Allison Janney
Born in Boston and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Janney received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London 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 series The West Wing (1999โ2006), for which she received four Primetime Emmy Awards.
In 2014, for her guest role of Margaret Scully, a sexually repressed 1950s housewife on Showtime's period drama series Masters of Sex, she won a fifth Emmy. For her portrayal of Bonnie Plunkett, a cynical recovering addict on the CBS sitcom Mom (2013โ2021), Janney won two more Emmys. She portrayed Vice President turned President Grace Penn in the Netflix drama series The Diplomat (2024โ), earning her eighth Emmy for its third season.
Janney made her professional stage debut with the Off-Broadway production Ladies (1989), and followed with numerous bit parts in various similar productions, before making her Broadway debut with the 1996 revival of Present Laughter. She won two Drama Desk Awards and has been nominated for two Tony Awards: for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in the Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge (1997), and for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in the original Broadway production of the musical 9 to 5 (2009).
Janney has also played character roles in various films, including Primary Colors (1998), American Beauty (1999), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Hours (2002), Juno (2007), Hairspray (2007), The Help (2011), Spy (2015), Bad Education (2019), and Bombshell (2019). For her portrayal of LaVona Golden in the film I, Tonya (2017), Janney won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Early life and education
Allison Brooks Janney was born on November 19, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. She is the daughter of Macy Brooks Janney (nรฉe Putnam), a former actress, and Jervis Spencer Janney Jr., a real estate developer and jazz musician. She has an older brother, Jay, and had a younger brother, Hal (1961โ2011). Hal, who had battled depression and addiction for many years, died by suicide in 2011 at the age of 49.
Janney is a descendant of Stephen Hopkins through his daughter Constance Hopkins, both of whom travelled to the New World on the Mayflower, as she recounted on a 2022 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
She 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. Janney initially aspired to a career in figure skating, but her height of 6 ft (183 cm) and a domestic accident when she was a teenager put an end to that dream.
She attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where she majored in theatre. During her freshman year, Janney met actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward at a play for the inaugural event of the college's newly built Bolton Theater, which Newman was directing. The couple encouraged her to continue acting and offered her guidance during the early days in her career.
She went on to train at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York and then received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in mid-1984.
Career
1989โ1998: Early roles and Broadway debut
Janney's first role on television was in the short-lived black-and-white faux-1940s comedy Morton & Hayes. She moved on to soap operas; she played the recurring role of Ginger, one of the Spaulding maids, on Guiding Light for two years. In the spring of 1994, she appeared in the season-four finale of Law & Order, titled "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. 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 Cafรฉ, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress and Blue Window.
Janney made her Broadway debut with the 1996 revival of Noรซl 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. Janney made her film debut with a minor part in Who Shot Pat? (1989).
This was followed by a series of minor roles in numerous films throughout the 1990s, including; Wolf (1994), Big Night (1996), Private Parts (1997), The Ice Storm (1997), The Object of My Affection (1998), The Impostors (1998), Primary Colors (1998), Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), and American Beauty (1999).
Janney starred in the Roundabout Theatre Company's 1998 revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge to positive reviews. Janney starred opposite Anthony LaPaglia, Stephen Spinella, and Brittany Murphy. Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised Janney, writing "Allison Janney is splendid as Beatrice, a loving, patient woman of backbone who looks on helplessly but not quietly as her husband heads into the darkness".
Charles Isherwood of Variety agreed describing her performance as "affecting". 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.
1999โ2006: The West Wing
After a decade of small and uncredited parts, Janney had her breakthrough when she was cast as White House Press Secretary C. J. Cregg in the NBC political drama The West Wing. Creator Aaron Sorkin called Janney to audition for the role after seeing her in the film Primary Colors. Loosely based on Dee Dee Myers, the press secretary during Clinton administration, C.
J. is a National Merit Scholar who ultimately succeeds Leo McGarry as White House Chief of Staff. Writing for The Atlantic, John Reid says that "her capability and combination of strength and simple compassion represented the fantasy of the Bartlet White House better than anyone." The publication also ranks her as the best character from the series.
