Jonah Hill has shared the reasons behind his decision to leave his hometown of Los Angeles after becoming a father. The 42-year-old actor, who has two children with his wife Olivia Millar, revealed the move during a live performance of the SmartLess podcast in Los Angeles, alongside hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.
Relocating to a Small Town
“So I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it’s amazing, and my neighbors are incredible people. And when we had our first kid, we moved out there three years ago,” Hill said onstage Saturday, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles,” he continued.
The Wolf of Wall Street star praised his neighbors for their respectful behavior. “They never treat me weird or ask me about my job or anything. And my neighbor is one of my great friends, Dr. Sean,” he added. “He’s here tonight. He never bothered me or was like, ‘Oh, what’s this person like?’”
Return to the Spotlight
The conversation comes as Hill returns to the public eye after a three-year hiatus. In his 2022 documentary Stutz, about his psychiatrist, he announced he was stepping back from promoting his movies due to anxiety attacks. “I’ve been gone for a while, so I’m kind of coming back and I’m like excited because I got all, like, serious for a while and I wasn’t as happy,” he said during the SmartLess appearance. “And then I had my family and I got happy, and now all I want to do is be funny again. That’s why I said yes [to being on SmartLess]. I’m, like, ‘I want to go f***ing be funny in front of a crowd and that’d be awesome.’”
Hill credited his wife and their two young children—whose names and genders have not been publicly disclosed—for his renewed perspective on comedy. “If you’re bummed, you don’t feel like being that funny, right? The first thing I thought about when I had my kids and was so stoked, it was like I connected to back when I was just like 12 and I was just being funny for fun,” he added. “That’s the thing I fell in love with my whole life.”
Career and Controversy
Hill rose to fame with comedy roles in films such as Superbad and 21 Jump Street. A year after announcing his break from the public eye, his ex-girlfriend, surfer Sarah Brady, accused him of emotional abuse, sharing screenshots of texts allegedly showing controlling behavior before their breakup in 2022. Hill has not publicly responded to these accusations.
His new film, Outcome, co-written by Ezra Woods, marks his first on-screen return since the allegations. His last appearances were in 2023’s You People with Eddie Murphy and the 2021 film Don’t Look Up. Released on April 10, Outcome is Hill’s third directorial project, following Mid90s (2018) and Stutz.
