Molly Shannon | |
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Shannon in 2010
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Birth name | Molly Helen Shannon |
Born |
Shaker Heights, Ohio United States |
September 16, 1964
Alma mater | Tisch School of the Arts |
Years active | 1987–present |
Spouse | Fritz Chesnut (2004–present) |
Children | 2 |
Molly Helen Shannon (born September 16, 1964) is an American comic actress best known for her work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2001 and for starring in the films Superstar and Year of the Dog. More recently, she starred in NBC's Kath & Kim from 2008 to 2009 and on the TBS animated series Neighbors from Hell. Throughout Shannon's career she has appeared in a number of films in supporting roles.
Shannon was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on September 16, 1964, to an Irish American Catholic family. Her mother, Mary Margaret "Peg" (née Keating), was a teacher, and her father, James Francis Shannon, was a sales manager. At age four, Shannon was involved in a car accident which killed her mother, younger sister, and cousin. Shannon attended St. Dominic School in Shaker Heights for grade school, and Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio. She attended New York University, where she studied drama and graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1987.
Before Saturday Night Live, Shannon had a struggling career in movies, her most notable being a supporting role as Meg in the 1989 horror film remake of The Phantom of the Opera with Robert Englund. In 1991, she had a brief appearance in the second season of Twin Peaks, and in 1993, she appeared with minor roles in three episodes of In Living Color, the first in a fake TV commercial with Shawn Wayans playing Chris Rock, the second in a sketch with Jim Carrey, playing LAPD Sergeant Stacey Koon, and third being a parody of Star Trek.