Geoff James Nugent (born 14 February 1977), known professionally as Jim Jefferies, is an Australian comedian, actor, and writer who holds dual Australian and American citizenship. He created and starred in the American FX sitcom ''

Legit ''Legit'' is a slang abbreviation of '' legitimate''. It may also refer to: * Legit (professional wrestling) * ''Legit'' (2006 TV series), Scottish sitcom * ''Legit'' (2013 TV series), created by comedian Jim Jefferies * Legit Ballin', a record ...

'' (2013–2014) and the

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

late-night show ''

The Jim Jefferies Show ''The Jim Jefferies Show'' was an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian Jim Jefferies. The show aired Tuesdays on Comedy Central and tackles the week's top stories and most controversial issues. In Marc ...

'' (2017–2019).

Early life

Jefferies was born Geoff James Nugent in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

on 14 February 1977, the son of a mother who worked as a substitute teacher and a father who was a cabinet maker and maintenance worker. His father was from

Roma, Queensland Roma is a rural town and locality in the Maranoa Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Maranoa Region. The town was incorporated in 1867 and is named after Lady Diamantina Bowen (née di Roma), the wife of Sir Geo ...

. Jefferies grew up in Sydney before moving to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

to study musical theatre and classical music at the

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) was established in 1980 to provide performing arts tuition. WAAPA (commonly pronounced "whopp-a") operates as a part of ECU, located at the ECU campus in ...

. though he left several months before graduating. He has two older brothers: Scott, an investment banker, and Daniel, an inspector in the

New South Wales Police Force The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police Force; previously the New South Wales Police Service and New South Wales Police) is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Divided into Police Area Commands (P ...

Public Order and Riot Squad The Public Order and Riot Squad (PORS) is the full-time riot squad of the New South Wales Police Force. PORS reports via the Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command to the Deputy Commissioner Investigations and Counter Terrorism. History T ...

Career

Stand-up

Jefferies began his stand-up comedy career after dropping out of university, initially returning to his native Sydney before relocating to the United Kingdom. He took the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

"Jim Jeffries", but amended the last name to "Jefferies" to avoid confusion with a similarly named American performer. He initially began performing stand-up with one-liners. He changed to

anecdotal Anecdotal evidence is evidence based only on personal observation, collected in a casual or non-systematic manner. The term is sometimes used in a legal context to describe certain kinds of testimony which are uncorroborated by objective, independ ...

humour when he began doing hour-long sets. He first achieved international attention in 2007, when he was attacked onstage while performing at the

Manchester Comedy Festival The Manchester Comedy Festival was founded by comedian Don Ward and held every October from 2001 to 2011. It began after members of Manchester City Council decided, given the size of the city, it should have a standalone comedy festival A comed ...

. Footage of the incident was incorporated into his act and can be seen on his 2008 DVD ''Contraband''. He became known in the United States in 2009, after the release of his debut

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

special ''I Swear to God''. Jefferies has performed at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, Just for Laughs,

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typicall ...

Reading and Leeds Festivals The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

, and

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

. He has also performed routines on ''The World Stands Up'', ''Comedy Blue'' and ''Edinburgh and Beyond'' for

. Following the release of his

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

special ''Freedumb'' in July 2016, he began The Unusual Punishment Tour with all-new material, and filmed his new special ''This Is Me Now'' at the

Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ham ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in January 2018. On 17 December 2018, he completed his Night Talker Tour with the final performance in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

''Legit''

Jefferies' comedy series ''

'' premiered on 17 January 2013 on FX. A second season premiered on 26 February 2014, having been moved to

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...

. The series received positive attention among the disabled community for its portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities. The series was cancelled after two seasons.

''The Jim Jefferies Show''

On 3 March 2017, Comedy Central announced ''

'', a new ten-episode weekly series, that premiered on 6 June 2017. Jefferies, hosting the show, takes a look on culture and politics behind his desk, and travels around the world to tackle the week's top stories and most controversial issues. On 25 July 2017, the first season was extended with ten additional episodes, that completed airing on 21 November 2017. On 15 January 2018, Comedy Central renewed the series for a twenty-episode second season, which premiered on 27 March 2018. The network renewed the show for a third season in January 2019, which premiered on 19 March 2019. The series concluded on 19 November 2019, after the end of its third season.

