'Elf' Actor Faizon Love Arrested in Florida on Contempt Charges Tied to Paternity Case
The 58-year-old comedian and character actor is being held without bond at the Hillsborough County Jail after missing a child support hearing — the latest in a mounting string of legal troubles.
TAMPA, Fla. — Faizon Love, the actor best known to holiday movie fans as the exasperated Gimbels department store manager in the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy Elf, was arrested Tuesday in Hillsborough County, Florida, on two counts of contempt of court, according to jail records and reports confirmed by TMZ and FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
Love, 58, was booked into the Orient Road Jail in Tampa on June 16 and subsequently transferred to the Hillsborough County Jail, where he is being held on no bond. TMZ reported that Love missed a child support hearing, which appears to have triggered the contempt action.
Court records obtained by multiple outlets show that a woman named Tiffany Lee moved to reopen a declaration-of-paternity case involving Love on June 11 — five days before his arrest. While officials have not formally confirmed the connection between the two matters, reports from Entertainment Weekly and People indicate Love allegedly failed to pay $250,000 in child support owed to Lee. Love is expected to appear before a Hillsborough County judge on Friday.
His legal representative had not issued a public statement as of publication.
A Pattern of Legal Trouble
The Florida arrest is the latest chapter in a growing series of legal entanglements for the comedian and character actor, whose real name is Langston Faizon Santisima.
Most significantly, Love is awaiting trial in San Diego on a felony assault charge stemming from a August 2024 incident at a Mission Valley Sheraton hotel. Prosecutors allege he ripped a credit card reader off a front desk counter and hurled it at a clerk who told him the hotel had no room for him despite a third-party booking. A San Diego judge found sufficient evidence to send the case to trial; Love faces felony assault with a deadly weapon plus a great-bodily-injury enhancement — a combination carrying up to seven years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
In a prior interview with VladTV, Love said he did not realize the charge had been elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony until he was already in court and noted he had been undergoing psychiatric treatment in advance of the proceedings.
Love also faced a civil judgment in 2022 after a former personal assistant, Hevekiah Walker, sued him and his company for alleged sexual harassment. When Love failed to respond to the complaint, a judge entered a default judgment against him for roughly $543,000 including interest and costs. Walker subsequently pursued NBCUniversal to garnish residuals owed to Love, and a court issued a matching default judgment against the network — which NBCUniversal has since moved to appeal.
A 2017 arrest in Columbus, Ohio — captured on video — showed Love grabbing a valet by the neck and throwing him to the ground at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.
About Faizon Love
In addition to Elf, Love has appeared in Friday (1995), The Replacements (2000), Couples Retreat (2009), Just My Luck (2006), and the 2022 film Santa Games. He played Al Baker in 30 episodes of the Starz series Step Up: High Water. The Florida contempt case is ongoing.
Sources: TMZ, FOX 13 Tampa Bay, WFLA, Entertainment Weekly, People, Baller Alert. This story will be updated as court proceedings develop.
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