Who Is Janet Smollett? Everything About The Life Of Jurnee Smollett’s Mother

Janet Smollett is best known as the mother of the six Smollett siblings: Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui. Several of her children became actors, producers, musicians, and food personalities. Yet Janet’s influence goes far beyond being the mother of famous children. She helped create a home centered on creativity, reading, cooking, strong opinions, and family time. During the children’s early careers, she also worked as their manager and remained closely involved in their lives. Her handmade family tables and home-cooked meals later became an important part of the family’s public story.

Janet Smollett Personal Details

Who Is Janet Smollett?

Janet Smollett is the matriarch of the Smollett family and the widow of Joel Smollett. Public attention around her comes mainly through interviews with her children and stories about their childhood. Unlike several of her children, Janet did not build her public identity around acting or celebrity. Instead, she focused heavily on raising her family. A 1994 Los Angeles Times profile described her as her children’s manager and showed how closely she guided them during their early entertainment careers. Her children have also spoken publicly about her influence on their cooking, reading, creativity, confidence, and strong family connection.

Janet Smollett’s Early Life and New Orleans Roots

Reliable public information about Janet Smollett’s childhood is limited. Her children, however, have repeatedly connected their mother with New Orleans and its rich food culture. Jazz Smollett said that New Orleans culture, color, and cooking were deeply connected to her mother and the meals the family ate. Jake has also explained that dishes using spices, seafood, rice, garlic, and herbs reflected this influence. Those traditions later became part of The Family Table, the cookbook created by four of Janet’s children. Details about Janet’s parents, siblings, schools, and formal education have not been clearly established in reliable public sources.

Janet Smollett’s Civil Rights Activism

Janet Smollett has long been associated with social activism, although many online biographies provide more detail than can easily be independently confirmed. What is clearer is that social awareness became part of the environment in which her children grew up. A 1994 profile of the family showed that Janet encouraged her children to read beyond ordinary schoolwork. Their reading included works connected with Malcolm X and poet Langston Hughes. The children later became publicly involved with different social and political causes themselves. Rather than treating Janet simply as an entertainment parent, her public story is better understood as one that combined family guidance, education, independence, and social awareness.

Her Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement

Janet’s connection to civil-rights activism has been discussed publicly by members of her family. Accounts of her early adult life place activism within the story of how Janet and Joel built their family and shaped their values. However, specific claims about organizations, positions, or exact dates should be treated carefully unless supported by primary records. What can be seen more clearly is the lasting effect of socially conscious ideas inside the Smollett household. Janet encouraged reading, discussion, and independent thinking rather than focusing only on entertainment success. That wider education became an important part of the way her children described their upbringing.

How Activism Shaped the Smollett Family

The Smollett children grew up in a household where having an opinion was encouraged. Their famous kitchen table was not simply a place for eating. Family members remembered it as a space where they talked, debated, celebrated, and shared their thoughts. Jake later said that the table helped him learn to have a voice. Jazz and Jurnee have similarly described family discussions in which the siblings could disagree and explore different sides of an issue. This atmosphere helps explain why the family’s story often connects creativity with social awareness. Janet encouraged her children to express themselves while remaining connected to one another.

How Janet Smollett Met Joel Smollett

Janet and Joel Smollett built the family that later became familiar to television and movie audiences. Published accounts connected with the family cookbook say Joel was from New York and had Jewish and Eastern European roots, while Janet brought strong New Orleans influences into the home. One account says the couple met while working at a sweater factory in San Francisco. Their different backgrounds later appeared in the traditions they shared with their children. The household celebrated occasions connected with both Christian and Jewish traditions. Reliable sources provide fewer details about the exact beginning of Janet and Joel’s romance, so claims about a precise meeting date should be avoided.

Janet and Joel Smollett’s Marriage and Family Life

Janet and Joel raised six children together, creating a busy household that moved frequently around the United States. Their children later described their early family life as financially modest but full of shared experiences. According to The Family Table, the family moved from coast to coast 13 times. Despite those changes, Janet and Joel created traditions that gave the children a sense of stability. Food, celebrations, reading, and time around the kitchen table remained important wherever they lived. The children were also exposed to traditions from both sides of their family, giving their home a mixture of cultural and religious influences.

