Get To Know Jordan Peele, The New King Of Hollywood

Meet the man with a serious talent for filmmaking.

Get To Know Jordan Peele, The New King Of Hollywood

Jordan Peele is an American actor, writer and director who began his career in comedy, appearing in comedy sketches and later, his own sketch show. He has since turned his hand to directing movies and is responsible for some of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters in recent times. Quite simply, the man is incredibly talented.

So, who is Jordan Peele, what movies has he directed, who is his wife and what is his net worth? Allow us to answer all these questions and more below.

Jordan Peele Quick Facts

Name: Jordan Haworth Peele
Age: 43
DoB: 21 February 1979
Nationality: American
Height: 5 ft 7 1/2 in / 1.71m
Relationship Status: Married
Spouse: Chelsea Peretti
Net Worth: $50 million (estimated)
Instagram: @jordanpeele – 1.3m followers

Who Is Jordan Peele?

Jordan Peele is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker who was born on February 21st 1979 in New York City, to parents Lucinda Williams and Hayward Peele Jr. Jordan Peele was raised solely by his mother, who was single.

He attended The Computer School in Manhattan and then graduated from The Calhoun School, also in Manhattan, in 1997. Peele enrolled at the Sarah Lawrence College, a liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, but dropped out to form a comedy duo with Rebecca Drysdale.

Jordan Peele Acting Career

Jordan Peele (right) with comedy partner Keegan-Michael Peele (left). Image: Vanity Fair

Jordan Peele joined a couple of improvisational comedy sketch groups in Amsterdam and Chicago in the early 2000s, and he landed a gig hosting MTV’s Comedy Weekend in 2002.

Jordan Peele later joined the cast of the American comedy sketch show, Mad TV, for its ninth season in 2003. Keegan-Michael Key joined the cast soon after and the two were paired together as a comedy duo. The two would later star in their own comedy sketch show, Key & Peele, which ran from 31st January 2012 until 9th September 2015, with a total of 53 episodes across 5 seasons.

Many of the skits in Key & Peele went viral online (and are still available to watch) such as the substitute teacher sketch, which sees Keegan-Michael Key play a substitute teacher Mr Garvy, who pronounces students’ names incorrectly.

Peele appeared in the first season of Fargo in 2014, playing an FBI agent, and in 2016 he starred in and produced the feature film Keanu, alongside comedy partner Key.

Jordan Peele Movies

Get Out

Image: Vox

Jordan Peele turned his hand to filmmaking and in 2017 released his first movie, Get Out, a horror film that follows a young black man (played by now frequent collaborator Daniel Kalyuuya) who meets his white girlfriend’s family and uncovers some strange happenings.

Get Out was met with universal acclaim and was regarded as one of the top 10 films of 2017 by Time magazine. Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards, becoming the first African-American screenwriter to do so, and Get Out was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Kaluuya. Get Out currently holds a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Us

‘Us’ movie poster. Image: IMDb

Jordan Peele returned to directing with his second movie, Us, a psychological horror film that follows Adelaide Wilson (played by Lupita Nyong’o) and her family, who come across a group of doppelgängers. Us proved to be another critical and commercial success for Jordan Peele, and he once again received praise for his screenplay and direction.

Us holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes but, while it was nominated for a number of awards, it didn’t receive any Academy Award nominations.

Nope

Jordan Peele’s third movie, Nope, was released in the US on 22nd July 2022 and is due for release in Australia on 11th August 2022. Nope once again sees Daniel Kaluuya star in the lead role, alongside Keke Palmer, as siblings who discover a UFO and attempt to capture video footage of it.

Jordan Peele said during an interview on the Smartless podcast, that he chose the title of ‘Nope’ because it is said many times during the movie, and that it stands for ‘Not of planet earth. Nope currently holds an approval rating of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Other Movie Projects

Aside from writing and directing his own movies, Jordan Peele has been involved with many other Hollywood projects. He co-produced the Spike Lee film BlacKkKlansman in 2018, which was a critical success and earned Peele an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Peele has released a series on the YouTube Premium streaming service called Weird City, which he co-created with Charlie Sanders. This too was met with critical acclaim.

Jordan Peele voiced the character ‘Bunny’ in Toy Story 4. Image: Bustle

Jordan Peele voiced ‘Bunny’ in the 2019 movie Toy Story 4, with comedy partner Keegan-Michael Peele voicing ‘Ducky’, Bunny’s sidekick.

Jordan Peele also helmed the sequel to the 1992 horror movie Candyman in 2021. He served as co-producer and co-writer. The 2021 Candyman sequel was met with positive reviews.

Jordan Peele Wife & Family

Jordan Peele with his wife, Chelsea Peretti. Image: @chelsanity

Jordan Peele is married to American comedian and actress Chelsea Peretti, who is best known for starring as Gina Linetti in Brooklyn 99. The pair began dating in 2013 after Jordan Peele “slid into her DMs” on Instagram. They became engaged in November 2016 and eloped in April 2016. The couple has a son, Beau, who was born on Just 1st 2017.

Jordan Peele Net Worth

Jordan Peele’s net worth is an estimated $50 million according to Wealthy Gorilla.