What is Jemele Hill's Net Worth and Salary?
Jemele Hill is an American sports journalist who has a net worth of $4 million. Jemele Hill is best known for her role as a commentator and sports personality across several ESPN shows. She earns a salary of $1 million for her work at ESPN.
Early Life
Jemele Juanita Hill was born on December 21, 1975, in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother moved them to Houston in 1980 before returning back to Detroit where Jemele graduated from Mumford High School. In 1997, she graduated from Michigan State University.
Jemele Hill began her career as a writer for the "Raleigh News & Observer" and then became a sports writer for the "Detroit Free Press," mainly covering football and basketball at Michigan State University. She also covered the 2004 Summer Olympics and the NBA playoffs. From 2005 to 2006, Hill worked as a columnist for the "Orlando Sentinel."
ESPN
It was in 2006 that Jemele Hill joined ESPN as a national columnist for ESPN.com and started making appearances on their television shows "First Take," "Outside the Lines," and "The Sports Reporters." In 2011, she teamed up with Michael Smith for the podcast "His & Hers." Due to its popularity, ESPN added Jemele to Smith's ESPN 2 show, "Numbers Never Lie" in 2013. The show was renamed "His & Hers" a year later.
It was in 2017 that Jemele Hill and Michael Smith became the evening anchors for "SportsCenter." After a few instances of controversy and several violations of ESPN's social media guidelines, it was announced Jemele would anchor her final "SC6" in January of 2018 and transition to a new role at the company's website "The Undefeated."
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Other Career Ventures
In October of 2018, Jemele Hill joined "The Atlantic" magazine as a staff writer. In 2019, she launched her podcast, "Jemele Hill is Unbothered" covering sports, culture, and politics. She joined forces with Van Lathan in 2020 on "The Ringer" for a twice-weekly podcast titled "Way Down in the Hole." Also in 2020, Hill started co-hosting "Cari & Jemele (Won't) Stick to Sports" on Vice.
Jemele Hill played herself in the 2021 sports drama "National Champions" and in 2022 was cast in the Showtime documentary series "Everything's Gonna Be All White."
Honors & Accolades
Jemele Hill won the inaugural McKenzie Cup in 2007 at the Poynter Media Summit that is awarded in honor of sports editor Van McKenzie. In 2018, Hill was named the journalist of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2019, she was named one of Worth's 21 Most Powerful Women in the Business of Sports. Jemele Hill headlined the 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Dinner at Illinois State University.
Controversy
Jemele Hill has found herself in the middle of controversy on a few occasions and was even suspended for one week after making comments referencing Adolf Hitler as to why she could not support the Boston Celtics. She also got in trouble for making a statement that compared coach John Calipari to Charles Manson. Jemele Hill also accused baseball player Sammy Sosa of being racist for making his complexion lighter.