Building a Family Together

Raising six children while moving repeatedly required flexibility. Janet became especially known for making useful things herself. Jazz recalled that her mother built not only family tables but also beds, cribs, couches, toy boxes, and other furniture during the family’s early years. This do-it-yourself attitude became part of the lessons Janet passed to her children. Instead of waiting for ideal circumstances, she showed them how to work with what they had. The children also shared responsibilities around the home. Jake later described a family environment where cooking, cleaning, and other chores were normal parts of growing up together.

Joel Smollett’s Death in 2015

Joel Smollett died in January 2015 after battling cancer. His death was a major loss for Janet and their six children. Jussie Smollett publicly shared the news at the time and spoke warmly about his father. Joel had generally stayed outside the celebrity spotlight, but stories from the children show that he was an important part of their upbringing. Earlier coverage of the family noted that he visited his children on television sets when possible. His influence also remains visible in the family’s traditions. Their cookbook reflects food and celebrations from both Janet’s New Orleans background and Joel’s Jewish family heritage, showing how both parents shaped the household.

Janet Smollett’s Six Children

Janet and Joel Smollett had six children: Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui. Entertainment became a shared part of their childhood, although their adult careers later moved in different directions. Several became actors, while others worked in producing, food media, music, business, or technology. Their unusual closeness attracted attention when the siblings appeared together in the ABC sitcom On Our Own during the 1990s. A contemporary Los Angeles Times profile showed them working together while Janet remained nearby as both mother and manager. Their later projects continued to reflect the strong family identity that Janet and Joel had created.

Jojo Smollett

Jojo Smollett is the oldest of Janet and Joel’s six children. Like his younger brothers and sisters, he entered entertainment while still young. He appeared alongside his siblings in On Our Own, the ABC sitcom that placed the Smollett family in the national television spotlight during the 1990s. Earlier in his career, Jojo also took acting roles before the family series began. A 1994 profile presented him as the oldest sibling in a lively group of young performers who were already thinking beyond acting. Although some of his siblings later became more visible celebrities, Jojo remains an important part of the family’s shared entertainment history.

Jazz Smollett

Jazz Smollett is Janet and Joel’s oldest daughter and the second of their six children. She started working as a child model and later appeared with her brothers and sisters in On Our Own. As an adult, Jazz expanded her work into producing, writing, lifestyle programming, and food-related projects. She was also one of the four siblings credited as authors of The Family Table. Jazz has spoken in detail about Janet’s influence on the family, especially her cooking and woodworking. Her memories of Janet building furniture and preparing New Orleans-inspired food have helped preserve parts of the family’s childhood story for a wider audience.

Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett began performing as a child and later became widely known for playing Jamal Lyon on the television drama Empire. Long before that role, he appeared in films and joined his siblings in On Our Own. A 1994 interview showed that Janet remained an important source of comfort and inspiration for him while he worked as a child performer. Jussie later joined Jazz, Jake, and Jurnee in creating The Family Table. Through that project, he helped share memories of the meals, discussions, celebrations, and handmade tables that shaped their childhood. His career has brought significant public attention to the Smollett family name.

Jurnee Smollett

Jurnee Smollett became one of the family’s most successful actors. She started working at a very young age, appearing in television programs before joining her siblings in On Our Own. Her later career included major television and film roles, while she continued to speak about her family’s influence. Jurnee was also a co-author of The Family Table, helping turn childhood food memories into a published cookbook. Family stories show that Janet encouraged much more than professional acting. The children read, cooked, debated, and spent time together away from their work. That broader upbringing gave Jurnee and her siblings an identity outside their careers in entertainment.

