Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch (born July 14, 1960, Dolton, Illinois, U.S.) is an American television and film actress and comedian who specialized in playing off-kilter characters with strong (often tyrannical) personalities. She is best known for her work on the television series Glee (2009–15).

Lynch grew up in suburban Chicago. As a teenager, she performed with her high-school choir, and she later attended Illinois State University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in theatre in 1982. After completing a master’s in acting at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (1984), Lynch moved to Chicago. Over the following 10 years, she performed with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and other companies around the city. She also toured with the Second City comedy troupe and in the early 1990s with Annoyance Theatre’s cult hit The Real Live Brady Bunch, a stage show that featured reenactments of old episodes of the television sitcom The Brady Bunch.

One of Lynch’s first film roles was in the 1993 action drama The Fugitive, parts of which were filmed in Chicago. That experience was the catalyst for her move to Los Angeles, where she found steady work on commercials and on numerous television shows, including Married…with Children, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Frasier.

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Lynch was 39 and still a little-known name when she met director Christopher Guest on the set of a Frosted Flakes commercial. That meeting led to his casting her as a highly competitive dog trainer in Best in Show (2000), an improvisation-based mockumentary that lampooned the eccentric world of dog shows. Guest, known for working with the same actors from film to film, cast Lynch in his next two movies, as a porn star turned folk singer in A Mighty Wind (2003) and as an entertainment television host in For Your Consideration (2006). Her performances in Guest’s films led to roles in other movies, notably Judd Apatow’s blockbuster comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Julie & Julia (2009), in which she played the sister of Meryl Streep’s Julia Child.

While advancing her movie career, Lynch continued working in television, honing her reputation as a versatile character actress on such programs as Two and a Half Men, Arrested Development, and The L Word. She also lent her voice to a number of animated films and TV programs, including the comedy series Family Guy.

Lynch had worked with television writer Ryan Murphy on an episode of his program Popular, and in 2008 he cast her in the pilot for Glee, an hour-long comedy about the musical and social tribulations of a high-school show choir. The show premiered in 2009 and was an immediate hit. Lynch’s performance as Sue Sylvester, a wildly aggressive cheerleading coach and an indefatigable rival of the choir, won her an Emmy Award in 2010 (for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series) and a Golden Globe Award in 2011. The show ran for six seasons before ending in 2015.

Meanwhile, Lynch appeared in the comedies Paul (2011), The Three Stooges (2012), and A.C.O.D. (2013) and had recurring roles in a number of TV series, including Party Down (2009–10). She also lent her voice to the animated movies Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and its sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). In 2017 Lynch portrayed Janet Reno in the miniseries Manhunt: Unabomber, about the FBI search for Ted Kaczynski, and began a recurring role as a veteran comedian in the acclaimed Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. For her work in the latter series, Lynch won an Emmy in 2019. She later appeared on Space Force (2020– ). In 2021 she voiced characters on a number of TV shows and appeared in an episode of Only Murders in the Building.

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Lynch was also involved in a variety of other projects. In 2013 she made her Broadway debut, as Miss Hannigan in the musical Annie. That year Lynch also began hosting the TV show Hollywood Game Night, on which celebrities competed against each other in party-style games. She won two more Emmys (2014–15) for outstanding host of a reality or reality-competition program for her work on the latter show. In 2020 she became host of the reality game show Weakest Link. In addition, Lynch hosted the Emmy Awards ceremony in 2011. She returned to Broadway in 2022, appearing in a revival of the musical Funny Girl.

Lynch, who was openly gay, was active in the gay rights movement. In 2008 she appeared in a short film lampooning Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that, for a time, barred same-sex marriage in California. Her memoir, Happy Accidents, was published in 2011.