Jemele Jaunita Hill is a renowned American journalist who gained prominence for her work at the ESPN network where she serves in the capacity of a sports journalist and columnist. Hill served as the anchor of the ESPN show ‘Numbers Never Lie’ which was later renamed ‘His and Hers’ alongside Michael Smith. The duo formerly hosted a podcast by the same name. Since February 2017, Hill, along with Smith, is the co-anchor of the ESPN flagship show ‘SportsCenter’.

Hill began her career in the capacity of a general assignment sports writer for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1997. She served as a Michigan State beat writer for The Detroit Free Press from 1996-2005. Hill then served as a general sports columnist for The Orlando Sentinel, Florida for a period of one year in 2005 and in 2006, joined ESPN as a reporter and columnist. Hill is the first-ever winner of the Van McKenzie Cup awarded by the Poynter Sports Media Summit in 2007.

Early Life and Education

Hill was born in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. on 21 December 1975 as the only daughter of African-American parents, father Jerel Brickerson and mother Denise Dennard. Her father was an aspiring hockey player who took to heroin when his career did not take off. As a result, Hill had a disturbed childhood and was mainly raised by her mother and her grandmother. She spent a part of her childhood in Houston Texas and later in the Southfield suburb of Detroit.

Hill attended and graduated from Mumford High School in Detroit and later enrolled into Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, from where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. Hill became interested in writing at a young age and mostly wrote short stories about law. She was a massive fan of the sports section of the Detroit Free Press which she considered her source of inspiration to become a sports writer. She also did a high school journalism program from the Free Press at the age of 15.

Career Rise

Hill embarked upon a career in sports journalism in 1997 at the age of 24 when she was employed by the Raleigh News & Observer in North Carolina as a general assignment sports writer and served with the publication for 2 years. In 1999, she moved to Detroit Free Press where she served as a sports writer and covered the Summer Olympics of 2004 and NBA Playoffs as part of her work. She left DFP in 2005 and for a year, served as a columnist at the Orlando Sentinel in Florida.

In November 2006, Hill joined ESPN in the capacity of the national columnist at ESPN.com while also making television appearances on several programs on the network such as ‘ESPN First Take’, ‘The Sports Reporters’ and ‘Outside the Lines’. She served a side-line reporter during the Friday Nights of the 2012 college football season alongside Rod Gilmore and Carter Blackburn. Hill, along-with Michael Smith began hosting the ‘His and Hers’ podcast in 2011 that became immensely popular and resulted in Hill becoming Smith’s co-anchor on ‘Numbers Never Lie’, on ESPN2 in 2013, later renamed ‘His and Hers’. They show went off-air in January 2017. In February 2017, Hill and Smith were made co-anchors of the network’s flagship show ‘SportsCenter’ titled ‘SC6 with Michael and Jemele’ which airs at 6.PM

 

What gets Jemele Hil going is the fact that she is known to be clear with her views. She believes in calling a spade a spade.

Personal Life

Hill is a private person and lives to keep her personal life under wraps. Although she has acknowledged that she is involved in a romantic relationship, she has chosen to keep her boyfriend’s identity a secret only acknowledging that he is an alumnus of Michigan State University. She was previously linked to actor Idris Elba and Ray Lewis, her colleague at ESPN. Michael Smith refers to Hill as his work-wife.

Controversies

Hill has often been a subject of several controversies. In the NBA playoffs of 2008, Hill wrote an article referencing Adolf Hitler to the Boston Celtics for which she was suspended for a week and had to issue an apology via ESPN. On 12 September 2017, Hill referred to US President Donald Trump as a White Supremacist thorugh her twitter account adding that the views were her own and not ESPN’s. She continued to stand by her comments. Her comments were deemed “a fireable offence” by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Jemele Hill – Net Worth and Salary

Hill draws an annual salary of approximately $1 Million. She has an estimated net worth of approximately $4 Million.