Janeane Garofalo life and biography

Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.

Garofalo was born in Newton, New Jersey, the daughter of Joan and Carmine Garofalo. Her mother was a secretary, in the petrochemical industry, who died of cancer when Janeane was 24. Her father is a former executive at Exxon. Garofalo was raised as a conservative Catholic and is of Italian and Irish descent. She grew up in various places, including Ontario, California; Madison, New Jersey, where she graduated from Madison High School; in Katy, Texas. Garofalo is quoted as having disliked life in Houston because of the heat and humidity and the emphasis on prettiness and sports in high school.

While studying history at Providence College, Garofalo entered a comedy talent search sponsored by the Showtime cable network, winning the title of "Funniest Person in Rhode Island." Her original gimmick was to read off her hand, which was not successful in subsequent performances. Dreaming of earning a slot on the writing staff of the TV show Late Night With David Letterman, she became a professional standup upon graduating from college with degrees in History and American Studies.She struggled for a number of years, even working briefly as a bike messenger in Boston.

She began in stand-up comedy and then moved into television in the early '90s, part of Ben Stiller's one season on Fox, and then as a regular on The Larry Sanders Show. Garofalo then appeared in independently produced comedies such as Reality Bites (1994, with Winona Ryder) and The Truth About Cats and Dogs (1996, with Uma Thurman), as well as more dramatic roles in Cop Land (1997, with Sylvester Stallone) and Permanent Midnight (1998). Garofalo was in several movies in between 1998 and 2000, including The Minus Man (1999), Mystery Men (1999, with Hank Azaria and Paul Reubens), 200 Cigarettes (1999, with Ben Affleck) and the animated Titan A. E. (2000, with Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore). Garofalo also worked in radio, as co-host of Majority Report (2004-06), a syndicated show critical of the George W. Bush administration. Her other credits include the animated feature Ratatouille (2007) and the TV series 24 (2009) and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (2011).

As well, she was instrumental in the successful launching of the first liberal radio network, Air America Radio, where she hosted her own talk show, "The Majority Report." A lightning rod for controversy, Janeane's well informed opinions and unflinching honesty have inspired laughs, as well as striking a chord with the left, right and everyone in between. She is a noted peace activist.

Janeane played the role of Paula, the acerbic talent booker, on "The Larry Sanders Show," for which she received an Emmy nomination in 1997 and two Cable Ace nominations. During the fall of '94 she joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live." Some of Janeane's other television work includes two specials for HBO, the series finale of "Mad About You" and the critically lauded, final season of NBC's "The West Wing," where she played Democratic campaign strategist Louise Thornton.

In 2007, Janeane's voice was featured in the Disney/Pixar animated comedy Ratatouille, and can be seen in Stella writer/director David Wain's ensemble comedy, "The Ten." Janeane can also be seen in her latest projects, the Lifetime movie "Girl's Best Friend" and as a recurring character on the 2009 season of "24."

Janeane lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Filmography:

Late for Dinner (1991)
That's What Women Want (1992)
I Shot a Man in Vegas (1995)
Sweethearts (1996)
Nobody Knows Anything! (2003)
Nadine in Date Land, Oxygen Network; (2005) (Nadine Barnes)
Girl's Best Friend (2008)

Short films:

Suspicious (1994)
"Angel Mine" (1996 music video)
The Cherry Picker (2000)
Housekeeping (2001)
Junebug and Hurricane (2004)

Documentaries:

Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks (2003)
Left of the Dial (2005), HBO

Television:
Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks (2003)
Behind the Scenes at Daria, MTV (2000)
The Minnesota Half-Hour Smile Hour

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