Kathy Najimy

Kathy Ann Najimy is an American actress of Lebanese descent best known for her role as Olive Massery on the television series Veronica’s Closet. She also played Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act in 1992, and currently narrates the voice of Peggy Hill on the animated FOX television series, King of the Hill.

She received two Annie Award nominations for her work on King of the Hill, an American Comedy Award nomination for her role as Massery on Veronica’s Closet, and an American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actress for her part as Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act.

She was born on February 6, 1957, in San Diego, California, where she went to Crawford High School. She began playing minor off-beat roles in minor films in the early 1990s, until she landed her first major role in Sister Act and the 1993 sequel Sister Act 2.

In 1991 she starred in and co-wrote the HBO television series The Kathy and Mo Show and later went on the produce, write, and star in the 1996 version of the same show called Kathy and Mo: The Dark Side. Najimy won Cable Ace Awards for her role as both actress and executive producer for the special, and received an American Comedy Award nomination for her performance.

In 1998 she made a cameo in Bride of Chucky, as the maid who discovers Diane and Russ’s bodies. The following year she narrated the voice of Elmo’s stepmother in the FOX television special Cinderelmo. In 2001 she co-starred with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg in the comedy film Rat Race.

Najimy has appeared in several television shows including Chicago Hope and most recently as the pushy Dr. Mildred French on NUMB3RS.

Besides film and television, Najimy has starred as the legendary Mae West in the Broadway play Dirty Blonde. She has also directed the off-Broadway production of Back to Bacharach and David, and the off-off-Broadway plays Don’t Get Me Started and I Can Put My Fist in My Mouth.

She has been a gay and lesbian rights activist since age eighteen and received the LA Gay and Lesbian Center’s Distinguished Achievement award. She is a vegetarian and animal rights activist, and has posed twice for the “I’d Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur” campaign for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). For her activism work for PETA, Najimy has received PETA’s Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Najimy has also been the resident director of the Emmy Award-winning New Image Teen Theater for four years, and has been published several times in national magazines and the New York Times.

She lives in Los Angeles and New York with her husband, singer/actor Dan Finnerty, whom she married on August 8, 1995, and their young daughter, Samia Najimy Finnerty, born in 1996. 

YUDDY