Before becoming a stay-at-home mom or a comedy star, as a little girl, showbiz dreams regularly appeared in Leanne Morgan’s young heart. And although rural Adams, Tennessee, a town of 500 and where she grew up, was 2,000 miles away, Morgan never stopped talking about her passions.

In fact, while in elementary school, the comedian began sharing her dreams with willing listeners. “I wanted to be a movie star, and was about 9 or 10 and thought, ‘I’m going to go to Hollywood.’ I just thought it and said it out loud from the time I was little biddy,” the southern mother of 3 tells Tinseltown Mom.

From Stay-at-Home Mom to Stand-Up Comedy Star, Leanne Morgan Shares Her Nontraditional Road to Success

Morgan had lofty visions and a draw toward comedic actresses like Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, but no idea how to pursue those dreams, so the star-in-the-making charted a conventional path. She followed a high school boyfriend to college, where she studied child and family studies: crisis center, intervention counseling at the University of Tennessee, but her heart was in entertainment. “The whole time I was thinking, ‘I’m going to do all that, but I’m going to end up in Hollywood too…’” she says.

Eventually, the dreamer broke up with her boyfriend and met Chuck, a level-headed MBA student. “…We married and all the time I would tell him, ‘I’m going to go to Hollywood…’” During their early dating days, the pair did take a trip to Tinseltown and went to The Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. “I went in that night and watched Dom Irrera and all these wonderful comedians, and my heart was beating out of my body. I had a physical response, and thought, ‘This is what I’m supposed to be doing.’ I’d never felt like that. I just thought, ‘I can do this…’”

After that declaration, the couple married and Chuck bought a used mobile home refurbishing business, so they relocated to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Unbeknownst to Morgan, that humble move was the launch of something big.

She worked in sales for Chuck for a while, got pregnant with their son and realized she wanted to stay home and nurse him. A friend introduced her to a career selling jewelry, and that opened the exact door Morgan needed to walk through. “I thought, ‘surely, I can do that. I can dazzle.’”

Jewelry Sales to Comedian

“I started selling jewelry in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and sold it to every Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal… schoolteachers. I went through all the school systems, and had a ball, Morgan reflects. “I was supposed to be talking about jewelry but instead talked about breastfeeding and hemorrhoids and being angry at Chuck that he didn’t hear a baby crying in the middle of the night. And, women thought I was funny. That’s where it all came together. I thought, ‘This feels so right to me to be in front of these women.’ And I look back on it, and it was my own little comedy club.”

The hands-on mom sold jewelry for 3-4 years and was so successful that she began booking parties a year in advance and was asked to speak at a regional event at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Women came up to Morgan and told her she needed to do standup, as well as a Christian comedian who was there that night, Dennis Swanberg. “…And that gave me the courage…” she reflects.

Stay at Home Mom and First Professional Gig

As time went on, she was asked to perform comedy at a small sandwich shop, when her three kids were all under five. “And I would sell out. It didn’t seat that many people… but that’s how I got started doing standup.”

When Morgan’s kids were 3, 5, and 7, her family moved to San Antonio, Texas, after her husband was promoted. She began doing open mic gigs at Cap City Comedy Club, and it didn’t take long for her to headline. She did that on the weekends so she could still be present for her kids. “My main thing was taking care of these babies. I just took whatever I could when I could… I just had to carve out a path that was different from everybody else…”

Stay-at-Home Mom and Breakthrough Gigs

Along that path some breaks did manifest, like touring with the Southern Fried Chicks and getting runner up for the first season of Nick at Nite’s Funniest Mom. She even secured a television deal for an ABC and Warner Bros. sitcom but, ultimately, it didn’t pan out. After becoming an empty nester her career had slowed, and she still prioritized her kids. “I thought, if they start having babies and my career is not going well, I’ll just stay at home and tend to these babies and start cooking pinto beans…,” she jests.

Her manager, at the time, encouraged her to participate in a Dry Bar comedy special. “I remember thinking, ‘this is not going well. I had a couple of other television deals. They had not made it… I’m getting too old… So, I go and do that Dry Bar thing… and I thought, ‘No one will ever see it.’ 50 million views later that special got put out. I did a bit about when my middle one was hateful, when she was sixteen—and I feel like God allows that—and this whole bit which really must have resonated with people… That boomed and I made enough money off of that. And it was the first time I really invested in myself.

Stay-at-Home Mom to Netflix Star

After the funny mom hired a team to assist with marketing, some clips of her standup went viral on social media. It was then that comedy clubs all over the country started calling. “…And then all of a sudden, I started selling out all over the United States. And I was probably 52, 53.”

It’s safe to say that the comic’s road to fame was not a traditional or easy path. But, she allowed God to use her talents the way that was fitting for her purpose. After a successful run of her Big Panty tour in 2022 she nabbed a Netflix special, Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman. It became one of the top comedy specials for the streaming platform in 2023.

Today, the entertainer is performing around the country with her Just Getting Started tour. She’s writing a book, What in the World? that will be published in September 2024. She also recently filmed a movie, You’re Cordially Invited, with Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell. And, with all the success that’s come her way, she still loves to encourage moms whenever she gets the opportunity. “I feel like I’m just getting started at 57 years old… It’s never too late to keep going. If you feel something pulling at you, to me that’s God talking to you. If you know you’re supposed to be doing something and you can do it… I believe in dreams… What’s the worst thing that can happen? If it doesn’t work out, try something else.”

For more on Leanne Morgan or to find tickets to one of her live performances visit www.leannemorgan.com