Other work

From November 2010 to November 2012, Jefferies co-hosted the podcast ''Jim and Eddie Talkin' Shit'' with his fellow comedian and former roommate,

Eddie Ifft Eddie Ifft (born 1974 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. Biography Ifft graduated with honors from Fox Chapel Area High School in 1990. After graduation from the University of Pittsburgh, where he w ...

. Jefferies had to quit because of his busy work schedule. Jefferies appeared on comedy panel shows such as ''

Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hoste ...

'', '' Have I Got News for You'', ''

The Heaven and Earth Show ''The Heaven and Earth Show'' is a BBC television programme that aired on Sunday mornings from 10am to 11am on BBC One. The show ran for nine years between 1998 and 2007, looking at spiritual and moral issues. Over the years it had numerous prese ...

'' and ''

8 Out of 10 Cats ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' is a British comedy panel show broadcast on Channel 4 and its sister networks, airing since 3 June 2005. The show is hosted by Jimmy Carr; the current team captains are Rob Beckett and Katherine Ryan. The show is based on ...

'', the US comedy panel show '' The Green Room with Paul Provenza'' and Comedy Central's ''

@midnight ''@midnight with Chris Hardwick'' (shortened to and formerly exclusively titled ''@midnight'') was an American late night Internet-themed panel game show, hosted by Chris Hardwick, that aired Monday through Thursday nights between October 21, ...

''. He has also been featured on various radio programmes, including

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

's Saturday morning sports show, ''

Opie and Anthony ''Opie and Anthony'' was an American radio show hosted by Gregg Hughes, Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia that aired from March 1995 to July 2014, with comedian Jim Norton (comedian), Jim Norton serving as third mic from 2001. The show origina ...

'', and ''

Fighting Talk ''Fighting Talk'' is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 1100 and 1200 and is based on a similar format to the ESPN show ''Around t ...

''. In 2015, he starred in Australian film ''

Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse ''Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse'' is a 2015 Australian zombie comedy horror film written and directed by Declan Shrubb and developed through ScreenACT's 2012 Low Budget Feature Pod. The film stars Jim Jefferies, Alex Williamson, Ad ...

'' with comedians

Greg Fleet Gregory Fleet is an Australian comedian and actor. History Early life Fleet was born in Michigan, in the United States. His father moved the family to Australia when Greg was four. He grew up in Geelong, and as a teenager boarded at Geelong Gra ...

and Alex Williamson. It premiered on 25 July and was released on DVD and

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

in Australia and New Zealand in late 2015, and in the UK, Ireland, and the US in 2016. In 2019, Jefferies and Suzanne Martin developed the sitcom ''Jefferies'' for NBC, in which Jefferies will star as a fictionalized version of himself. Jeffries has hosted the ''I Don't Know About That'' podcast alongside Kelly Blackheart, Forrest Shaw, and Jack Hackett since May 2020.

Personal life

Jefferies lives in

Studio City, California Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, ...

. He was previously in a relationship with actress Kate Luyben. Their son was born in 2012. He married English actress Tasie Lawrence in September 2020. Their son was born in 2021. Jefferies is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. He was diagnosed as

autistic The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

at the age of 36. In 2018, he became a naturalized American citizen.

Filmography

Film

Television

Discography

* 2008: ''Hell Bound'' (CD) * 2008: ''Contraband'' (DVD) * 2009: ''I Swear to God'' (video download) * 2010: ''Alcoholocaust'' (DVD) * 2012: ''Fully Functional'' (video download/DVD) * 2014: ''Bare'' (video download) * 2016: ''Freedumb'' (video download) * 2018: ''This Is Me Now'' (

) * 2020: ''Intolerant'' (Netflix)

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferies, Jim 1977 births Living people 21st-century atheists 21st-century Australian male actors 21st-century Australian writers 21st-century Australian comedians 21st-century Australian male writers Australian activists Australian atheism activists Australian columnists Australian comedy writers Australian expatriates in England Australian humorists Australian male comedians Australian male film actors Australian male television actors Australian podcasters Australian political commentators Australian political writers Australian satirists Australian social commentators Australian stand-up comedians Australian television producers Australian emigrants to the United States Comedians from Sydney Critics of creationism Cultural critics Critics of religions Free speech activists Gun control advocates Late night television talk show hosts Male actors from Sydney Naturalized citizens of the United States Political activists Social critics Writers from Sydney