In their ranking of the best characters from all the television series created by Sorkin, Vulture ranks C. J. at No. 2 and says; "If all the Sorkin women were as classy, self-assured, and legitimately funny (the turkey pardon!) as C. J., we'd never have had the Sorkin woman argument in the first place". For her portrayal of C.
J. Cregg, Janney won four Primetime Emmy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Award, a Satellite Award and four nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, making her the most awarded cast member of the series. For the last of these she won the Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble.[citation needed]
She also appeared in Nurse Betty (2000), The Hours (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), How to Deal (2003), The Chumscrubber (2005), Winter Solstice (2004), and Our Very Own (2005). For the last of these, she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. During this time Janney guest starred on the sitcom Frasier in the 2002 episode "Three Blind Dates".
2007โ2016: Established actor
Janney appeared in the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2007) as a guest. In 2010, Janney appeared as Allison Pearson in In Plain Sight.[citation needed] In May 2010, she appeared one of the final episodes of the television series Lost as the adoptive mother of the show's two mythological opponents, Jacob and The Man in Black.[citation needed] She starred in the ABC network comedy Mr.
Sunshine. The series, which was created by Matthew Perry, was a mid-season replacement for the 2010โ11 television season.
In 2007, Janney starred in Jason Reitman's comedy-drama Juno, playing Bren MacGuff, the titular character's stepmother. In the same year, she appeared in the musical Hairspray, and won the Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Acting Ensemble.
In 2010, Janney earned praise for her performance in Todd Solondz's comedy-drama Life During Wartime. In 2009, Janney starred in the musical 9 to 5 alongside Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty. Her performance garnered positive reviews, and 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 2011, Janney appeared in Tate Taylor's period drama The Help alongside Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Mary Steenburgen and others. She won the Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
She also appeared in the drama Margaret (2011), the coming-of-age comedy Struck by Lightning (2012), and the comedy Liberal Arts (2012).[citation needed]
Following a few short-lived shows and a brief sabbatical from television, Janney returned to the small screen with the CBS sitcom Mom, which ran from 2013 until 2021. Janney played Bonnie Plunkett, a self-centered, cynical recovering addict who tries to regain the love and trust of her daughter (played by Anna Faris).
She was influenced to take on the role following the death of her younger brother from drug addiction, as well as her longtime desire to work on multicam comedy. For her performance on the series, Janney garnered critical acclaim and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning twice as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
She also received six nominations at the Critics' Choice Television Awards winning twice for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. From 2014 to 2016, Janney guest-starred in Showtime's period drama Masters of Sex, portraying 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.
Janney later acted in the summer comedy The Way Way Back (2013), the spy comedy Spy (2015), the high school teen comedy The DUFF (2015), the fantasy film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016), the comedy-drama Tallulah (2016), and psychological mystery thriller The Girl on the Train (2016).
She voiced Julia in The Simpsons episode "Friends and Family" (2016)[citation needed] and acted as herself in the IFC sketch series Comedy Bang! Bang! episode "Allison Janney Wears a Chambray Western Shirt and Suede Fringe Boots".
2017โpresent: Career expansion
In 2017, Janney returned to Broadway with the revival of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation in the role of Ouisa Kittredge. Marilyn Stasio of Variety praised Janney's performance writing, "[Her] wicked, smart delivery is perfect for Guare's witty dialogue." David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter concurred writing, "I found I couldn't take my eyes off her...she looks spectacular in costumer Clint Ramos' sleek socialite outfits, and she nails both the initial poise and the despairing needed [for the role]".
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.[citation needed]
In 2017, Janney starred in Craig Gillespie's black comedy I, Tonya, based on the life of figure skater Tonya Harding. Screenwriter Steven Rogers wrote the role of LaVona specifically for Janney and refused to sell his screenplay until Janney was cast in the film. Janney would consider the part as one of the most challenging of her career.
Janney's performance received widespread acclaim with Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post writing: 'Janney steals every scene she's in, playing LaVona, a harridan whose nodding goes beyond tough love.' She earned numerous accolades for her performance in the film including the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award, Independent Spirit Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.
๐ Source: Wikipedia
