Katey Sagal

Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal (born January 19, 1954) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is best known for playing the role of Peggy Bundy on the Fox comedy series Married... with Children and the voice of Leela on the animated series Futurama. She was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards for "Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy" and two American Comedy Awards for her work on Married... with Children.

Sagal has been the voice of Futurama and its direct-to-DVD movies since 1999. She is also known for starring on the series 8 Simple Rules in the role of Cate Hennessy. She worked on that series with John Ritter until his death.  Sagal took over as the series' lead character after the death of Ritter.

Since 2008, she has played the role of matriarch Gemma Teller Morrow in the FX drama series Sons of Anarchy. She won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress – Television Series Drama" in 2011 for this part. She has been married to the creator of the series, Kurt Sutter, since 2004.

Early life
Sagal was born in California to a show business family of five children. Her younger sisters Jean and Liz Sagal. They are a pair of twins who also act. Her brother is actor Joe Sagal. Her mother, Sara Zwilling was a writer and producer. Sagal's father, Boris Sagal was a director. Sagal grew up in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

Career
Sagal began her career in Hollywood. She was in many made for TV movies between 1971 and 1975. These included a small role as a receptionist in the Columbo episode Candidate for Crime which was directed by her father. In 1973, she also worked as a backing vocalist for different singers, including Bob Dylan and Tanya Tucker.

In 1978, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons asked her to sing background vocals on his solo album. During this time she was also a member of the rock group The Group With No Name. She also sang backup for Bette Midler. Midler hired her for her 1979 tour as one of The Harlettes. In 1981, Sagal was a backup singer on the Molly Hatchet album Take No Prisoners.

Sagal returned to television in 1985. She was in the series Mary starring Mary Tyler Moore. This led to her being cast as Peggy Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children (1987–1997). She played the part of a lower-class, sex-starved wife of shoe salesman Al Bundy. During her audition, Sagal brought her own red bouffant wig. That look for the character was used in the series.  As Peg, she wore the wig, capri-length leggings with a large belt, and high heels. These were all fashions from the 1960s. The series was broadcast for eleven years.

After the end of Married... with Children, Sagal did many more television movies. She also did some acting on children's cartoon Recess. She played the voice of Spinelli's mother. In 1999, Matt Groening cast her as the cyclopian spaceship captain, Leela, in his science fiction cartoon comedy Futurama. The show had a cult following but was ended after five years. However, airings in syndication on Adult Swim. The series was later broadcast on Comedy Central. This caused the popularity of the show to grow. Comedy Central decided to have a series of Futurama direct-to-DVD movies made. These were broadcast by the network as 16 episodes. Sagal played the part of  Leela in these movies. She also voiced the new season that began June 24, 2010.

Sagal guest starred as Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde's mother, in three episodes of That '70s Show. She was also in the NBC sitcom Tucker.

Sagal was cast as the wife of John Ritter in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter in 2002. Ritter was in only three episodes of the second season before his death. The show ended in 2005 after its third season.

In 2005, she made was on Lost as Helen Norwood. In 2007, she had a role in the season finale of The Winner. She played the part of Glen Abbot's former, and Josh's current, teacher, with whom Glen has his first sexual experience. The next year, she was in four episodes of the series Eli Stone. She currently stars as Gemma Teller Morrow on the TV series Sons of Anarchy. It was created by her husband, Kurt Sutter.

In January 2009, Sagal worked with David Faustino for an episode of Faustino's show Star-ving. Faustino played her son, Bud Bundy, from Married with Children. In 2010, she was on Lost for two more episodes. In 2009 she was in the movie House Broken with Danny DeVito.

In 2010, she returned to the stage in Randy Newman's musical Harps & Angels.

Personal life
Sagal was married to Freddie Beckmeier (1978–1981) and Jack White (November 26, 1993–July 24, 2000). In 1991, Sagal learned she was pregnant. The directors of Married... with Children wrote her pregnancy into the storyline of the series. In October 1991, she had to have an emergency Caesarean section in her seventh month of pregnancy. The baby, a girl, did not live. The pregnancy on the series was then shown to be a dream. She also had an early miscarriage near this time. She and White did have two children. The writers of Married... with Children did not write Sagal's two later pregnancies into the series because of her earlier problems. They chose to only show her where her midsection was not seen.

Sagal married writer-producer Kurt Sutter on October 2, 2004 in Los Feliz, California. They have a daughter, who was born through a surrogate mother.

Filmography

Discography

Albums

Awards and nominations

References

Other websites

 
 
 Katey Sagal cast bio on The WB

Actors from Hollywood
Singer-songwriters from California
American television actors
American voice actors
Singers from Los Angeles
Golden Globe Award winning actors
Participants in American reality television series
1954 births
Living people