Touted by Entertainment Weekly as "one to watch" and "uncommonly beautiful and infinitely expressive," Allison Janney has impressed critics and won two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Press Secretary CJ Cregg on "The West Wing." Janney also recently received a 2002 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.       The actress is the only daughter of a former actress and a jazz musician. Ironically, she was raised in Dayton, Ohio � the same hometown of her "The West Wing" co-stars Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe.

      It was Janney's mother who urged her daughter to pursue her acting dream. "My mother had studied acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City (where she roomed with Eileen Brennan and Rue McClanahan), but decided against an acting career when she got married," said Janney. "She came from an era when you thought you could only do one thing. Sometimes I think she was right!"

      During Janney's freshman year at Kenyon College in Ohio, she was starring in a production when Paul Newman, a school alum, came back to dedicate the school�s new theatre. She was encouraged by Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, to come to New York after graduation and study at the Neighbourhood Playhouse. She did as they suggested but found that, "It took me a while to get going, I�m 6-feet tall and not exactly the ingenue type."

      Playing CJ Cregg on "The West Wing" is Janney's first television role since she starred in the short-lived television series "Morton and Hayes." "he script was really great, and I immediately responded to the character," she said. "When I found out who was involved creatively, I wanted to be a part of it."

      On film, Janney co-starred in the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning film "American Beauty" with Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, which also earned her a Screen Actors Guild nomination. Critics praised her subtle performance of a catatonic mother. Additionally, she starred in the dark comedy "Nurse Betty" (with Renee Zellweger and Morgan Freeman), which won for Best Screenwriting at the Cannes Film Festival.

      Janney's other film credits include "Drop Dead Gorgeous," "10 Things I Hate About You," "Six Days, Seven Nights," "Object of My Affection," "Primary Colours," "Celebrity," "The Impostors," "Private Parts," "The Ice Storm," "Walking and Talking" and "Big Night."

      In 1998, Janney was nominated for a Tony Award and won the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Supporting Actress for her Broadway performance in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge." In the summer of 1999, Janney starred in the New York Public Theatre production of "Taming of the Shrew" in the Shakespeare-in-the-Park series.

      In her free time, Janney likes to spend time relaxing in Vermont, but she resides in Los Angeles. Her birthday is November 19.

Bio pilfered from NBC: The West Wing.

Trivia

- Had dreams of becoming an Olympic figure skater before a freak accident derailed that - she ran blindly through a glass door and was severely injured.

- On the set of the series one day, Allison Janney was entertaining the cast and crew by lip-synching to an obscure spoken jazz piece called the Jackal by Ronnie Jordan. Aaron Sorkin liked it so much that he wrote it into the next episode of the show (Six Meetings Before Lunch) as a ritual of CJ's.

- While struggling to make it as an actress, she told people who inquired about what she did for a living that she was a photographer for National Geographic.

- A casting agent once told her that the only roles she could play were lesbians and aliens.


Quotes

- "She's seamless. We use that term to describe someone whose work is undetectable, the reality of who they are and what they're projecting. You're just in awe of her. She may be the biggest talent in the cast. I mean, really. She may be the biggest talent." - Martin Sheen

- "CJ's no-nonsense, and I'm all nonsense!" - Allison Janney

- "Years ago, one casting agent told me that the only roles I could play were lesbians and aliens. When I said that Sigourney Weaver was tall, the agent replied, 'Well, she is drop-dead gorgeous.' I could feel the tears brimming in my eyes." - Allison Janney

- "Allison Janney is the best actress I've ever worked with. With all respect to Jodie Foster and Maggie Smith, who are also my favourites. Allison Janney is one for the ages." - Rob Lowe

- "Aaron called me one day and said there's a part of a reporter and maybe a possible love interest with Allison Janney. I hadn't read the script or read the scene, but I said, 'I'm on a plane.'" - Timothy Busfield

- "Someone asked me, 'What are your favourite moments?' My response was, 'Any scene with Allison Janney.'" - Richard Schiff

- "Every director who comes here just lights up when they get to her scenes. They will do twenty takes even though she nailed it on the first, just because they want to see what she's going to do with the other nineteen." - Aaron Sorkin