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Allison
Janney
as C.J. Cregg |
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Touted by Entertainment Weekly as “one to watch” and “uncommonly beautiful and infinitely expressive,” Allison Janney has won four Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Press Secretary C.J. Cregg on the four-time Emmy Award-winning NBC drama, “The West Wing.” As the sixth season unfolded, she became the Chief of Staff after Leo McGarry’s (John Spencer) heart attack took him out of office.
Janney won the 2004 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in the Oval Office drama, her third consecutive nomination and second win for this award, which she also received in 2002. She also earned two consecutive Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Awards for the 2000 and 2001 Emmys, a 2003 SAG Awards nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and two consecutive Best Actress in a Drama Series Awards for the 2001 and 2002 SAG Awards. She has also earned Golden Globe nominations four years in a row for Best Actress and Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
It was Janney’s mother who urged her daughter to pursue her acting dream. “My mother studied acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City (where she roomed with Eileen Brennan and Rue McClanahan), but decided against an acting career when she got married,” said Janney. “She came from an era when women thought you could only do one thing. Sometimes I think she was right!”
During Janney’s freshman year at Kenyon College in Ohio, she was starring in a production when Paul Newman, a school alum, came back to dedicate the school’s new theater. She was encouraged by Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, to come to New York after graduation and study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She did as they suggested but “It took me a while to get going. I’m 6-feet tall and not exactly the ingenue type.”
Even with so much happening for her on television, Janney finds the time to work on films as well. She has finished filming her starring role opposite Francis O'Connor in "Piccadilly Jim," a combined venture of Myriad Pictures and Mission Pictures, helmed by John McKay. She was down in the South last summer, shooting the independent film "Our Very Own" with director Cameron Watson and her fiance, actor Richard Jenik.
Janney also has two other movies in post-production with Comedy Central's big-screen adaptation of their off-the-wall hit show "Strangers with Candy" (to be released this year with a star-studded cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as the show's original starring cast). Janney’s other film, to be released next year, also features Glenn Close and Ralph Fiennes in "The Chumscrubber," a film about an outcast high schooler who investigates the kidnapping of a fellow student. Last Fall she completed filming for the independent feature "Winter Solstice," starring opposite Anthony LaPaglia.
In 2003, Janney starred alongside Mandy Moore in “How to Deal” and lent her voice in “Finding Nemo” as Peach the Starfish. Last Fall, she starred in “The Hours” with Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman and Ed Harris, which received a 2003 SAG nomination for “Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture.” She co-starred in the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning film “American Beauty” with Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, which also earned her a SAG nomination. Critics praised her subtle performance of a catatonic mother. Additionally, she starred in the dark comedy “Nurse Betty” (with Renee Zellweger and Morgan Freeman).
Janney’s other film credits include “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Six Days, Seven Nights,” “Object of My Affection,” “Primary Colors,” “Celebrity,” “The Impostors,” “Private Parts,” “The Ice Storm,” “Walking and Talking” and “Big Night.”
In 1998, Janney was nominated for a Tony Award and won the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Supporting Actress for her Broadway performance in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.” In the summer of 1999, Janney starred in the New York Public Theater production of “Taming of the Shrew” in the Shakespeare-in-the-Park series.
In her free time, Janney likes to relax in Vermont but she resides in Los Angeles. Her birthday is November 19.
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