Megan Mullally This cute, brunette actress is without a doubt most known for her exceptionally high-pitched, shrill voice as Karen Walker on the hit comedy Will & Grace, co-starring Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, and Sean Hayes. Megan Mullally was born on November 12, 1958, in Los Angeles; the only child of noted Paramount Pictures contract player, the late Carter Mullally, Jr. The comedic actress moved to Oklahoma and studied ballet as a child, and got her first taste of show business performing in a ballet company when she was a teenager. After high school, Mullally studied English literature and art history at Northwestern University, but starred in campus dramas and musicals and participated in local theater, leading to her drop out of college to work in Chicago theater for several years.
Mullally moved back to LA in the 1980s, signing with the William Morris Agency, and she acquired a minor roles in a few films and TV series. Her acting debut was in 1981 with a small role in the TV film The Children Nobody Wanted, which starred Fredric Lehne, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Matt Clark; and in 1983 she appeared in her first big-screen role as a call girl in Risky Business, starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. Mullally went on to make guest appearances in various popular sitcoms, including Murder, She Wrote, starring Jessica Lansbury; Wings, starring Timothy Daly; Seinfeld, starring Jerry Seinfeld; Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammar; Mad About You, starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt; Caroline in the City, starring Lea Thompson; and 3rd Rock from the Sun, starring John Lithgow. In 1994, Mullally co-starred with Rosie O’Donnell in the Broadway musical Grease, and the following year, with Matthew Broderick in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
However, her biggest success was yet to come. In 1998, Mullally landed the role of the eccentric Karen Walker in the NBC comedy Will & Grace. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role as a supporting actress for five years between 2001 and 2005, and won the Emmy in both 2000 and 2006. She also won three Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. The voice she used for Karen is actually a developed voice which borders on falsetto. Will & Grace officially ended in 2006, after which Mullally launched her own talk show, The Megan Mullally Show. Besides an actress, comedian, and talk show host, Mullally is also a noted singer, and performs with her group, The Supreme Music Program, which has released two albums, and recorded a duet with singing sensation Carly Simon. Mullally is married to actor Nick Offerman and lives in West Hollywood. She was previously married to Michael Katcher, a talent agent, and also dated William H. Macy, the current husband of Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman. YUDDY |
