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Famous Like Me > Actress > G > Janeane Garofalo

Profile of Janeane Garofalo on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Janeane Garofalo  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 28th September 1964
   
Place of Birth: Newton, New Jersey, USA
   
Profession: Actress
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Janeane Garofalo

Janeane Garofalo (born September 28, 1964 in Newton, New Jersey), is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist, and radio host on Air America Radio.

Background

Garofalo's father is an Italian-American former executive named Carmine Garofalo and her Irish-American mother Joan, who died of cancer, was once a secretary. During high school, her family relocated to Houston, Texas, where the trauma of the move prompted her famously self-loathing acerbic persona to begin to blossom. 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 of her hand, which was not successful in subsequent performances. Dreaming of earning a slot on the writing staff of the Late Night With David Letterman program, she became a professional standup upon graduating college with degrees in History and American Studies but struggled for a number of years, working briefly as a bike messenger in Boston. One night in 1991 she and her then-boyfriend Rob Cohen, perhaps best-known for being a Mad TV writer, married and when they broke up they never bothered to end their marriage; Garofalo has noted that were she ever to want to get married again she's sure she would have no problem getting an annulment. Romantically Garofalo has been linked with Ben Stiller, Craig Bierko, and numerous musicians.

Entertainment Career

Comedy

The winner of numerous comedy awards and recognitions, she officially began her career in stand-up comedy in the early 1990s during the grunge era. Her appearance was often in line with grunge style: disheveled with thick black glasses and unkempt hair. Her comedy is often self-deprecating; she made fun of popular culture and the pressures put on women to live up to media-created body ideals.

Garofalo is a self-described pessimist: "I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth."

Garofalo's comedy shows involve her and her notebook, which is filled with years' worth of article clippings and random observations that she uses for reference during her act for direct quotes, as with new articles, and to enhance the unprepared, fully conversational nature of her standup. Garofalo feels she does not tell jokes but makes observations and hopefully gets laughs; this approach is much more amusing to many audience members than a memorized, potentially mundane set.

TV

Her television series debut was on the short-lived The Ben Stiller Show on Fox in 1992, on which she was a cast member alongside longtime friends Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick, and David Cross (who was a bit player). A chance meeting on the set of the show led her to be offered the role of Paula on The Larry Sanders Show on HBO, earning her two Emmy Award nominations in 1996 and 1997.

Following The Ben Stiller Show's cancellation, Garofalo joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in its ill-fated 1994-95 season. As detailed in Tom Shale's book Live From Saturday Night and mentioned in Jay Mohr's Gasping for Airtime : Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live Garofalo was unhappy on the show, citing weak material and a sexist atmosphere among the writers. She left in January 1995, mid-season.

Garofalo has been offered many television series roles but has accepted few; for instance, she turned down the role of Monica, a role written with her or her type in mind and for which she was the first actress offered, on the hit NBC sitcom Friends. Two Garofalo-starring television pilots, an ABC show called Slice O'Life, about a reporter sentenced to sappy human interest stories that appear at the end of news broadcast, and an NBC program called All In based on the family life and professional successes of poker star Annie Duke, were not picked up by their respective networks.

Garofalo has appeared on many comedy programs and over the past few years become a regular guest commentator on political talk shows. In spring 2003, Garofalo appeared on cable news over 100 times, speaking about the Iraq War. A variety of her comments spark controversies with conservatives, including a February 2005 appearance on MSNBC in which she denounced Republicans for ink-staining their fingers to show solidarity with Iraqi voters. Garofalo explained that she thought this disingenuous and compared it to a Nazi salute.

In 2005, she filmed a few episodes as a guest, appearing as campaign adviser to Jimmy Smits' character, on The West Wing.

Movies

Garofalo's first critically-acclaimed starring role in film was in 1996 in The Truth About Cats and Dogs. The independent film, whose final script Garofalo admittedly abhorred, was a surprise hit, eventually becoming number one at the box office. The mid-1990s were what Garofalo has termed the height of her popularity. Before The Truth About Cats and Dogs, she was visible from television work and memorable supporting roles in films such as Reality Bites, Bye Bye Love and Now and Then and a leading role in I Shot a Man in Vegas. Garofalo has had a variety of leading, supporting, and cameo roles in films as diverse as Steal This Movie, Cop Land, Dog Park, Wet Hot American Summer, Clay Pigeons, Southland Tales, The MatchMaker, Sweethearts, 200 Cigarettes, Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, Dogma, The Cable Guy, Permanent Midnight, Duane Hopwood, Mystery Men and The Search for John Gissing, among others. In April 2004 she was selected by Comedy Central as one of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.

Politics

Janeane Garofalo, Ms. magazine shoot, 2003.

Garofalo has been open and outspoken regarding her political views, and this was particularly the case when she voiced opposition to what became the 2003 Iraq War, appearing on CNN and Fox News to discuss it. She said that she was approached by groups such as MoveOn.org and Win Without War to go on TV, as the networks weren't allowing antiwar voices to be heard. Garofalo and the other celebrities who appeared at the time said they thought their fame could lend attention to a side they believed was being ignored by the corporate media. Her appearances on cable news prior to the war garnered her praise from the left and spots on the cover of Ms. and Venus magazines. Garofalo has had frequent on-air political disputes with Bill O'Reilly, Brian Kilmeade and Jonah Goldberg.

