Allison Janney

Janney appeared in five movies in 2019. She had cameo appearances in the family comedy Troop Zero with Viola Davis and Jim Gaffigan where she played Miss Massey, a head at children's camp, the psychological thriller Ma with Octavia Spencer where she played Dr. Brooks, the titular character's boss and Bombshell, a film based upon the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, where she played Susan Estrich, the legal counsel to Ailes. For the last of these she received nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Award, and Critics' Choice Movie Award Best Acting Ensemble. Janney also voiced for the role of Margaux Needler, a sly and greedy reality TV show host and homemaking guru in the animated version of The Addams Family. The film opened to mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success grossing over $203 million worldwide.

Janney's final release of the year came with Cory Finley's comedy-drama Bad Education opposite Hugh Jackman. Based on the true story of the largest public school embezzlement in American history, Janney plays Pamela 'Pam' Gluckin, an assistant superintendent who participates in the embezzlement scheme of $4.3 million. Janney found the character complex and interesting and had to perfect a Long Island accent. Bad Education premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and received critical acclaim. Janney's performance garnered rave reviews with Kate Rodgers of Newshub calling her performance "pitch-perfect", David Ehrlich of Indiewire called her excellent (as if there's any other kind) and commended her accent, saying; Janney, affects a hard Long Island accent that resists parody even during her funniest scenes, affects the part of a wounded lioness. Jake Coyle of Associated Press singled out Janney's performance as sliding "into the movie so perfectly that it feels more like she came first and the film was sensibly built around her".

In interviews related to her role on Mom, Janney discussed her brother, Hal, who fought drug addiction for years before becoming a victim to suicide. On March 4, 2018, Janney dedicated her Academy Award win to him during her acceptance speech.

In 2017, Janney starred in the black comedy I, Tonya. Based on the life of figure skater Tonya Harding, It follows her life and her connection to the 1994 attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Janney plays LaVona Golden, her abusive and caustic mother who pushed Harding to excel like a redneck beauty pageant mother. Screenwriter Steven Rogers wrote the role of LaVona specifically for Janney and refused to sell his screenplay until Janney was casted in the film, Janney would consider the part as one of the most challenging of her career.

In 2017, following an eight year absence, Janney returned to Broadway with the revival of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation. Janney plays Ouisa Kittredge, a status obsessed, Upper East Side socialite whose obsession with fame and fortune rears its head when she and her husband receive an unexpected visitor one evening. Although received less favourably than the original, Janney's performance garnered rave reviews with David Rooney from The Hollywood Reporter calling her performance "spectacular" and saying; she nails both the initial poise and the despairing need that creeps up and takes Ouisa by surprise as she realizes her connection with this impostor was something real, lasting and all too rare. Ben Brantley from The New York Times said; "Janney makes a highly credible Ouisa. Brisk, breezy and enameled in Clint Ramos’s expensively tasteful costumes, she is probably closer to Ouisa's real-life counterparts than Ms. Channing was. For her performance, Janney received nominations for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play.

From 2014 to 2016, Janney guest starred in Showtime's period drama Masters of Sex. Based on early lives and work of American sexologists, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, who studied human sexuality, Janney played Margaret Scully, a sexually repressed homemaker in 1950s who struggles to understand the disintegration of her marriage. Her performance received praise with Janney receiving three consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series winning one in 2014, and winning the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series.

She appeared in such films as The Help (2011), Struck by Lightning (2012), and Liberal Arts (2012). Janney appeared in the 2015 films Spy and The DUFF. She then co-starred in the fantasy film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and portrayed a homicide detective in the mystery thriller The Girl on the Train.

In 2009, Janney starred in the musical 9 to 5 along with Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty. Based on the film of the same name, Janney starred as Violet Newstead, the super-efficient office manager, played by Lily Tomlin in the film version. Her performance garnered rave reviews with Variety calling her the "show-stealer" and Ben Brantley from The New York Times saying; 9 to 5 is blessed with the presence of Janney and cited her performance as the show's "biggest asset". For her performance, Janney earned the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

In 2006, she had roles in the feature films Margaret and Over the Hedge. That same year, Janney was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance in the film Our Very Own. In 2007, she appeared in Juno, playing the part of Bren MacGuff, the title character's stepmother, for which she won the Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the same year, Janney appeared in the Golden Globe Award-nominated film Hairspray as Prudy Pingleton, Penny's (Amanda Bynes) strict and religious mother.

Janney attended the Miami Valley School in Dayton, where she was named a distinguished alumna in 2005, and the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where she was named Alumna of the Year in 2016. She then attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. She was directed in a play as the inaugural event of the school's newly dedicated Bolton Theater. Janney won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the summer of 1984, following her graduation from Kenyon.

