# Katey Sagal

Catherine Louise Sagal (/səˈɡɑːl/; born January 19, 1954) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Peggy Bundy on Married... with Children (1987–1997), Leela on Futurama (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023–present), Cate Hennessy on 8 Simple Rules (2002–2005), Gemma Teller Morrow on the FX series Sons of Anarchy (2008–2014), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2011, and Louise Goldufski-Conner on The Conners (2018–present).

## Early life

Sagal was born on January 19, 1954, in Los Angeles to a show business family with five children. Her mother, Sara Zwilling, was a singer (stage name Sara Macon), producer, and television writer who died of heart disease in 1975, and Sagal's father, Boris Sagal, worked as a television director. Her father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant. Her mother had Amish ancestors. In 1977, Sagal's father married dancer/actress Marge Champion, a few years before his accidental death on the set of the miniseries World War III in 1981. Three of Sagal's four siblings are actors: her younger twin sisters, Jean and Liz Sagal and brother Joey Sagal; her other brother David Sagal is an attorney married to actress McNally Sagal. Sagal and her siblings grew up in Brentwood.
Her godfather was sitcom producer and writer Norman Lear. In 2016, both Sagal and Lear acknowledged that she was not only his goddaughter, but that he also introduced her parents to each other. Sagal has described herself as "culturally Jewish" but with no "formal religious experience."
Sagal graduated from Palisades High School. After graduation, she attended the California Institute of the Arts until 1972.

## Musical career

Sagal began her career in show business as a singer and songwriter. In 1973, she worked as a backing vocalist for various singers, including Bob Dylan, Etta James, and Tanya Tucker. In 1976, while a member of The Group with No Name, she contributed to the album Moon over Brooklyn (on which she was credited as "Katie Sagal"). She performed backing vocals on the self-titled Gene Simmons solo album (1978), the Molly Hatchet album Take No Prisoners (1981), and on Olivia Newton-John's 1985 single "Soul Kiss."
She was a member of the music group the Harlettes, Bette Midler's backup singers, in 1978, and again from 1982 to 1983.
She performed the song "It's the Time for Love" that appears in the film Silent Rage (1982) featuring Chuck Norris. During the filming of 1983's Valley Girl, Sagal was scheduled to sing at The Central. Her name can be seen in the schedule of upcoming acts, posted inside the door. Sagal also provided the vocals for "Loose Cannons," the theme song for the 1990 film of the same name featuring Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd.
On April 19, 1994, Sagal released her first solo album, Well.... On June 1, 2004, she released her second album, Room.
She has also contributed to the Sons of Anarchy soundtrack in the early 2010s, working with its house band The Forest Rangers (Davey Faragher/bass, John Philipe Shenale (Phil Shenale)/keyboards, Billy Harvey/guitar-vocals, Michael Urbano/drums, Bob Thiele Jr./vocals-guitar) with songs that became part of its soundtrack albums (Songs of Anarchy: Music from Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1–4, Sons of Anarchy: Songs of Anarchy Vol. 2, Sons of Anarchy: Songs of Anarchy Vol. 3, and Sons of Anarchy: Songs of Anarchy Vol. 4) and singles.
She worked with the band for her album Covered (2013). For their live performances The Forest Rangers have occasionally used the name The Reluctant Apostles.
The 2019 single "Mayans MC: Black is Black" from Mayans M.C. was performed by Sagal and The Forest Rangers.

## Acting career
### Early roles and success with Married... with Children

One of Sagal's early roles was as a receptionist in the Columbo installment "Candidate for Crime" (1973), which was directed by her father Boris. She also briefly appeared in the 1986 music video for Debbie Harry's song "French Kissin (in the USA)".
Sagal's first major role was as a newspaper columnist in the series Mary (1985–86) starring Mary Tyler Moore. This led to her being cast as Peggy Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children (1987–1997); she portrayed the lower-class, sex-starved, lazy and free-spending wife of shoe salesman Al Bundy. The series ran for 11 years. Reportedly Sagal brought her own red bouffant wig to audition for the role, and with the producers' approval the look transitioned into the show. However, Sagal later explained that she had initially styled her own hair, then once the show took off, the producers began to invest in a wig.

