Jayne Houdyshell

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Jayne Houdyshell, (born Sept. 25, 1953) is a Tony Award nominated American theatre actress. She currently resides in New York City.

Raised in Topeka,Kansas, she is the youngest of four daughters born to Galen "Buzz" Houdyshell and Louella Taylor Houdyshell. She graduated from Topeka High School in 1971, and graduated with honors from the Academy of Dramatic Art at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, (1974). Since the mid 70's she has appeared in over 200 plays at regional theaters throughout America including, Meadow Brook Theater, the Attic Theater, Missouri Repertory Theater, Asolo State Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater, Delaware Theater Company, Wilma Theater, Syracuse Stage, Studio Arena, GeVa Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Totem Pole Playhouse, Peterborough Players and others.

In New York, she is perhaps best known for her role as Ann Kron in the critically-acclaimed Broadway production of Well by Lisa Kron. It was a role that garnered her a Tony Award nomination in 2006. Her other distinctions include winning a Theater World Award, and an OBIE Award for Well off-Broadway in 2004 at the Public Theater. She also received a 2006 Joseph Jefferson award for her performance in The Pain and the Itch, at Steppenwolf Theater, and a 2006 Barrymore Award for her work in The Clean House at the Wilma Theater in Philadephia.

Other New York credits include, The New Century, Mitzie E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center; The Receptionist, Manhattan Theater Club; Much Ado About Nothing and Well at New York Shakespeare Festivals' Public Theater; Fighting Words, and The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons; Attempts on Her Life, Soho Rep; and True Love, Zipper Theater.

Her television credits include appearances on Conviction, Law & Order, Third Watch, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She has also appeared in such films as Changing Lanes (2002), Garden State (2004), and Trust the Man (2006)

In November 2006 Houdyshell replaced Carol Kane in the role of Madame Morrible for nine months in the Broadway production of the smash hit musical Wicked. In June 2008 she returns to Wicked for a six month run.