Katie Finneran

Infobox actor


caption =
birthdate = birth date and age|1971|1|22|mf=y
birthplace = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
tonyawards = Best Featured Actress in a Play
2002 "Noises Off"

Katie Finneran (born January 22, 1971) is an American Tony Award-winning film, stage, and television actress.

Biography

Personal life

Raised in Miami, Florida, Finneran attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for one year before moving to New York City at age 19 to study acting with Uta Hagen. Outside of acting, Finneran has had many "day jobs" to augment her income, including a ringside girl at a boxing ring, waitress, and perfume spray girl at Bloomingdale's.

Film

Finneran's biggest film role was a leading role in the remake of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". Her film credits include "You've Got Mail", "Chicken Little", "Bewitched", "", and "Death to Smoochy".

Television

Finneran is perhaps best known for her role of Sharon Tyler on the critically acclaimed, short-lived Fox television series "Wonderfalls". She also was featured as a part of the cast on the Fox show "The Inside", in the short-lived CBS sitcom "Bram and Alice", and in many guest roles in shows like "Frasier", "Sex and the City" and "Oz". In 2007 Finneran was featured in the new series "Drive". She plays the sister of the main character, Alex Tully, played by Nathan Fillion.

Finneran has often been championed by writers and creative teams at shows. Joe Keenan and Christopher Lloyd remembered Finneran's guest role as Poppy on "Frasier" (in a script they wrote). This led to them creating a role for her in "Bram and Alice". Tim Minear worked with Finneran on "Wonderfalls" and subsequently cast her in other shows of his, including a contract role in "The Inside", and the role she was featured in on "Drive".

In the DVD for the full series of "Wonderfalls", Finneran said that when she was asked if she felt nervous about playing lesbian immigration attorney Sharon Tyler on "Wonderfalls" that "I'd rather have people think that I'm a lesbian than a lawyer." She also said that to express her confidence that "Wonderfalls" would be picked up for a second season, Finneran left all of her stuff in Toronto in unmarked boxes. She challenged "Wonderfalls" co-creator Todd Holland to do the same, but he didn't.

Theater

Finneran has an extensive roster of theater roles. She has often been cast as a seductress in comedic and dramatic roles, including a pin-up girl in Neil Simon's "Proposals", Sally Bowles in the Tony Award-winning revival of "Cabaret", and call girl Cora in "The Iceman Cometh" opposite Kevin Spacey. She also has appeared in "My Favorite Year" with Tim Curry and John Guare's "Bosoms and Neglect" and "Smell of the Kill" with Kristen Johnson. She won a Best Featured Actress Tony Award for her role in the revival of "Noises Off" as well as a Drama Desk award also for best featured actress in that play. In the summer of 2006, Finneran appeared on stage in New York in a production called "Pig Farm".

External links

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* [http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/wov/finneran/ Interview] with Playboy