### Continued career

After the end of Married... with Children, several more television films followed; Sagal also guest starred on the children's cartoon Recess as the voice of Spinelli's mother. In 1998, Matt Groening chose her to provide the character voice of the purple-haired mutant spaceship captain, Leela, in his science-fiction animated comedy Futurama. The show developed a cult following, but was canceled after four seasons. However, syndication on Adult Swim and Comedy Central increased the show's popularity and led Comedy Central to commission a season of Futurama direct-to-DVD films, which the network later retransmitted as a 16-episode fifth season. She reprised her role as Leela in the films, and in the sixth season that began airing June 24, 2010. The series ended its run on Comedy Central in 2013. Taking a break from animation, she went on to star in the critically acclaimed movie Smart House.
Sagal guest-starred as Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde's mother, in three episodes of That '70s Show. She starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom Tucker in 2000.
Sagal was cast as the wife of John Ritter in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter in 2002. Ritter had completed only three episodes of the second season before his death, and the show was canceled in 2005 after its third season.
In 2005 and 2006, Sagal made four appearances on Lost as Helen Norwood. In 2007, she had a role in the season finale of The Winner as Glen Abbot's former teacher, with whom Glen has his first sexual experience.

### Sons of Anarchy and Hollywood Walk of Fame star

From 2008 to 2014, Sagal starred as Gemma Teller Morrow on the TV show Sons of Anarchy, whose creator, Kurt Sutter, she had married in 2004, four years before the series premiered. In January 2009, Sagal reunited with David Faustino (who had played her son Bud Bundy in Married... with Children) for an episode of Faustino's show Star-ving. In 2010, she appeared twice more on Lost. In 2009, she starred in the film House Broken with Danny DeVito. In 2010, she returned to the stage in Randy Newman's musical Harps & Angels.
In 2013, Sagal had a cameo on Glee as Nancy Abrams, Artie Abrams' mother. She co-starred in Pitch Perfect 2, released in 2015, as the mother of Hailee Steinfeld's character. Next she appeared in the biography drama film Bleed for This, as the mother of Vinny Pazienza.
On September 9, 2014, Sagal received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; the Married... with Children cast – Ed O'Neill, Christina Applegate, and David Faustino – were present to celebrate the actor's recognition.

### Recent roles

On September 20, 2016, Sagal appeared on The Big Bang Theory as Susan, the mother of Penny (Kaley Cuoco). Sagal and Cuoco had played mother and daughter before, on 8 Simple Rules. Sagal was also a series regular on the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts from 2017 to 2018. She also appeared on Shameless as Frank's latest, crazy lover. She appeared in a recurring role as Dan Conner's love interest, Louise Goldufski, in The Conners after Roseanne Barr was fired by ABC over controversial tweets on Twitter about Valerie Jarrett. She had a cameo appearance in the Netflix series Dead to Me in season 2, episodes 9 and 10 as Judy Hale's (Linda Cardellini) estranged, emotionally abusive mother Eleanor Hale who was incarcerated. Sagal's co-star on Married...with Children, Christina Applegate, also stars in Dead to Me. In 2018 she had a cameo appearance in the crime drama series Mayans M.C. as Gemma Tellor Morrow reprising her role from the Sons of Anarchy series.
In 2021, Sagal played the lead role of Annie "Rebel" Bello in the ABC drama series Rebel, which was written by Krista Vernoff. Due to low ratings, ABC cancelled Rebel after airing five episodes.
On February 9, 2022, Hulu announced that they would be reviving Futurama for a 20-episode 11th season run set to premiere in 2023 with Sagal returning as the voice of Leela.
In 2023, Sagal appeared live off-broadway in The Gospel According to Heather, which was written by Paul Gordon, directed by Rachel Klein and produced by Amas Musical Theatre and Jim Kierstead.

## Personal life

Sagal was married to musician Freddie Beckmeier from 1978 to 1981, and to drummer and actor Jack White from 1993 to 2000. She married writer-producer Kurt Sutter in a private ceremony on October 2, 2004, at their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz. They have a daughter, Esmé Louise, born in 2007 through a surrogate.
In 1991, while working on Married... with Children, Sagal discovered that she was pregnant. This was unexpected and the pregnancy was written into the storyline of the show. In October 1991, however, she had to have an emergency caesarean section in her seventh month of pregnancy, ending in the stillbirth of a daughter. The showrunners did not want to subject a grieving Sagal to further stress by interacting with an infant during filming, so the pregnancy on the show (as well as the pregnancy of co-star Amanda Bearse's character) was then treated as a "dream sequence," which was mentioned only briefly at the end of the episode "Al Bundy, Shoe Dick." Sagal and White eventually had two children—a daughter, Sarah Grace, in 1994, and a son, Jackson James White, in 1996. The writers of Married... with Children purposely did not write Sagal's two later pregnancies into the show due to the stillbirth, opting instead to write off her absences in a subplot in which Peg is traveling the world to reunite her parents. In scenes where Peg was shown, Sagal had her midsection obscured, such as when she was sitting in a taxi or at a craps table in Las Vegas and was often seen or heard talking to family members over the phone.
The loss of her stillborn daughter Rudy was the inspiration to write the lyrics for "(You) Can't Hurry the Harvest". Sagal recorded this song on her debut album, Well..., which was released in April 1994.
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting; in the video, Sagal and others told the stories of the people killed there.
She was the subject of an episode of the television genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in 2016.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1987 | Maid to Order | Louise | |
| 1988 | The Good Mother | Ursula | |
| 1999 | Smart House | PAT | |
| 2000 | Dropping Out | Wendy | |
| 2001 | Recess: School's Out | Mrs. Flo Spinelli | Voice |
| 2002 | Following Tildy | Connie St. John | Short film |
| 2006 | I'm Reed Fish | Maureen | |
| 2007 | Futurama: Bender's Big Score | Turanga Leela | Voice Direct to video |
| 2008 | Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs | Turanga Leela | Voice Direct to video |
| 2008 | Futurama: Bender's Game | Turanga Leela/Leegola | Voice Direct to video |
| 2009 | Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder | Turanga Leela | Voice Direct to video |
| 2009 | House Broken | Mary Cathkart | |
| 2009 | Jack and the Beanstalk | Mrs. Thatcher | |
| 2014 | There's Always Woodstock | Lee Ann | |
| 2015 | Pitch Perfect 2 | Katherine Junk | |
| 2016 | Bleed for This | Louise Pazienza | |
| 2022 | Torn Hearts | Harper Dutch | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1971 | The Failing of Raymond | Girl patient | Credited as Catherine Louise Sagal |
| 1972 | The Bold Ones: The New Doctors | Young nurse | Credited as Katie Sagal |
| 1973 | Columbo | Secretary | Episode: "Candidate for Crime" |
| 1974 | Larry | Cashier | TV film |
| 1975 | The Dream Makers | Unemployment manager | TV film |
| 1985–1986 | Mary | Jo Tucker | 13 episodes |
| 1987–1997 | Married... with Children | Peggy Bundy | Main role |
| 1990 | Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme | Mary Quite Contrary | TV movie |
| 1990 | Tales from the Crypt | Ms. Kilbasser | Episode: "For Cryin' Out Loud" |
| 1990 | The Earth Day Special | Peggy Bundy | |
| 1991 | She Says She's Innocent (Violation of Trust) | Susan Essex | TV movie |
| 1995 | Trail of Tears | Annie Cook | |
| 1995 | Nachtshow | | Episode: "February 10th, 1995" |
| 1995 | Duckman | Ivana Duckman | Voice, episode: "The Germ Turns" |
| 1996 | Space Cases | Ma | Voice, episode: "Mother Knows Best" |
| 1997–2001 | Recess | Flo Spinelli | Voice, 3 episodes |
| 1998 | Rugrats | Additional voices | 1 episode |
| 1998 | Chance of a Lifetime | Irene Dunbar | TV movie |
| 1998 | Mr. Headmistress | Harriet Magnum | TV movie |
| 1999 | No Higher Love | Ellen Young | TV movie |
| 1999 | Smart House | Pat | TV movie |
| 1999 | That '70s Show | Edna Hyde | 3 episodes |
| 1999–present | Futurama | Turanga Leela | Voice, main role |
| 2000 | Tucker | Claire Wennick | 13 episodes |
| 2001 | The Geena Davis Show | Ashley | Episode: "Girls' Night Out" |
| 2002 | Imagine That | Barb Thompson | 2 episodes |
| 2002–2005 | 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter | Cate S. Hennessy | 76 episodes |
| 2004 | When Angels Come to Town | Jo | TV movie |
| 2004–2006 | Higglytown Heroes | Monica the Police Officer | 3 episodes |
| 2005 | Three Wise Guys | Shirley Crown | TV movie |
| 2005 | Campus Confidential | Naomi Jacobs | TV movie |
| 2005 | Ghost Whisperer | Francie Lewis | Episode: "Undead Comic" |
| 2005–2007 | The Shield | Nancy Gilroy | 2 episodes |
| 2005–2010 | Lost | Helen Norwood | 4 episodes |
| 2006 | Boston Legal | Barbara Little | 5 episodes |
| 2006 | The Search for the Funniest Mom in America | Host | Reality show |
| 2007 | The Winner | Lydia Berko | Episode: "Hot for Teacher" |
| 2008 | Eli Stone | Marci Klein | 2 episodes |
| 2008 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Annabelle Bundt/Natasha Steele | Episode: "Two and a Half Deaths" |
| 2008–2014 | Sons of Anarchy | Gemma Teller Morrow | 92 episodes |
| 2010 | Chadam | Sandy | Web series |
| 2013 | Glee | Nancy Abrams | Episode: "Wonder-ful" |
| 2014 | The Simpsons | Turanga Leela | Voice, episode: "Simpsorama" |
| 2014–2015 | Regular Show | Mordecai's Mom, Aunt Maxine | Voice, 2 episodes |
| 2014–2015 | A to Z | Narrator | Voice, 13 episodes |
| 2015 | The Bastard Executioner | Annora of the Alders | 10 episodes |
| 2016 | The Big Bang Theory | Susan | Episode: "The Conjugal Conjecture" |
| 2016 | This Is Us | Lanie Schultz | Episode: "The Big Three" |
| 2016–2017 | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Karen Peralta | 2 episodes |
| 2017 | Dirty Dancing | Vivian Pressman | TV movie |
| 2017–2018 | Superior Donuts | Randy DeLuca | Main role |
| 2018 | Spirit Riding Free | Butch LePray | Voice |
| 2018 | Mayans M.C. | Gemma Teller-Morrow | Episode: "Perro/Oc" |
| 2018–2019 | Shameless | Dr. Ingrid Jones | 7 episodes |
| 2018–present | The Conners | Louise Goldufski-Conner | Recurring role |
| 2019 | Grand Hotel | Teresa Williams | 3 episodes |
| 2020–2022 | Dead to Me | Eleanor Hale | 3 episodes |
| 2021 | Rebel | Annie "Rebel" Bello | Main role |
| 2022 | Tell Me Lies | Nora (Stephen's mom) | 2 episodes |
| 2025 | One Piece | Dr. Kureha | Season 2; Filming |