In 2004, she began lending her voice to television and radio spots created by Kaiser Permanente in the health maintenance organization's broad "Thrive" media campaign, and in a radio campaign for the American Institute of Architects. In September 2010, it was announced that Janney would be the voice of the Aly San San spokesdroid in the Disney attraction Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. The attraction later opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. In October 2016, Janney became the first woman to receive the Alumni Award of The Hotchkiss School and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in the television industry, located at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard.

Janney guest starred on the sitcom Frasier in a 2002 episode Three Blind Dates and appeared in the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip in a guest appearance as herself in the episode "The Disaster Show". In late 2009, she was chosen to play the role of Sheila Jackson in the pilot episode of Shameless, but when Showtime picked up the series, she was replaced after the pilot by Joan Cusack. In 2010, Janney appeared as Allison Pearson in In Plain Sight. In May 2010, she appeared in the antepenultimate episode of the ABC television series Lost as the adoptive mother of the show's two mythological opponents, Jacob and The Man in Black. She starred in the ABC network comedy Mr. Sunshine. The series, which was created by Matthew Perry, was a mid-season replacement for the 2010–11 television season.

Born in Boston and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Janney received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts following her graduation from Kenyon College. After years of minor and uncredited film and television appearances, Janney's breakthrough came with the role of C. J. Cregg in the NBC political drama The West Wing (1999–2006), for which she received four Primetime Emmy Awards. The character became widely popular and was described as one of the greatest female characters in American television history. In 2014, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Margaret Scully on the Showtime period drama Masters of Sex. Since 2013, she has starred as a cynical recovering addict in the CBS sitcom Mom. Her performance on the show gained her five consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won her two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 1998, Janney starred in the revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Set in 1950s America, in an Italian-American neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, Janney portrayed Beatrice Carbone, a suspicious homemaker who suspects her husband's romantic feelings towards her niece. Although again a smaller role, Janney's work garnered rave reviews with John Heilpern from The Observer calling her performance "tremendous" and making a brilliant working-class heroine even more of a revelation. For her performance, Janney won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, and received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Her film roles include Private Parts (1997), Primary Colors (1998), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), American Beauty (1999), Nurse Betty (2000), The Hours (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), Over the Hedge (2006), Hairspray (2007), Juno (2007), The Help (2011), The Way, Way Back (2013), Tammy (2014), Minions (2015), Spy (2015), Tallulah (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), Bad Education (2019), The Addams Family (2019), and Bombshell (2019). In 2017, for her portrayal of LaVona Golden in the black comedy film I, Tonya, Janney won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Janney made her professional stage debut with the Off-Broadway production Ladies and followed with numerous bit parts in various similar productions, before making her Broadway debut in the 1996 revival of Present Laughter. She won Drama Desk Awards and received Tony Award nominations for her performances in the 1997 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge, and the 2009 original Broadway production of the musical 9 to 5.

Janney has appeared in numerous films, including the 1990s films American Beauty, The Object of My Affection, Big Night, The Impostors, Drop Dead Gorgeous, The Ice Storm, Primary Colors, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Private Parts, and the early 2000s films Nurse Betty, The Hours, The Chumscrubber, How to Deal, Winter Solstice, and a considerable voice role in the animated movie Finding Nemo, voicing Peach, the starfish.

Janney made her professional stage debut in 1989 with an uncredited part in the Off-Broadway production Ladies. Following minor roles in similar productions like; Prescribed Laughter In The Emergency Café, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress and Blue Window, Janney made her Broadway debut with the 1996 revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter. She played Liz Essendine, the estranged wife of the lead character (played by Frank Langella). Although a minor role, her performance garnered praise and attention with The New York Times calling it "The most fully accomplished performance on the stage". For her performance in the play, Janney won the Theatre World Award, Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female, Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play and received a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.

Allison Brooks Janney (born November 19, 1959) is an American actress. A prolific character actress and revered for her versatility, Janney is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Allison Brooks Janney was born on November 19, 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She is the daughter of Macy Brooks Janney (née Putnam), a former actress, and Jervis Spencer Janney, Jr., a real estate developer and jazz musician. She has two brothers, Hal and Jay.

Janney's first role on television was in the short-lived black-and-white faux-1940s comedy Morton & Hayes; she appeared in two episodes of the 1991 CBS series as Eddie Hayes' wife. She then moved on to soap operas; she first played Vi Kaminski for a short time on As the World Turns, following up with a two-year role as Ginger, one of the Spaulding maids, on Guiding Light. In the spring of 1994, she appeared in the season-four finale of Law & Order, entitled "Old Friends", as a reluctant witness against a member of the Russian mob. She was also a cast member on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion.