Jane Lynch (born July 14, 1960) is an American comedian and actress. Since 2009, she has played Sue Sylvester in the Fox musical-comedy series Glee for which she has won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She has also acted in comedy movies such as Best in Show, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Role Models, as well as television shows as lawyer Joyce Wischina in The L Word, Dr. Linda Freeman in Two and a Half Men and Diana Reid on Criminal Minds. She has appeared on iCarly as Sam's mother. She was also a regular on the comedy-drama series Party Down as Constance Carmell; the role got good reviews.

Early life 
Lynch was born and raised in Dolton, Illinois, the daughter of a homemaker mother and a banker father. She was raised in an Irish Catholic family and went to Thornridge High School. She got her bachelor's degree in theatre from Illinois State University and her MFA in theatre from Cornell University.

Career 
Lynch spent fifteen years in Chicago, acting in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and touring with The Second City comedy troupe. She played Carol Brady in The Real Live Brady Bunch. She also wrote and starred in the award-winning play Oh Sister, My Sister.

Her breakthrough movie role was as Christy Cummings, the butch lesbian personal dog handler to trophy wife Sheri Ann Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) in director Christopher Guest's mockumentary Best in Show (2000). She also appeared in Guest's A Mighty Wind (2003) as porn actress-turned-folk singer Laurie Bohner and in For Your Consideration (2006) as an entertainment reporter.

Lynch is also a television actress. She starred with John Hannah and William Fichtner in 2002's MDs, and has made guest appearances in many television shows, including L.A. Law, Judging Amy, The West Wing, 7th Heaven, Friends, Dawson's Creek, Felicity, Arrested Development, Lovespring International, Two and a Half Men, Weeds, Boston Legal, The L Word, Criminal Minds, Help Me Help You, Gilmore Girls, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Psych, Monk and Party Down, among others.

In 2005, Lynch was named as one of POWER UP's "10 Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz."

Audiences and critics took notice of Lynch for her oddball role in Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin. She told Fresh Air'''s Terry Gross the role was originally intended for a man but, at the urging of Steve Carell's wife Nancy Walls, was offered to Lynch instead. Since then, she has starred in a series of movies including Role Models, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Space Chimps, The Rocker, The Hammer, Another Cinderella Story, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Spring Breakdown.

In Julie and Julia, she played the role of Dorothy McWilliams, Julia Child's sister. Entertainment Weekly dedicated an article on their website toward the possibility of her performance receiving an Academy Award nomination.

Beginning 2009, Lynch appeared on the Fox show Glee. She won glowing reviews for her role as the aggressive cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Mary McNamara of the LA Times wrote, "Lynch alone makes Glee worth watching." Before her work with Glee, she was a series regular on the Starz comedy Party Down. Though the series was renewed for a second season, Lynch would not be returning because of her work on Glee. On December 15, 2009, Lynch received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television movie for her role on Glee. She lost to Chloë Sevigny. The series itself also received nominations in three other categories. On August 29, 2010, Lynch won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series.

Lynch hosted Saturday Night Live on October 9, 2010; the news of her hosting was accidentally revealed to her by her Glee boss, Ryan Murphy, by text message. Lynch also guest starred on the Nickelodeon show iCarly as Pam Puckett, Sam Puckett's mother, in the episode iSam's Mom.

Lynch appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010.

In January 2011, Lynch was awarded the Golden Globe in The Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television movie Catergory. She also started appearing in Comcast's XFinity ads that are shown on both the Internet and television in the United States, mainly with two different laptops and two different colored Persian cats.

 Personal life 
Lynch, who is openly lesbian, married clinical psychologist Dr. Lara Embry on May 31, 2010 at the Blue Heron Restaurant in Sunderland, Massachusetts. On June 10, 2013, Lynch announced they were divorcing. Embry herself received publicity surrounding a custody battle over two children with her former partner.

 Awards and nominations
 Color Me Gay (Executive / Do-Rag Lesbian)
 Finalist at the 2nd PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards
 A Mighty Wind (Laurie Bohner)
 Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
 Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
 For Your Consideration (Cindy)
 Nominated—Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
 I Do & I Don't (Nora Stelmack)
 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival Jury Award for Best Actress Comedy
 Two and a Half Men (Dr. Linda Freeman)
 Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Comedy Series
 Glee'' (Sue Sylvester)
 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2010)
 Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2009)

Discography

References

Other websites 

 
 PlanetOut interview 
 AfterEllen.com interview with Jane Lynch

1960 births
Living people
Actors from Chicago
LGBT people from Chicago
American stage actors
American television actors
Comedians from Chicago
Cornell University alumni
Emmy Award winning actors
Lesbians
LGBT actors
LGBT comedians