## Discography
### Albums

| Year | Title | Chart positions |
| 1976 | The Group with No Name - Moon Over Brooklyn Released: 1976 Label: Casablanca Records | — |
| 1978 | Gene Simmons - Gene Simmons Backing Vocals Released: September 18, 1978 Label: Casablanca Records | Billboard 200 Albums – 22 |
| 1994 | Well... Released: April 19, 1994 Label: Virgin/EMI Records | Billboard Top Heatseekers – 33 |
| 2004 | Room June 1, 2004 Label: Valley Entertainment | — |
| 2009 | Sons of Anarchy: Shelter – EP November 24, 2009 Label: 20th Century Fox | Top Independent Albums — 33 Top Soundtracks — 23 |
| 2013 | Covered November 11, 2013 Label: E1 Music | — |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Film or series | Result |
| 1989 | American Comedy Awards | Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series | Married... with Children | Nominated |
| 1991 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Married... with Children | Nominated |
| 1992 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Married... with Children | Nominated |
| 1993 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Married... with Children | Nominated |
| 1993 | American Comedy Awards | Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series | Married... with Children | Nominated |
| 1994 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Married... with Children | Nominated |
| 2005 | Prism Awards | Performance in a Comedy Series | 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter | Won |
| 2009 | TV Land Awards | Innovation Award (Shared with: Christina Applegate, David Faustino, Ted McGinley, Ed O'Neill) | Married... with Children | Won |
| 2010 | Television Critics Association Awards | Individual Achievement in Drama | Sons of Anarchy | Nominated |
| 2010 | Satellite Awards | Best Actress – Television Series Drama | Sons of Anarchy | Nominated |
| 2011 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Television Series Drama | Sons of Anarchy | Won |
| 2011 | Prism Awards | Best Actress – Television Series Drama | Sons of Anarchy | Nominated |
| 2011 | Satellite Awards | Best Actress – Television Series Drama | Sons of Anarchy | Nominated |
| 2011 | Critics' Choice Television Award | Best Actress in a Drama Series | Sons of Anarchy | Nominated |
| 2012 | Critics' Choice Television Award | Best Actress in a Drama Series | Sons of Anarchy | Nominated |
| 2013 | Prism Awards | Female Performance in a Drama Series Multi-Episode Storyline | Sons of Anarchy | Won |
| 2014 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Star on the Walk of Fame | | — |