January Jones

Verified Timeline

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.

In Their Own Story

Jones appears in the video 'Love is Blind' from the album Into the Light (2000) by David Coverdale and had supporting roles in Anger Management (2003), Love Actually (2003), and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004). She had a leading role in the TV film Love's Enduring Promise (2004), playing a pioneer family's oldest child who falls in love with a man who saves her father's life. In 2005, she appeared as a U.S. border guard's wife in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, which she called one of the most creative experiences of her career. In We Are Marshall (2006), she played Carol Dawson, wife of football coach William 'Red' Dawson. She also starred in Good Kill (2014) opposite Ethan Hawke. On Mad Men (2007–2015), she played suburban housewife and mother Betty Draper Francis for seven seasons, earning two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination. She is also known for playing Cadence Flaherty in American Wedding (2003), a con artist in the Law & Order episode 'Quit Claim', and appearing in The Boat That Rocked (2009). Jones was ranked No. 82 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002, appeared on the cover of British GQ's 'The Hot Issue' in May 2009, and on the cover of American GQ in November 2009. On November 14, 2009, she hosted Saturday Night Live with musical guest The Black Eyed Peas. In 2011, she starred in Unknown alongside Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger, Seeking Justice alongside Nicolas Cage and Guy Pearce, and portrayed Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class. She appeared as Melissa Chartres in The Last Man on Earth (2015–18), joined the cast of Netflix's The Politician in 2019 as Lizbeth Sloan, and in 2020 joined Spinning Out as Carol Baker, a former figure skater and single mother with bipolar disorder.

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.

Did You Know?

• January Jones was named after January Wayne, a character in the 1973 Jacqueline Susann novel Once Is Not Enough.
• She has a tattoo that says 'Bellatrix', the Latin word for female warrior.
• Jones believes she has seen a UFO.
• In 2025, she disclosed that she has experienced misophonia since she was a teenager.
• She served food at the Los Angeles Mission's annual Thanksgiving event on November 24, 2021, alongside Malin Åkerman.