Jake Smollett

Jake Smollett followed both entertainment and food interests. He appeared with his siblings in On Our Own as a child and later became especially active in cooking and food television. Jake has repeatedly credited Janet with teaching him how to cook. He remembered entering the kitchen at a young age because preparing food was treated as a family event. He also inherited her interest in making furniture and has said that he builds furniture with her. Jake took a leading role in testing recipes for The Family Table. His cooking style continues to show the New Orleans flavors that he associates with his mother’s kitchen.

Jocqui Smollett

Jocqui Smollett is the youngest of Janet and Joel’s six children. Like the rest of the siblings, he appeared in On Our Own during childhood. His adult path has been less centered on acting than those of Jussie or Jurnee. Still, he remains connected to the family’s shared creative and food traditions. Jake has said that Jocqui developed a stronger interest in cooking as an adult and sometimes contacted him for help with family recipes. This is another example of how traditions established in Janet’s kitchen continued after the children grew up. Jocqui’s story also shows that not every Smollett sibling followed the same professional direction.

How Janet Smollett Raised Her Children

Janet’s parenting style appears repeatedly in interviews with her children. She expected them to develop skills beyond performing. During their childhood acting years, the children continued reading, playing sports, singing, cooking, and helping around the home. Janet told the Los Angeles Times in 1994 that she and Joel tried to raise each child with individual attention despite having six children. Her approach also emphasized practical independence. Building furniture, preparing meals, reading serious books, and expressing opinions were normal parts of family life. These experiences gave the children responsibilities and interests that were separate from auditions, television sets, and other parts of show business.

A Creative and Close-Knit Home

Creativity in the Smollett household was not limited to acting. The siblings sang, cooked, read, debated, and worked on different activities together. Their closeness later became one of the most noticeable parts of their public image. When they were interviewed during On Our Own, they spoke positively about working with their brothers and sisters because they already understood one another well. At home, Janet created spaces where the children could communicate freely. The family table became particularly important because it was where they gathered for food and conversation. These routines helped maintain a feeling of connection even while the children were working in a demanding industry.

Moving Across the United States as a Family

The Smollett children did not spend their entire childhood in one place. Their cookbook describes a nomadic family life in which they moved coast to coast 13 times. Such frequent changes could easily have made home feel temporary. Janet responded by recreating familiar traditions wherever the family went. One of the most memorable was building a new wooden kitchen table after arriving in another home. Meals and celebrations then continued around that table. The physical location changed, but important family routines stayed recognizable. This idea became so central to the siblings’ memories that they later made the family table the theme and title of their cookbook.

Janet Smollett’s Role in Her Children’s Acting Careers

Janet played a direct role in her children’s early entertainment careers. A Los Angeles Times profile from 1994 described her as their manager while the siblings were working on On Our Own. The same report noted that some of the children had already found modeling, movie, and television opportunities before the family sitcom. Janet was also present on set and provided emotional support. Importantly, she did not appear to treat acting as the only thing that mattered. Reading, sports, music, and ordinary family activities remained part of the children’s lives. Her involvement therefore combined career guidance with the everyday responsibilities of raising a large family.

Encouraging Acting and Creativity From a Young Age

The Smollett children began entering entertainment when they were young. Jazz recalled that the siblings watched other children performing on television and believed they could do the same. With help from Janet, they began finding opportunities. Jazz worked as a child model, while Jojo and Jussie took small film roles and Jurnee appeared on television programs. Eventually, the siblings were brought together for On Our Own. Janet’s support helped turn their early interest into real work, but the family continued encouraging other forms of creativity as well. Music, reading, food, discussion, and practical projects all remained important parts of their home environment.

Why Her Children Saw Her as a Major Guide

Janet’s influence reached beyond arranging professional opportunities. Her children have described her as a source of confidence, inspiration, and practical guidance. Jussie said during the family’s On Our Own period that having his mother on set brought comfort and inspiration. Other family stories show the same pattern in different areas. Jake credits her with teaching him to cook, while Jazz has spoken about learning from her mother’s creativity and ability to build things by hand. Janet’s impact therefore cannot be reduced to acting management. She helped create the wider environment in which the siblings learned to perform, cook, speak confidently, work independently, and support one another.

