Jennifer Lynne Brown (born March 23, 1981) is an American sports broadcaster and television host. A former Division I collegiate athlete for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, she spent eight years as a reporter and host for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and ''

American Ninja Warrior ''American Ninja Warrior'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''ANW'') is an American sports entertainment reality show based on the Japanese television reality show ''Sasuke (TV series), Sasuke,'' which also serves as a successor of ''American Ninja C ...

''. Brown spent two years working for the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League NTP and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and N ...

as a studio host and reporter. She also served as a reporter for '' College GameDay'', the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children (primarily boys) aged 10 to 12 years old, held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for th ...

, Summer and Winter

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

, and the ESPYs. She was a Los Angeles-based Bureau reporter for ESPN contributing interviews and reports for ESPN’s news-gathering operation for SportsCenter, College GameDay and College Football Live. She co-hosted

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

's college football show RoadTrip with Jonathan Drubner.

Early life and education

Brown was born in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...

and raised in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. Her parents were Olympic gymnastics coaches, and her mother founded several gymnastics schools across the country that trained gymnasts to compete in the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. Brown grew up with a passion for sports. She played seven sports at

Bishop Moore High School Bishop Moore Catholic High School is a private Roman Catholic high school in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando, Florida. The school is located within the Diocese of Orlando, and remains the only Catholic high school in Greater Orlando. ...

and broke the record for the most varsity letters by a male or female athlete with 14. Brown captained and played five sports in one year (diving, volleyball, basketball, softball and track). She was also chosen as one of the top 10 athletes in Central Florida in 1999. On August 7, 2000, Brown's younger sister Carrie was killed in a car accident at the age of 13. Brown went on to attend the

on an academic scholarship and played four years on the

Florida Gators softball The Florida Gators softball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of softball. Florida competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Gators play their h ...

team. Brown captained the team her senior year, and she finished fifth on the team's career stolen base list. Brown received several academic honors while at the University of Florida including being named a two time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Academic All-American, four time SEC Academic Honor Roll, National Society of Collegiate Honors, Verizon Academic All-District, two time academic Dean's List and two time academic President's List. Brown graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' and was planning to attend law school to become a

sports agent A sports agent is a legal representative (hence agent (law), agent) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and Testimonial, endorsement contracts for the principal (commercial law), at ...

, but got her big break hosting a travel TV show on

HDNet AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...

called ''The Wild Side'', which was a remake of the famous show '' Wild On'' on E!.

Personal life

Brown resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. She is married to actor Wes Chatham. Together they have two sons, John Nash, born in 2014, and Rhett Jameson, born in 2016.

Career

TV hosting

From 2003 to 2008, Brown has hosted various episodes of the

Hdnet AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...

reality TV show, Bikini Destinations. Prior to ESPN, Brown worked for Showtime Sports as a reporter in 2008 and 2009. Brown was a special correspondent on

Inside the NFL ''Inside the NFL'' is an American weekly television sports show that focuses on the National Football League (NFL). Each NFL season, the program airs from Week 1 of the regular season until the week after the Super Bowl. The show principally fe ...

for 2 seasons, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Studio Show in 2008. She was also a live event reporter for boxing and MMA events for both Showtime Sports and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. In 2009, Brown was one of the hosts on ABC's Primetime show '' The Superstars''. Brown worked for E! Entertainment the summer of 2008 as a correspondent on ''

E! News Now ''E! News'', previously known as ''E! News Daily'' and ''E! News Live'', is the entertainment news operation for the cable network E! in the United States. Its former on-air weekday newscast debuted on September 1, 1991, and primarily reports ...

''. Prior to joining E!, Brown hosted shows for networks like

, CMT and

. She was the host for a nationally syndicated Mountain Lifestyle show called ''48 Straight, The Mountain Experience'', which she hosted with Jonny Moseley. Brown also co-hosted with Moseley ''The Collegiate Nationals'' for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

. In 2007, she hosted the

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

show '' I Want To Look Like a High School Cheerleader Again'' on

Country Music Television Country Music Television, often abbreviated to CMT, is an American pay TV network that launched on March 5, 1983. It is currently owned by Paramount Global through the MTV Entertainment Group unit of its networks division. CMT was the first na ...

. She was a co-host on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

Esquire Network Esquire Network was an American pay television network that was a 50/50 joint venture between NBCUniversal and the Hearst Corporation. Launched on October 1, 1998 as Style Network, a spin-off of E!, the channel initially consisted of fashion, d ...

summer primetime show ''

'', as well as hosting ''A Football Life: Backstory'' and ''NFL GameDay Scoreboard'' on the

Acting work

Her acting credit includes ''Two Tickets to Paradise'', which was written, produced, starred and directed by

D. B. Sweeney Daniel Bernard Sweeney (born November 14, 1961) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jackie Willow in Francis Ford Coppola's '' Gardens of Stone'' (1987), Lt. Phil Lowenthal in '' Memphis Belle'' (1990), and Travis Walton in '' Fire ...

. She's also appeared in 2 episodes of the TV show Kingdom on

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

playing herself.

Modeling

Brown has been featured in several

ad campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

s for

Under Armour Under Armour, Inc. is an American sportswear company that manufactures footwear and clothing, apparel headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. History 20th century Under Armour was founded on September 25, 1996, by Kevin Plank, a ...

's athletic clothing line.

References

External links

*
ESPN profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Jenn 1981 births Living people American television sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Florida Gators softball players Sportspeople from Gainesville, Florida Sportspeople from Orlando, Florida People from Manhattan Beach, California Female models from Florida Softball players from Florida Bishop Moore High School alumni