Broadway BUZZ

Academy Award-winning and seven-time Emmy Award-winning actor Allison Janney has taken her place among a select group of performers who combine a leading lady's profile with a character actor's range – equally at home anchoring a network comedy, commanding a prestige drama, or disappearing into a transformative film role.Janney currently stars in Netflix's hit political drama series “The Diplomat,” now in production for its fourth season. Created by Debora Cahn, the series follows an American diplomat navigating the competing demands of international diplomacy and her personal relationships. Janney's portrayal of ‘Vice President Grace Penn’ has earned nominations at the 2026 and 2025 Critics' Choice Awards, the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, and the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards. She next stars opposite Andrew Rannells in Miss You, Love You, written and directed by Jim Rash. Janney plays a grieving widow who reaches out to her estranged son to help plan her husband's funeral. When he refuses to come home and sends his personal assistant in his place, she is forced to process her grief alongside a complete stranger. She began production this spring on Fonda, directed by Oscar winner Justine Triet, in which she co-stars alongside Mia Goth and Andrew Scott.Janney recently co-starred in Apple TV +'s “Palm Royale,” playing ‘Evelyn Rollins’ across two seasons alongside Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, and Carol Burnett. Set in 1960s Palm Beach high society, the series follows an ambitious outsider striving to secure her place among the elite. She also recently appeared in Amazon MGM Studios' comedic thriller A Simple Favor 2 alongside Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, and in the comedic drama Everything's Going to Be Great opposite Bryan Cranston. Her film work spans more than three decades of outstanding performances. It culminated in an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – along with numerous additional honors – for her portrayal of Tonya Harding's mother ‘LaVona Golden’ in the acclaimed I, Tonya opposite Margot Robbie. In 2022, she executive produced and starred in the Netflix action thriller Lou and co-starred in the independent drama To Leslie with Andrea Riseborough. She received critical acclaim for her co-starring role in HBO Film's Bad Education opposite Hugh Jackman and has delighted audiences with standout performances in the Oscar-winning Juno and the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray. She earned a Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime and another for the independent feature Our Very Own. Other film highlights include American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes; The Hours, opposite Meryl Streep; The Help, directed by Tate Taylor alongside Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Jessica Chastain; Bombshell, in which she appeared as lawyer and political operative ‘Susan Estrich’ alongside Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, and Charlize Theron; Breaking News in Yuba County; The People We Hate at the Wedding; and the Gareth Edwards–directed sci-fi epic The Creator, starring John David Washington and Gemma Chan. She has also lent her voice to Finding Nemo, The Addams Family, Minions, and Over the Hedge. On television, Janney first became known to audiences through her co-starring role in the acclaimed NBC drama “The West Wing,” where her portrayal of White House ‘Press Secretary C.J. Cregg’ earned her four Emmy Awards and four SAG Awards. She went on to star in the hit CBS comedy “Mom,” earning an Emmy Award in 2014 — and remarkably, won a second Emmy that same night for her role in Showtime's “Masters of Sex,” a feat accomplished only twice before in television history. Janney trained as an actor at Kenyon College in Ohio, where she auditioned for a play being directed by Paul Newman and landed her first role. Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward encouraged her to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and after a number of Off-Broadway productions she made her Broadway debut in Noël Coward's Present Laughter, earning the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award. She subsequently starred in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, receiving her first Tony Award nomination and a second Outer Critics Circle Award. After establishing her television and film career, she returned to Broadway in the musical 9 to 5, earning another Tony nomination and the Drama Desk Award, and made a further return in 2017 in the revival of John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation alongside John Benjamin Hickey and Corey Hawkins.