Jay Leno, star of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", was born on April 28, 1950, in New Rochelle, New York, but grew up in Andover, Massachusetts.

When Jay was 14, he got his very first automobile - a 1934 Ford truck - which he restored himself. Thus began his lifelong love affair with cars. His high salary at NBC must come in handy when it comes to this hobby: Jay now owns over 30 classic cars and over 40 motorcycles. (He even writes an automotive column for Popular Mechanics magazine.)

He was graduated from Emerson College (with a B.A. in speech therapy) in 1973, and began his career as a stand-up comic. A borderline workaholic, Lay was on the road working the nightclub circuit 300 days a year. He later opened for singing acts such as John Denver and Johnny Mathis. He also did did some comedy writing for sitcoms and even dabbled in acting, appearing in the 1978 movies "The Silver Bears" and "American Hot Wax".

But he found his main success as a guest on TV talk shows, making the rounds of the Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas shows.

It was Johnny Carson who gave Jay his big break on the Tonight show, having him on as a performer for the first time on March 2, 1977. It would be ten years before Jay became Johnny's permanent guest host (in 1987), and 15 years before Jay would take the reins of the Tonight Show full-time in 1992.

In between, he also appeared frequently on "Late Night with David Letterman" - which followed the Carson show each weeknight on NBC. Jay had earlier been a writer for Dave, and had made over 40 appearances on Letterman's show. That became a bit awkward in 1992, when Johnny Carson decided to retire. David Letterman obviously wanted to fill Johnny's "Tonight Show" chair, but after a controversial struggle, the treasured desk job went to Jay instead. Letterman left NBC in a huff to begin his own show on the rival CBS network, and for a while Letterman was winning late night the ratings game. But the ratings turned around in the mid-'90s.

Kevin Eubanks, the show's Music Director, fills the shoes of former Tonight Show bandleaders such as Doc Severinsen and Skitch Henderson - and like them he does double duty as the butt of some of Jay's jokes.

Kevin was born on November 15, 1957 in Philadelphia, where he also grew up. Before becoming a jazz guitarist, he studied the violin and learned to play the piano and trumpet as well. He became interested in the guitar at age 12 after attending a James Brown concert. When his parents refused to let him take guitar lessons, he taught himself. Later, he attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music

With 12 jazz guitar albums to his credit, he joined the Tonight Show in 1992 as a member of the Branford Marsalis band, and took over the leadership role in 1995, after Jay's original bandleader, Marsalis, left the show.

Kevin also wrote the show's closing theme song, called “Kevin’s Country,” and has scored shows on PBS & HBO.