American actress, winner of an Emmy in September 2000 for her role as the White House strong, dedicated press secretary in the hit TV series “West Wing.”
As a teenager, Allison was a figure skater with visions of the Olympics until she had an accident at 17, crashing through a sliding glass door that she thought was open. Her leg was cut so severely that she came close to death from loss of blood and two months in the hospital ended her skating career.
Her films include the role of the catatonic mother-next-door in “American Beauty,” and “Nurse Betty,” 2000. She has had many film, television and stage roles since 1990, including roles on “The Guiding Light” soap opera from 1994-95 and the films “Six Days Seven Nights,”1998, and “Drop Dead Gorgeous” in 1999, her favorite role.
Six-ft-tall Janney’s boyfriend of seven years (in 2000) is a computer programmer who lives in New York, where she keeps an apartment although she films in Los Angeles.
In spring 2004, the actress became engaged to Richard Jenik, age 36, a fellow-actor.
In 2014, she won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Bonnie Plunkett on the CBS sitcom Mom, and the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Margaret Scully on the Showtime series Masters of Sex. Other film roles include Finding Nemo (2003), Hairspray (2007), Juno (2007), The Help (2011), The Way Way Back (2013), Get On Up (2014), and Spy (2015).
Link to Wikipedia biography