Birthday: Nov 19, 1960

Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio, USA

Biography: Allison Janney is an award-winning actress who has earned a solid reputation in stage productions and in many supporting roles on screen. Early in her career Janney got comedic roles in the soap operas , but later on she gave memorable movie performances in supporting roles in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), American Beauty (1999) and Nurse Betty (2000), and in the made-for-TV movie ...First Do No Harm (1997) (TV), among others. In 1999 Janney became part of ... ... (read more...) the original cast of the acclaimed TV series "The West Wing" (1999) where she played CJ Cregg, the President's press secretary who eventually gets promoted to the White House Chief of Staff. Her impressive work during the six seasons of that renowned series earned her four Emmys and two SAG Awards. With her reputation becoming more broadly established during her work on "The West Wing" Janney won more substantive roles in feature films, in the acclaimed The Hours (2002) where she was Meryl Streep's lesbian lover, and in How to Deal (2003) where she played Mandy Moore's mother. Being almost six feet tall, a casting agent once told her that the only roles she would ever get would be lesbians and aliens.