Leslie Jordan

Jordan was born on April 29, 1955, and was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated from Brainerd High School. Jordan said his mother, Peggy Ann Jordan (née Griffin; 1935–2022), was supportive and accepting, despite never truly understanding him. Jordan's father, Allen Bernard Jordan, was a major in the United States Army Reserve and died, along with two others, in the crash of a civilian Beechcraft Debonair airplane at Camp Shelby, on March 31, 1967, when Jordan was almost 12 years old. In a 2014 interview, Jordan said that he had a difficult time growing up Southern Baptist. "I was baptized 14 times. Every time the preacher would say, 'Come forward, sinners!' I'd say, 'Oooh, I was out in the woods with that boy. I better go forward.'"

Jordan moved to Los Angeles in 1982, where he became involved with drugs and alcohol and was arrested several times. He began to journal daily, which helped him recover from drug and alcohol abuse. In 2010, Jordan told talk show host Wendy Williams that he had been sober for 13 years. In the same appearance, Jordan said that before he gave up drinking, he once shared a cell with Robert Downey Jr., and when they both appeared later on Ally McBeal, Downey couldn't quite place where they had met before. Jordan was gay. Early in the AIDS crisis, Jordan became involved in AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) as a buddy and as a food delivery-person for Project Angel Food.