Chicago-bred "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" exec producer Jill Leiderman lands cover of Marie Claire @Work

via marieclaire.com

Growing up in Chicago, New York-born Jill Leiderman had television in her blood from the get-go. The daughter of former sportscaster and WTTW Channel 11/WFLD Fox 32 executive producer Mike Leiderman, she witnessed it from the inside out.

After graduating from Northwestern, where she studied journalism and broadcasting (among other subjects), Jill did stints at Days of Our Lives, The Today Show, The Jon Stewart Show (on MTV), The Late Show with David Letterman and VH1. Then Jimmy Kimmel called. His ABC late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was struggling and he needed someone to shake things up. Although Jill initially felt she wasn’t ready for the challenge, Kimmel succeeded in persuading her to move from New York to L.A. for the job.

Seven years later, Jimmy Kimmel Live! is riding higher than ever (on TV and the web), and its host credits Leiderman.

“Jill changed everything,” Kimmel says in the September issue of Marie Claire @Work — a quarterly supplement to Marie Claire magazine.

“In the past I felt like everything on the show was my problem,” he adds, “but Jill makes everything her problem. That makes life easier.”

Click here for a segment on Jill by ABC7’s Janet Davies.