The Smollett Siblings and On Our Own

On Our Own became an important chapter in the Smollett family story. The ABC sitcom premiered in 1994 and featured all six siblings, giving them the unusual experience of working together on a national television series. Contemporary reporting described how naturally they interacted because they already knew each other so well. Jurnee said that being with her brothers and sisters was one of the best parts of the experience. Janet remained closely involved as their mother and manager, while Joel visited when possible. Although the series was short-lived, it remains a memorable example of how the family’s private closeness became part of their professional lives.

Janet Smollett’s Love of Cooking

Cooking is one of the clearest parts of Janet’s influence on her children. Jake Smollett has said that the siblings learned to cook from their mother and that cooking began when they were young. Meals were not treated simply as a daily task. Preparing food became an event and a way to contribute to the family. Janet also preferred cooking from scratch and showed her children how to make satisfying meals while watching costs. Her approach helped shape Jake’s later food career and influenced the entire family’s cooking style. Years later, those childhood recipes and memories provided much of the inspiration for The Family Table.

New Orleans Food and Family Traditions

Janet’s New Orleans background strongly influenced the flavors in the Smollett home. Jazz remembered gumbo appearing at birthdays and oyster po’ boys being part of their childhood food culture. Jake has also described the family’s love of spices, garlic, herbs, seafood, rice, and comforting one-pot dishes. These flavors later appeared throughout The Family Table, including a section devoted to New Orleans roots. At the same time, the family’s meals reflected more than one cultural tradition. Joel’s background also contributed to the household. The result was a broad food culture that encouraged the children to appreciate different flavors, celebrations, and family histories.

How She Inspired Jake and the Other Smollett Siblings

Janet’s cooking lessons stayed with her children long after childhood. Jake developed the strongest public connection with food, but cooking remained a family skill. He has explained that the siblings learned early because everyone helped with household responsibilities. Janet’s festive approach made cooking enjoyable rather than simply another chore. Jake also remembers learning the value of making food from scratch. As adults, the siblings continued sharing recipes and cooking for one another. Even Jocqui, the youngest, developed a greater interest in cooking later. This lasting connection shows that Janet gave her children more than recipes. She made preparing and sharing food part of their family identity.

The Story Behind the Smollett Family Table

Few objects represent Janet Smollett’s parenting more clearly than the family’s wooden kitchen table. Whenever the family moved, Janet would build another table by hand. Published descriptions of The Family Table explain that she turned wooden planks into a finished butcher-block table, creating a familiar gathering place in each new home. The table was practical because the family did not always have much money, but its meaning grew far beyond cost. Meals, birthdays, holidays, conversations, disagreements, and important announcements happened there. Eventually, the handmade table became a symbol of stability in a childhood marked by frequent moves across the country.

Why Janet Built the Family’s Wooden Tables Herself

Janet’s decision to build furniture reflected both need and creativity. Jazz explained that her parents did not have much money when the children were young, so making furniture themselves was useful. Janet became especially skilled at the work. She built tables, beds, cribs, couches, toy boxes, and other items for the household. The lesson stayed with her children: when something was needed, they could learn how to make it rather than waiting for someone else. The family table became the best-known example of this practical attitude. Janet continued building tables even after her children became adults, extending the tradition into their own homes.

How Family Meals Kept the Smolletts Connected

Shared meals provided consistency during a childhood filled with travel and professional work. The Smolletts moved repeatedly, but sitting together around Janet’s table remained familiar. The siblings remember the table as a place where they could speak freely, celebrate achievements, discuss problems, and debate ideas. Holidays and birthdays were also centered there. This gave the family a dependable gathering point even when their address changed. Food was important, but conversation mattered just as much. The children learned to listen, disagree, and express themselves. Years later, their memories suggest that the table succeeded in doing what Janet intended: creating a home wherever the family happened to be.

