Jonathan Van Ness is the fun and energetic grooming guru who got uber famous from the Netflix hit Queer Eye. Though he may already feel like your BFF, there's a lot you probably don't yet know about him. We've rounded up some lesser known facts about the star. You ready?
He was the first male cheerleader at his high school.
He broke barriers and was even given a partial college scholarship for it.
He dropped out of college to be a hair stylist.
Though he landed a partial cheerleading scholarship that sent him to The University of Arizona to study political science, he dropped out after one semester and ultimately pursued hairstyling.
He was really nervous about landing Queer Eye.
Jonathan said he had some serious anxiety about auditioning for Queer Eye and frequently thought the wouldn't get it.
"I felt like a contestant on America's Next Top Model who made it into the final two because I was like, 'I really, really want this every moment it gets closer and I want it so bad but you look like a big gay Jesus, girl, you're just not gonna get this job!'" he told Into The Gloss.
He comes from a media family.
Jonathan told Wealth Simple that his entire family is made up of journalists and newscasters, and he is the only one of his siblings not to go that route.
"I come from the 7th generation of a newspaper, TV, and radio broadcasting company called Quincy. After school my mom would sometimes pick me up and I would go back to the paper with her. She was fierce and always working it."
He starred on the web series "Gay Of Thrones" before landing "Queer Eye."
You may have seen him first on Queer Eye, but he actually got his start on the Funny Or Die web show Gay Of Thrones where he did a guest's hair and they hilariously recapped the latest episode of the Game Of Thrones. He continued doing it for the final season of the show.
That show got him an Emmy nomination.
Gay of Thrones was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series in 2019.
He totally freaked when he met Sophie Turner.
He's obviously a huge GOT fan so he, like we all would, totally freaked out when he met Sophie Turner. She also totally fangirled resulting in a very adorable video you'll want to watch a thousand times.
He loves comedy.
If you've ever watched Queer Eye or Gay of Thrones, you'll know that Jonathan is seriously funny. In fact, he considers comedy and hair two of his biggest passions.
“I feel like I was bitten by the stand-up comedy bug,” he told the LA Times. “When I first met Margaret Cho in 2014 through ‘Gay of Thrones,’ she said, ‘Girl, you are so funny you really should be doing stand-up.’”
He loves yoga.
Jonathan is very into his yoga practice and frequently shares his progress on Instagram.
He is obsessed with figure skating.
JVN is seriously obsessed with Olympic figure skating, and his Instagram is filled with videos of him hanging out with Olympian Michelle Kwan and practicing his own skills on the ice.
He is gender nonbinary.
Jonathan told Out Magazine that he is nonbinary or genderqueer, but uses he/him pronouns.
“I didn’t think I was allowed to be nonconforming or genderqueer or nonbinary—I was just always like 'a gay man' because that’s just the label I thought I had to be," he told them.
He wrote a book.
Jonathan published his first solo book called Over The Top this year, and it made the New York Times bestsellers list. In it, he chronicles his journey with addiction, mental health, and more.
He recently shared his HIV status in an effort to break the stigma.
Jonathan shared that he is H.I.V positive in his book, but much of the world learned about it in a New York Times interview prior to its release. He said it was difficult for him to decide if he wanted to share his status publicly but ultimately decided to in an effort to break the stigma around people living with H.I.V.
“When ‘Queer Eye’ came out, it was really difficult because I was like, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?,” he said. “And then I was like, ‘The Trump administration has done everything they can do to have the stigmatization of the L.G.B.T. community thrive around me.’ ... "I do feel the need to talk about this.”
He's politically active.
Jonathan uses his social media and general platform to speak out about issues he cares about, like mental health and LGBTQ rights. He has also met and shared photos with Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 election.
He has his own podcast.
Because he is truly not busy enough, he hosts a podcast called Getting Curious where he is joined by interesting guests in politics, activism, food, beauty, and more.
He's as obsessed with "The Great British Bake Off" as you are.
He loves GBBO (not so much after Mary Berry left though, sorry!). His passion runs so deep that he even became friends with season five winner, Nancy Birtwhistle.
He's close with Taylor Swift.
After appearing in her video for You Need To Calm Down alongside the other Queer Eye stars, he and Tay Tay have hung out a few times. They do have one big thing in common...
He loves cats.
He and Taylor both share a love for cats. He currently owns Genevieve, Harry Larry (one cat), Liza, and Matilda.
He helped trick fans into thinking he was dating Antoni.
Despite the joint Instagram and lovey-dovey photos, the pair isn't actually dating. He blames Antoni for the prank.
He said he's actually more extra in real life.
He may be known for being totally over-the-top onscreen, but Jonathan says he is actually way more "extra" IRL.
“If anything I’m less extra because I don’t want to scare people!” he told iNews.
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