Allison Janney

Allison Janney is an American actor whose work spans television, film, and Broadway. Born on November 19, 1959, in Boston, she grew up in Dayton, Ohio. She studied at Kenyon College, where Paul Newman directed her in a student production, and later trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Janney became widely known for playing C. J. Cregg, the White House press secretary on NBC’s *The West Wing*. Across the political drama’s seven seasons, from 1999 to 2006, Cregg rose to White House chief of staff. The role earned Janney four Primetime Emmy Awards: two for supporting actress and two for lead actress in a drama series. Her performance made Cregg one of the show’s defining characters, particularly in scenes that paired rapid-fire press briefings with the private pressures of government work.

In 2013, Janney began playing Bonnie Plunkett on the CBS sitcom *Mom*. Bonnie, a recovering alcoholic, was the mother of Anna Faris’s character, Christy. The series ran until 2021 and gave Janney two more Emmys, both for supporting actress in a comedy. She received a seventh Emmy for her guest role as Margaret Scully on the Showtime drama *Masters of Sex*.

Her film roles include Barbara Fitts in *American Beauty* (1999), Bren MacGuff in *Juno* (2007), and Charlotte Phelan in *The Help* (2011). In the animated film *Finding Nemo* (2003), she voiced Peach, a starfish in the dentist’s aquarium. She also played the school counselor Ms. Perky in *10 Things I Hate About You* (1999).

Janney won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for portraying LaVona Golden, the mother of figure skater Tonya Harding, in *I, Tonya* (2017). The film depicts Harding’s career and the events surrounding the 1994 attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan. Janney’s sharp, unsentimental performance also won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

On Broadway, Janney earned Tony Award nominations for the revival of Arthur Miller’s *A View from the Bridge* and for playing Violet Newstead in the musical adaptation of *9 to 5*. Her later screen work includes the title role in the 2022 action thriller *Lou* and Vice President Grace Penn in the second season of Netflix’s *The Diplomat*. These roles extend a career distinguished by both ensemble television performances and sharply drawn supporting characters on film.