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Laurie Metcalf
Laura Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress and comedian. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout a career spanning more than four decades, including 4 Primetime Emmy Awards and 2 Tony Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Metcalf began her career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and frequently works in Chicago theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the 1985 play My Thing of Love. She went on to receive two Tony Awards, her first for Best Actress in a Play for her role in A Doll's House, Part 2 (2017) followed by her win for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the revival of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women (2018). Her other Tony-nominated roles were for November (2008), The Other Place (2010), Misery (2016), and Hillary and Clinton (2019).
On television, she played Jackie Harris on Roseanne (1988–1997, 2018), for which she won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and its spinoff The Conners (2018–2025). She also won an Emmy Award for her guest role in Hacks (2022), and was Emmy-nominated for 3rd Rock from the Sun (1999), Monk (2006), Desperate Housewives (2007), The Big Bang Theory (2016), Getting On (2013–2015), and Horace and Pete (2016). She also acted in The Norm Show (1999–2001), Frasier, and The Dropout (2022).
In film, Metcalf is best known for her performance as Marion McPherson in Greta Gerwig's comedy-drama film Lady Bird (2017). She was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a BAFTA Award. Since 1995, she has voiced Mrs. Davis, the mother of Andy, in the Toy Story franchise; she also voiced Sarah Hawkins in the Disney animated film Treasure Planet (2002). Other film credits include Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Uncle Buck (1989), JFK (1991), Dear God (1996), Georgia Rule (2007) and Scream 2 (1997).
Metcalf was raised in Edwardsville, Illinois, which she has said "isn't anywhere near a theatre." Her father, James, was the budget director at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at the time of his sudden death in 1984. Her mother, Libby, was a librarian. Her great-aunt was the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Zoë Akins.
Metcalf is an alumna of Illinois State University, class of 1976. Metcalf worked as a secretary while in college and has said that she enjoyed seeing a pile of paper in the to-do box on one side of her desk move over to the completed side by the end of the day. She was often so focused on her work she missed lunch. She originally majored in German, thinking she could work as an interpreter, and then in anthropology before majoring in theatre. She has said that theatre work also involves interpreting and studying human behavior. She has described herself as hideously shy, and yet she found the courage to audition for a few plays in high school and was "hooked". She initially did not choose acting as a career, because it was unlikely to lead to regular work.
Metcalf attended Illinois State University and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theater in 1976. While at ISU, she met fellow theater students, among them John Malkovich, Glenne Headly, Joan Allen, Terry Kinney, and Jeff Perry, the latter two of whom, along with Perry's high school classmate Gary Sinise, went on to establish Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Metcalf began her professional career at Steppenwolf, of which she was a charter member. Metcalf went to New York to appear in an Off-Broadway Steppenwolf production of Balm in Gilead at Circle Repertory in 1984 for which she received the 1984 Obie Award for Best Actress and a 1984–85 Theatre World Award (for best debut in a Broadway or Off-Broadway performance). Metcalf was praised for her performance as Darlene, and was specifically singled out for her 20-minute act two monologue. Chicago critic Richard Christiansen stated:
There's a moment when Laurie Metcalf—who plays this poor young thing that comes to the big city and hangs out at this greasy spoon diner where the play is set—is talking about her once boyfriend who is an albino; I think it's a monologue of about five, six, seven minutes. Just to sit there and watch and hear Laurie unspool that story, it just brought tears coming down your eyes—oh, boy, it was something.
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Laurie Metcalf
Laura Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress and comedian. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout a career spanning more than four decades, including 4 Primetime Emmy Awards and 2 Tony Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Metcalf began her career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and frequently works in Chicago theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the 1985 play My Thing of Love. She went on to receive two Tony Awards, her first for Best Actress in a Play for her role in A Doll's House, Part 2 (2017) followed by her win for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the revival of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women (2018). Her other Tony-nominated roles were for November (2008), The Other Place (2010), Misery (2016), and Hillary and Clinton (2019).
On television, she played Jackie Harris on Roseanne (1988–1997, 2018), for which she won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and its spinoff The Conners (2018–2025). She also won an Emmy Award for her guest role in Hacks (2022), and was Emmy-nominated for 3rd Rock from the Sun (1999), Monk (2006), Desperate Housewives (2007), The Big Bang Theory (2016), Getting On (2013–2015), and Horace and Pete (2016). She also acted in The Norm Show (1999–2001), Frasier, and The Dropout (2022).
In film, Metcalf is best known for her performance as Marion McPherson in Greta Gerwig's comedy-drama film Lady Bird (2017). She was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a BAFTA Award. Since 1995, she has voiced Mrs. Davis, the mother of Andy, in the Toy Story franchise; she also voiced Sarah Hawkins in the Disney animated film Treasure Planet (2002). Other film credits include Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Uncle Buck (1989), JFK (1991), Dear God (1996), Georgia Rule (2007) and Scream 2 (1997).
Metcalf was raised in Edwardsville, Illinois, which she has said "isn't anywhere near a theatre." Her father, James, was the budget director at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at the time of his sudden death in 1984. Her mother, Libby, was a librarian. Her great-aunt was the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Zoë Akins.
Metcalf is an alumna of Illinois State University, class of 1976. Metcalf worked as a secretary while in college and has said that she enjoyed seeing a pile of paper in the to-do box on one side of her desk move over to the completed side by the end of the day. She was often so focused on her work she missed lunch. She originally majored in German, thinking she could work as an interpreter, and then in anthropology before majoring in theatre. She has said that theatre work also involves interpreting and studying human behavior. She has described herself as hideously shy, and yet she found the courage to audition for a few plays in high school and was "hooked". She initially did not choose acting as a career, because it was unlikely to lead to regular work.
Metcalf attended Illinois State University and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theater in 1976. While at ISU, she met fellow theater students, among them John Malkovich, Glenne Headly, Joan Allen, Terry Kinney, and Jeff Perry, the latter two of whom, along with Perry's high school classmate Gary Sinise, went on to establish Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Metcalf began her professional career at Steppenwolf, of which she was a charter member. Metcalf went to New York to appear in an Off-Broadway Steppenwolf production of Balm in Gilead at Circle Repertory in 1984 for which she received the 1984 Obie Award for Best Actress and a 1984–85 Theatre World Award (for best debut in a Broadway or Off-Broadway performance). Metcalf was praised for her performance as Darlene, and was specifically singled out for her 20-minute act two monologue. Chicago critic Richard Christiansen stated:
There's a moment when Laurie Metcalf—who plays this poor young thing that comes to the big city and hangs out at this greasy spoon diner where the play is set—is talking about her once boyfriend who is an albino; I think it's a monologue of about five, six, seven minutes. Just to sit there and watch and hear Laurie unspool that story, it just brought tears coming down your eyes—oh, boy, it was something.
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