The Family Table Cookbook and Janet Smollett’s Influence

In 2018, Jazz, Jake, Jurnee, and Jussie Smollett published The Family Table: Recipes and Moments from a Nomadic Life. The book brought many of their childhood traditions to a wider audience. It included more than 100 recipes and stories connected with the family’s years of moving across America. Janet’s influence appears throughout the project, from the handmade table itself to New Orleans-inspired dishes and economical home cooking. Jake took a major role in testing recipes, while the siblings shared memories connected with meals. The book ultimately works as more than a recipe collection. It records how food helped Janet keep a large, traveling family connected.

Janet Smollett’s Relationship With Her Children Today

Janet’s adult children have continued to speak warmly about lessons and traditions they received from her. Their comments about cooking, furniture making, family meals, and childhood show that her influence continued after they left home. Jake has said that he still builds furniture with his mother, while Jazz has explained that Janet made tables for her adult children as well. Family recipes also continue to pass between the siblings. Because Janet keeps a relatively private public profile, reliable information about her everyday relationships with each child is limited. Still, their interviews and shared projects provide clear evidence that many traditions she established remain meaningful within the family.

Janet Smollett’s Life Away From the Spotlight

Unlike Jurnee, Jussie, and several of her other children, Janet has not maintained a major public entertainment career. Most reliable information about her comes from interviews given by her children, older profiles of the family, and stories surrounding The Family Table. This makes it important not to fill gaps with claims from poorly sourced celebrity websites. Her exact daily routine, finances, and other private matters are not well documented. What is publicly established gives a clearer and more meaningful picture anyway. Janet devoted much of her energy to family life, supported her children during their early careers, taught practical skills, encouraged reading and creativity, and created traditions that survived into adulthood.

Where Is Janet Smollett Now?

Janet Smollett remains much more private than her famous children. Current, reliable public reporting provides limited information about exactly where she lives or how she spends her daily life. For that reason, claims about a specific current residence, job, or personal routine should not be presented as fact without stronger evidence. More recent family interviews show that the traditions she created have continued to influence her children as adults. Jake has spoken about continuing the family’s cooking culture, while earlier interviews described Janet still making furniture and tables for her children. Her public presence may be limited, but her influence remains visible through the stories and traditions her family continues to share.

Janet Smollett’s Lasting Influence on the Smollett Family

Janet Smollett’s strongest legacy may be the culture she created inside her home. Her children became known for acting and entertainment, but their memories repeatedly return to simpler things: cooking together, reading, debating around a table, making furniture, and helping one another. Janet encouraged independence while also keeping the family closely connected. The wooden tables she built are a fitting symbol of that approach. They were handmade, practical, strong, and designed to bring everyone together. Even after the children became adults with separate careers, those traditions remained part of their shared identity. Their cookbook turned that private family history into something readers could understand and experience.

Final Thoughts

Janet Smollett is often introduced simply as the mother of Jussie Smollett, Jurnee Smollett, and their four siblings. That description misses much of her story. She helped guide six young performers while making sure their lives included reading, cooking, discussion, practical work, and strong family traditions. Her New Orleans food heritage shaped their kitchen, while her handmade tables created a gathering place through repeated moves across America. Several of her children eventually became well-known performers, but their own memories show that Janet valued more than fame. Her lasting importance lies in the creative, independent, and family-centered environment she worked to build around them.

FAQs About Janet Smollett

1. Who is Janet Smollett?

Janet Smollett is the mother of six children: Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui Smollett. She is known for supporting her children’s early careers and creating a close, creative family environment.

2. Who was Janet Smollett’s husband?

Janet Smollett was married to Joel Smollett. Together, they raised six children. Joel died in January 2015 after battling cancer.

3. How many children does Janet Smollett have?

Janet Smollett has six children. They are Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui Smollett. Several of them became actors and entertainment personalities.

4. What is Janet Smollett known for?

Janet is best known as the Smollett family matriarch. She supported her children’s acting careers and strongly influenced their love of cooking, creativity, reading, family meals, and social awareness.

5. Where is Janet Smollett now?

Janet Smollett keeps her current life private. Reliable public information about her exact residence and daily activities is limited. She remains closely associated with the family traditions her children continue to discuss publicly.

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