January Jones

Lore & Background

January Jones was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on January 5, 1978, the daughter of store manager Karen Cox and exercise physiologist Marvin Jones. She was named after January Wayne, a character in the 1973 Jacqueline Susann novel Once Is Not Enough. Her two sisters also have names starting with J: Jina and Jacey. The family moved to Hecla, South Dakota in 1979, then back to Sioux Falls in 1986, where she graduated from Roosevelt High School.

Jones began modeling in New York at 18 after a scout approached her in high school, though she noted modeling was not her passion and she never took it seriously. Her first agency claimed she owed them money when she decided to move to Los Angeles. She has modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch, Versace, Clearasil, and Kérastase, and appeared on covers of Interview, Allure, Rolling Stone, Town & Country, The Hollywood Reporter, GQ, and W in the U.S., plus Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Tatler, Glamour, and Red in the U.K., Cosmopolitan in Germany, Grazia in Italy, and Tu Style in Italy.

Reader's Guide

To understand January Jones's career, start with her breakout role as Betty Draper on Mad Men (2007–2015), which earned her two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination. Her film work includes American Wedding (2003), We Are Marshall (2006), The Boat That Rocked (2009), Unknown (2011), Seeking Justice (2011), and X-Men: First Class (2011). On television, she played Melissa Chartres in The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018), Lizbeth Sloan in The Politician (2019), and Carol Baker in Spinning Out (2020).

Her early modeling career included work for Abercrombie & Fitch, Versace, Clearasil, and Kérastase, and magazine covers for Interview, Allure, Rolling Stone, GQ, and more. She hosted Saturday Night Live on November 14, 2009. In 2009, she joined Oceana as a celebrity spokesperson to save endangered sharks, and on November 24, 2021, she served food with Malin Åkerman at the Los Angeles Mission's annual Thanksgiving event. Jones dated Ashton Kutcher in the late 1990s, Jim Carrey in 2002 (who gave her Robert Stack's autograph), Josh Groban from 2003 to 2006, and Jason Sudeikis in 2010 (they split by January 2011).

In September 2011, she gave birth to a son whose father's identity was not publicly disclosed. She has an interest in unsolved mysteries, believes she has seen a UFO, and has a tattoo that says 'Bellatrix'. In 2025, she disclosed she has experienced misophonia since her teenage years.