Janet Smollett: The Family Culture Behind Six Creative Careers

Janet Smollett is the mother of JoJo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui Smollett. She guided six children who later worked in acting, music, cooking, design, and tech, yet the story of this family began long before fame. At home, reading, music, meals, debate, and discipline were part of ordinary life.

Her children have often pointed back to the same source. Janet Smollett pushed them to think for themselves, use their gifts well, and stay close as a family. She also made sure that acting was only one part of a much wider education.

A Home Life That Came Before Hollywood

One of the best early views of Janet Smollett comes from a 1994 Los Angeles Times profile. All six children were then acting together on the ABC sitcom On Our Own. The paper described Janet as both their mother and manager.

Even with six young performers in one family, family life did not center only on auditions. The children played sports and read books. Malcolm X and the poems of Langston Hughes were part of their reading. Music and performances were common at home, but so were rules, chores, and school responsibilities.

Janet told the Times that she and Joel raised each child “like they’re only children.” That short line says a lot. The children were part of a close group, yet each one had room to speak and grow.

Jussie, still a child at the time, called his mother a source of comfort and hope on set. In later years, his brothers and sisters would tell much the same story.

How Six Children Found Their Way Into Acting

The family did not start with a formal plan to put all six children on television. Jurnee later told Backstage that family friends in New York urged the older children to try modeling and ads.

Jazz began to model, while JoJo and Jussie found early screen roles. Jurnee followed while she was still very young, and soon several of the children were working at the same time.

Then came On Our Own in 1994. The ABC program cast all six Smollett children in one sitcom. The plot was about a group of brothers and sisters trying to stay together after losing their parents.

The program lasted one season, but it gave viewers a rare sight. A real group of siblings was playing a close family on screen.

The bond did not begin with the program because it was already there.

Her Role as Jurnee’s First Acting Coach

Jurnee Smollett has often spoken about the influence her mother had in her early work. She told Backstage that Janet loved films and the arts. Turner Classic Movies was often playing in the house.

For Mother’s Day, the children might put on a play or a concert instead of buying a gift. Jurnee joked that her mother wanted a full program, complete with big costume changes.

That made acting feel natural. It was not only a career or a trip to a set. It was also something the children did at home for fun.

Jurnee later called Janet her first acting coach and said her mother let a young performer’s imagination grow instead of forcing it into a rigid method.

That idea helped Jurnee as she moved from child roles into serious film and television work. It also fits the wider family story. The children learned to make things, not just wait for someone else to give them a part.

The “School of Janet”

Jurnee gave her mother’s lessons a name in a 2007 Los Angeles Times interview. She called them the “School of Janet.”

She was not talking only about acting.

Jurnee said her mother had joined marches, sit-ins, and voter work. She also said Janet taught her that talent should be used for more than fame. A gift had value when it could serve a larger purpose.

That lesson stayed with Jurnee. She became active in HIV/AIDS causes while still young. She later chose many roles tied to race, history, and justice.

The same values can be seen in the older family profile. While the children were trying to build television careers, they were also reading about Black history and poetry.

This was not a home where fame stood alone. Art, reading, and social responsibility were linked.

Moving Often, but Building a Home Each Time

The Smollett children did not grow up in one house.

Their 2018 cookbook, The Family Table: Recipes and Moments from a Nomadic Life, says the family moved across the United States 13 times. The book was written by Jazz, Jake, Jurnee, and Jussie.

Frequent moves can make a home feel temporary. Janet Smollett had a practical answer to that problem. In each new place, she built a large wooden kitchen table for the family.

She made it from raw wood and finished it by hand, and the table then became the heart of the house.

The family ate there, argued there, and shared news there. Birthdays, holidays, and big talks happened around it.

Jake later told the Houston Chronicle that he could not remember eating at a family table his mother had not made. He also said that the table was where he learned to speak up.

That detail shows how Janet Smollett turned a simple object into a family habit. The address could change, but the center of the home stayed the same.

Food Was More Than Dinner

Cooking was another strong part of family life.

The Houston Chronicle reported that Janet was born in Galveston and raised in New Orleans. Jake said her New Orleans roots shaped much of the food the family loved.

Cajun spice, seafood, rice, garlic, herbs, and one-pot meals became part of the family kitchen. Jake also recalled that his mother did not lean on bottled sauces. She cooked from scratch and changed dishes by feel.

Joel Smollett brought other food and faith traditions into the home. The family cookbook describes a house that marked Christmas and Hanukkah, Easter and Passover.

The mix was broad and very personal, with Southern dishes sitting next to Jewish food. Meals could also draw from the many places the family had lived or visited.

Food was not a side note; it was one of the strongest ways the family stayed close.

From Janet’s Kitchen to Smollett Eats

In later years, those family habits became a television program.

Food Network’s Smollett Eats followed all six siblings as they cooked for parties, barbecues, birthdays, and family celebrations. Jake often led the cooking side, but each brother and sister took part.

One episode, “Southern Shindig,” was built around their mother’s Southern roots. The menu included a seafood boil, fried okra, and cornbread.

The program made the family’s food story easy to see. Long after their early acting years, the siblings were still working together. This time, the set looked much closer to the kind of family gathering they knew at home.

The Family Table cookbook carried the same family tradition into print. It came out in 2018 through HarperCollins and included more than 130 recipes.

Janet Smollett was not listed as one of the book’s four authors. Still, her mark is all over it. The table she built became a key image in the book. Many of the meals came from the food her children knew at home.

Six Children Who Did Not Follow One Path

The siblings grew into adults with very different careers.

JoJo stepped away from a full-time acting career. Jazz worked in acting, producing, and home and lifestyle television. Jussie became known for acting and music. Jurnee built a long film and television career.

Jake moved toward cooking and food media. Jocqui later worked in technology and data.

That range matters because the children were raised together, but they were not pushed into one mold, and each found a different way to use what they had learned.

The same pattern can be seen in their shared work. They could act together, cook together, and support one another while still building separate lives.

Janet Smollett was part of the structure that made that possible. The family had shared expectations, but each child also had room to become a different person.

A Mother Seen Most Clearly Through Family Habits

Janet has never had the same kind of public-facing career as some of her children. She has not built her own fame through films, hit television programs, or a large media brand.

Her story is clearer in the habits her children still talk about.

There was the television set in 1994, where she helped manage six young performers while keeping reading and normal life in view.

There was the “School of Janet,” where talent came with a duty to care about the world.

There was the wooden table she rebuilt after move after move.

There was the kitchen that later helped shape a Food Network program and a family cookbook.

These details say more than a vague claim that she was “supportive.” They show what support looked like in ordinary life.

Why Janet Smollett Still Matters to the Smollett Story

The Smollett family has stayed in public view for more than 30 years. The children have grown, changed careers, and moved into very different parts of life.

Still, the same themes keep coming back. They talk about family meals, books, performances at home, debate, discipline, and a need to use their voices well.

Janet Smollett stands near the start of all those threads.

Her story is not based on a long list of professional screen credits. It is based on the home she helped build, even when that home kept moving.

For readers who first find her name through Jurnee, Jussie, Jake, or another sibling, that is the deeper point. The public careers came later, while the habits that shaped them began at home.

For another LakewoodScoop.co.uk profile about a creative life shaped by a well-known family, read our Nipo Saldana feature.