In March 2003, she took part in the Code Pink antiwar march in Washington, D.C. That fall, she served as emcee at several stops on the "Tell Us the Truth" tour, a political-themed concert series featuring Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, Tom Morello, and others. Throughout the year, Garofalo also actively campaigned for Howard Dean.

In 2004, she was lampooned for her liberal views in Team America: World Police; a puppet version of herself, collaborating with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, met a gruesome fate in the course of the movie. Her puppet was one of several depictions of left-leaning celebrities. Garofalo has always denied being classifiable with the likes of Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin as just another Hollywood liberal since, she contends, she does not live in Hollywood nor has she ever seen the mainstream successes Hollywood actors have; instead, she is not someone who for privacy's sake feels the need to wear any form of disguise. On her Air America Radio program, Garofalo lamented that her political efforts are so often written off as celebrity activism, but this was the only thing about Team America's lampoon of her by which she publicly expressed being bothered. Late one night in November 2004, en route from Air America Radio to her apartment, she ran into Team America creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who were hesitant to make direct eye contact with or speak to her. Her only response was to ask them if they could give her the puppet.

As a pundit she is best known for being a visible part of the anti-war movement, but she is involved in and passionate about many other political issues as well.

Air America Radio

In late March 2004 she became a co-host for Air America Radio's new show The Majority Report alongside Sam Seder. Garofalo once said getting on the radio was an early career goal of hers. A program advertisement: "The battle to reclaim America from the forces of darkness continues with hosts Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder." The early days of Air America Radio are chronicled in the documentary Left of the Dial, which includes a debate between Janeane and her conservative father Carmine, who was initially a regular guest on The Majority Report.

Filmography

Movies

  • Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) (voice)
  • Late for Dinner (1991)
  • That's What Women Want (1992)
  • Suspicious (1994)
  • Reality Bites (1994)
  • Bye Bye Love (1995)
  • I Shot A Man In Vegas (1995)
  • Coldblooded (1995)
  • Now And Then (1995)
  • Sweethearts (1996)
  • Mr. Show with Bob and David: Fantastic Newness (1996)
  • The Truth About Cats and Dogs (1996)
  • The Cable Guy (1996)
  • Larger Than Life (1996)
  • Touch (1997)
  • Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)
  • The Matchmaker (1997)
  • Cop Land (1997)
  • Clay Pigeons (1998)
  • Thick as Thieves (1998)
  • Permanent Midnight (1998)
  • Half Baked (1998)
  • The Thin Pink Line (1998)
  • The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1999)
  • Torrance Rises (1999)
  • Mystery Men (1999)
  • Dogma (1999)
  • The Independent (1999)
  • 200 Cigarettes (1999)
  • The Minus Man (1999)
  • Dog Park (2000)
  • Steal This Movie (2000)
  • Titan A.E. (2000)
  • The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000)
  • The Cherry Picker (2000)
  • What Planet Are You From? (2000)
  • The Laramie Project (2001)
  • The Search For John Gissing (2001)
  • Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
  • Housekeeping (2001)
  • Martin & Orloff (2002)
  • Big Trouble (2002)
  • The Laramie Project (HBO; 2002)
  • Manhood (Showtime; 2003)
  • Wonderland (2003)
  • Nobody Knows Anything! (2003)
  • Junebug and Hurricane (2004)
  • Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004)
  • Duane Hopwood (2005)
  • Nadine in Date Land (2005)
  • Stay (2005)
  • Southland Tales (2005)

Documentaries

  • Left of the Dial (2005), HBO
  • Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks (2003)
  • Dangerous Living: Coming Out In The Developing World (2003)
  • New York: A Documentary Film (1999)

Television

  • In the Life, PBS
  • TV Nation, NBC, Fox
  • The Chris Rock Show, HBO
  • The Larry Sanders Show, HBO
  • The Ben Stiller Show, Fox
  • Saturday Night Live, NBC
  • Seinfeld
  • Newsradio, NBC
  • Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Network
  • Law & Order, NBC
  • Late Night with Conan O'Brien
  • Now with Bill Moyers, PBS
  • The Daily Show
  • Janeane Garofalo (1997) (hour-long standup special)
  • The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn
  • The King of Queens, CBS
  • Shorties Watching Shorties
  • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
  • Primetime Glick
  • Mad About You (series finale)
  • Home Improvement
  • The Belzer Connection, SciFi Channel
  • Pilot Season
  • Tanner On Tanner, Sundance Channel
  • Stella, Comedy Central
  • Felicity
  • Hannity & Colmes, Fox News
  • Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO
  • Comic Remix
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live
  • The Rosie O'Donnel Show
  • Dennis Miller Live
  • The Sopranos, HBO
  • King of the Hill, Fox
  • Ellen
  • Dinner for Five, IFC
  • The West Wing, NBC

Bibliography

  • To Those About to Salute, We Will Rock You (2006) A collection of political essays.
  • Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction ISBN 0694521469 (w/ Ben Stiller)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Janeane Garofalo