown hosted shows for networks like

, CMT and

. She was the host for a nationally syndicated Mountain Lifestyle show called ''48 Straight, The Mountain Experience'', which she hosted with Jonny Moseley. Brown also co-hosted with Moseley ''The Collegiate Nationals'' for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

. In 2007, she hosted the

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show '' I Want To Look Like a High School Cheerleader Again'' on

Country Music Television Country Music Television (CMT) is an American pay TV network owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched on March 5, 1983, as Country Music Television, CMT was the first nationally available channel devoted to coun ...

. She was a co-host on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

Esquire Network Esquire Network was an American pay television network that was a 50/50 joint venture between NBCUniversal and the Hearst Corporation. The network carried programs aimed at a metrosexual audience centering on travel, cooking, sports and fashion ...

summer primetime show ''

'', as well as hosting ''A Football Life: Backstory'' and ''NFL GameDay Scoreboard'' on the

Acting work

Her acting credit includes ''Two Tickets to Paradise'', which was written, produced, starred and directed by

D. B. Sweeney Daniel Bernard Sweeney (born November 14, 1961) is an American actor. Early life Sweeney was born in Shoreham, New York, on November 14, 1961. He attended both Tulane and New York University. Career In 1990, Sweeney starred as Treplev in Jeff Co ...

. She's also appeared in 2 episodes of the TV show Kingdom on

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

playing herself.

Modeling

Brown has been featured in several

ad campaign An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...

s for

Under Armour Under Armour, Inc. is an American sports equipment company that manufactures footwear, sports and casual apparel. Under Armour's global headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices located in Amsterdam (European hea ...

's athletic clothing line.

References

External links

*
ESPN profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Jenn 1981 births Living people American television sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Florida Gators softball players Sportspeople from Gainesville, Florida Sportspeople from Orlando, Florida People from Manhattan Beach, California Female models from Florida Softball players from Florida Bishop Moore High School alumni