Jess Hilarious

Jessica Robin Moore was born on February 13, 1992 in Baltimore, Maryland. She has described herself as having "a nice foundation and structured family" as a child. As a teenager, Moore's mother sent her from Baltimore to Pennsylvania due to her marijuana usage and rebellious behavior, where she attended a predominantly white high school. She dropped out after being scared by the embalming process and soon decided to pursue a career in comedy instead. ==Career==

Social media and stand-up comedy Hilarious started her comedy career in stand-up. Delores Shante of The St. Louis American reviewed her 2017 stand-up performance in St. Louis negatively, writing, "Jess found out the hard way that poppin' off on celebrities for 60 seconds and engaging an audience... for a full-length routine, are night and day." In 2018, Hilarious had more than four million Instagram followers. She co-hosted the BET Social Awards with D.C. Young Fly in March 2019. Television and film After Nick Cannon direct messaged Hilarious, she made her television debut on his MTV series ''Wild 'n Out in 2017, on which she appeared for three seasons. She made her television acting debut on the Fox sitcom Rel''—which premiered in September 2018 and was named after and starred comedian Lil Rel Howery as Rel—playing Brittany, Rel's stubborn best friend. Anna Moeslein of Glamour described Hilarious's as a breakout role, writing that she "steals the show", while Deciders Joel Keller praised her in a review of the show as "elevat[ing] every scene she was in" and "grounding the show in some realism". The series was cancelled in April 2019 after its first season. Hilarious also starred in the 2019 film I Got the Hook-Up 2 as Officer Keisha. She later claimed in 2023 that she had not been properly compensated by Master P for her role in the film. She later starred in the 2023 BET+ biographical film First Lady of BMF: The Tonesa Welch Story, which was Vivica A. Fox's directorial debut and premiered in October of that year, and as Leah in the drama film I Hate I Love You, which was directed by Jabriel McIntosh and released in late 2024. premiered in 2020 as part of the launch lineup of Charlamagne Tha God's Black Effect Podcast Network. It was one of the first podcasts to be released by Facebook as part of their in-platform podcast streaming service in June 2021. The podcast was hosted at the Roots Picnic in 2022 as part of their Podcast Stage. By 2023, the podcast was part of the iHeartPodcasts network and had entered its third season. Hilarious appeared on the scripted, Kym Whitley–helmed Audible podcast Kym, which premiered in October 2022. She guest co-hosted the radio show The Breakfast Club several times throughout 2023, including during a December interview with Sexyy Red during which the rapper confronted her over her alleged "sneak dissing". She also had a brief feud with Lil Meech and his then–girlfriend Summer Walker after calling Lil Meech "deli smelly" and a "cheater" on the show in June of that year. She announced at a party in Baltimore in December 2023 that she had been hired as a permanent host of the show, replacing Angela Yee, who had left the show in August 2022. It was officially announced in a video on The Breakfast Clubs social media accounts in January 2024 and she began her tenure on the show the following month. She announced later that month that she was pregnant with her second child and went on maternity leave that summer, picking producer Loren LoRosa to fill in for her "Jess with the Mess" segment. Loren LoRosa feud Following Hilarious's return to The Breakfast Club in November 2024, LoRosa stayed on the show and began hosting her own segment, "Latest with Loren". Social media users largely praised LoRosa's role on the show and compared it favorably to Hilarious's, with some saying LoRosa exhibited more professionalism than Hilarious. Partly in response to comments made by comedian Corey Holcomb, who criticized Hilarious as untalented and opined that LoRosa was a better fit for the show, Hilarious stated in an Instagram Live stream in March 2025 that she had not been made aware of plans to add LoRosa as a fourth co-host, that she was upset that "Latest with Loren" had been pushed into the time slot originally reserved for "Jess with the Mess", that the show was being run "like a high school", and that she did not receive support from her co-hosts in the face of hate comments. Blavitys Arielle Poteau and Essences Jasmine Browley both described Hilarious's behavior, particularly her telling LoRosa to "shut up" due to her "overtalking", as unprofessional, and her anger toward LoRosa as "misplaced", while social media responses were polarized and compared the discussion to a human resources meeting. Later that month, Hilarious and LoRosa sang and released a parody of the Brandy and Monica song "The Boy is Mine" titled "The Job is Mine", which spoofed their feud over Hilarious's position on the show and was praised by commenters. ==Personal life==

Hilarious's son, Ashton, was born to her and her then–boyfriend Rome when she was 20 years old. The two later separated and began co-parenting. In 2017, she appeared in a nude photoshoot with Ashton when he was five years old, which attracted controversy online and discussions over its appropriateness. ==Public image==

Hilarious has described Martin Lawrence and Kevin Hart as comedic inspirations. In 2017, Blavity included her on their list of the 15 funniest Black women on Instagram. In August 2018, Hilarious launched 50 Strands of Jess, a hair care line, at the Bronner Bros. International Beauty Show. Following backlash against the videos, which social media users widely criticized as xenophobic racial profiling and connected to the Christchurch mosque shootings which had taken place days earlier, she posted an apology on Instagram in which she denied being racist and wrote that she had been "totally unaware of the different types of Muslim" until then. Her apology also faced criticism for misidentifying Sikhism as a sect of Islam. She posted a follow-up apology video in which she called her prior actions, including her initial apology, "insensitive", "ignorant", and "defensive", and pledged to donate $15 thousand to the families of the victims of the Christchurch shootings. Comments on transgender women In July 2023, Hilarious posted a video on Instagram in response to transgender TikTok user Blessing Rose, who stated in a video that cis women did not "own" womanhood nor menstruation, by referring to cisgender women as "real women" and "the gatekeepers for periods" and likening trans women, whom she called "delusion[al]", to the "mentally insane". The video went viral and received polarized reactions online. Trans entertainer Ts Madison posted a tweet soon after the posts circulated, in which she wrote that anger from "'real' women" often stemmed from their being confused as transgender themselves, which resulted in a back-and-forth on social media between her and Hilarious. Trans actress Angelica Ross and trans writer Raquel Willis also both responded negatively to Hilarious's posts. Them and Rolling Stone described Hilarious's video as transphobic. Armstrong Williams wrote for CBS Austin that she "quite rightly" stated the "simple truth that only biological women can menstruate and bear children." According to her, her scheduled appearance on the BET+ series The Ms. Pat Show was cancelled because of the comment. In October 2025, when Charlamagne Tha God suggested on The Breakfast Club that Ts Madison could appear in a reboot of the stand-up comedy film The Queens of Comedy, she replied, "We already got a Kings of Comedy." Madison responded in a tweet that Hilarious looked "like Robert Townsend in the face" and needed "to take her freak-a-leek Petey Pablo-looking ass to a pillow and rest". Henry Giardina of Queerty described Hilarious's repeated comments about Madison as a transphobic "bullying campaign". ==Filmography==

Television Film ==References==