Joan Cusack

11 Oct, 1962 | New York City, New York, U.S.

Actress

Biography

Joan Mary Cusack born  on October 11, 1962. She is an American film, stage and television actress. A well-respected comedic character actor, she has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the movies Working Girl and In & Out and is a three-time winner of the American Comedy Award as "Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture." Cusack was a cast member of the sketch comedy TV show Saturday Night Live in 1985-86. She is the sister of actor John Cusack.     Personal life: Joan Cusack was born in New York City to an Irish American Catholic family. She was raised in Evanston, Illinois. Her mother, Nancy (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. Her father, Richard Cusack, as well as her siblings Ann, Bill, John and Susie, have also been actors. Cusack is an alumna of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She is married to Chicago attorney Dick Burke, the head of Corporate Services for Classified Ventures. They have two sons, Dylan John and Miles. She also owns a home in Three Oaks Township, Michigan. Career: Cusack has twice been nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her work in Working Girl and In & Out. She appeared with her brother John in the movies Sixteen Candles, Grandview, U.S.A., Class, High Fidelity, Grosse Pointe Blank, Say Anything..., Cradle Will Rock, Martian Child, and most recently, War, Inc. She also starred in the short-lived ABC sitcom What About Joan? in 2001–02. For many years, Cusack was also the commercial spokeswoman for U.S. Cellular. Cusack was a cast member on the NBC sketch show, Saturday Night Live, from 1985 to 1986. Her recurring characters on Saturday Night Live included, "Salena," a socially inept girl who tries to ask out her boyfriend, "Biff" (played by Jon Lovitz), who is also socially inept. In addition, she did celebrity impersonations of Brooke Shields, Jane Fonda and Queen Elizabeth II. She has been nominated four times for the American Comedy Award, in the category of "Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture" and has won three times, for Runaway Bride, (1999), In & Out (1997) and Working Girl (1988). She has also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for "Best Supporting Actress" for In & Out. In 2003, both Joan and her brother John signed the "Not in My Name" resolution (along with people such as Noam Chomsky and Susan Sarandon) opposing the invasion of Iraq. She also attended to the voice of Jessie in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Cusack currently narrates the public TV animated series Peep and the Big Wide World. She also recently signed on to guest-star on Law & Order: SVU.