Gail O'Grady

Infobox actor
name = Gail O'Grady


imagesize = 200px
caption = Gail O'Grady at the Emmy Awards in 1994
birthdate = birth date and age|1963|01|23
birthplace = Detroit, Michigan
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Television actress
website = http://www.gailogrady.com/

Gail O'Grady (born 23 January, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American television actress. She was raised in Wheaton, Illinois, and graduated from Wheaton North High School in 1981.

O'Grady was first seen by American television audiences in a 1987 Diet Pepsi commercial titled "Apartment 10G", which also starred Michael J. Fox. O'Grady played his sexy neighbor for whom Fox leaped down a fire escape and across a busy, rainy street to get a Diet Pepsi when he found none in his own fridge. "TV Guide" listed the ad as #41 in its 1999 list of "The 50 Greatest TV Commercials of All Time".

Her first major role was as Donna Abandando on the police drama "NYPD Blue". O'Grady played the big-haired squad secretary from 1993 to 1996, and for each year received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. O'Grady left the series in 1996 and made a pilot for her own sitcom, "The Gail O'Grady Project", but the show was not picked up by any of the networks. She's also made appearances on the hit CBS sitcom, "Two and a Half Men"; and also appeared in the final episode of "Designing Women" playing the trophy wife of a business rival of Judith Ivey's character, B.J. Poteet.

O'Grady found success starring in numerous television movies, including "The Three Lives of Karen", "Another Woman's Husband", "Sex & the Single Mom", "Every 9 Seconds", and "Lip Service".

From 2002 to 2005, she played the mother, Helen Pryor, in the NBC television series "American Dreams", which depicted an all-American family living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the 1960s. At the beginning of the 2005/06 television season, she starred on the ABC sitcom "Hot Properties". However, ABC announced late in 2005 that the series would be cancelled.

In 2007, she began a recurring role on "Boston Legal" as Gloria Weldon, a judge in a personal relationship with attorney Alan Shore.

She also had a supporting role on the short-lived CW teenage drama series, "Hidden Palms". On September 4, 2008 Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello reported that she was joining "Desperate Housewives" for the show's upcoming season. [http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2008/09/gail-ogrady-joi.html?iid=top25-20080905-Exclusive%3A+'Desperate+Housewives'+Welcomes+Gail+O'Grady!]

She has made recent appearances on "The Mentalist" and "".

Married and divorced four times, O'Grady gave birth to her first child, son Michael Colton, in 2004.

External links

* [http://www.gailogrady.com/ Official website]
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