Lea Michele Explains Her Name Change on "Tonight Show"

Pushing forth with her promotional efforts, Lea Michele paid a visit to NBC Studios in Burbank, California on Wednesday night (December 7).

The "Glee" actress took to the stage in a short little black and gold frock as she appeared on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" ahead of her "New Year's Eve" movie's December 9th theatrical release.

During her sitdown interview, Lea was asked by Jay about the last name appearing on her bio.

The 25-year-old explained, "Sarfati. That's my real last name. I don't use it a lot because I got Lea So-fatty, Lea So-farty at school. So when I was little and I went on my first audition they were like, 'And may we have your name,' and I was like Lea Michele. And I've been Lea Michele ever since."

To this, Jay then probed, "Now what, is that Italian. Sarfati."

Answering, Lea dished, "It's Sephardic, which is Spanish/Jew. We're from Spain, got kicked out... went there, went there."

"Now why did you get kicked out. Was the skirt too short?" Leno chimed in, getting quite the laugh from his celebrity guest.

Gathering together to shoot material for another episode of their hit FOX show, the stars of "Glee" were busy working the day away at Ventura High School in Ventura, CA on Tuesday (December 6).

The New Directions gang happened to be chipping away at the upcoming "Grease" inspired installment, with Dianna Agron, Lea Michele, Heather Morris, Chris Colfer and Naya Rivera all on-hand along with special guest star NeNe Leakes of "Real Housewives of Atlanta".

Teasingly tweeting about the workday, Miss Michele wrote, "Recreating a scene from one of my favorite movies growing up for #Glee today!"

Meanwhile, the hit show's creator Ryan Murphy has just confirmed plans to dedicate the upcoming January 24th episode to none other than the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Before that happens, though, fans can look forward to another all-new "Glee" next Tuesday (December 13), as the series' holiday episode titled "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" is set to debut at 8/7c on FOX.

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