Kristen Johnston

Kristen Johnston is an American Emmy Award-winning stage, film, and television actress. She is perhaps most famous for her Emmy Award winning role as Sally Solomon in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun. She also starred as Wilma Flintstone in the sequel to the live-action movie adaptation of The Flintstones animated series. Kristen is also known for her tall 6 ft (1.83 m) frame and relatively deep voice for an actress. In 2005, Johnston featured in six episodes of NBC's ER.

Kristen Johnston Biography

Early life

Kirsten is of English descent and was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of a real estate agent and a Republican state senator from Wisconsin. Kristen was raised mostly in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, where she attended St. Eugene's Catholic Grade School and Whitefish Bay High School. She spent some of her teen years as an exchange student in Sweden and in South America. She earned a B.F.A. degree in drama at New York University.

Early acting career

Kristen made her professional stage debut with New York's Atlantic Theater Company, which was founded by playwright David Mamet. During her association with that company, she appeared in such productions as As You Like It, Girl's Talk, Stage Door, Author's Voice, Portrait of a Woman and Rosemary for Remembrance. She teaches acting at New York University.

Theatre works

Kristen has performed with the Naked Angels Theatre Company in The Stand-In and Hot Keys, and with New York Stage and Film in Kim's Sister, with David Strathairn and Jane Adams. For her performance in The Lights at Lincoln Center Theatre,

TV works

Kristen was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Best Supporting Actress. The show brought her to the attention of a Carsey-Werner television executive. After numerous auditions in 1996 for the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, she won the role of Sally Solomon. She starred in the series from 1996-2001 along with John Lithgow, Jane Curtin, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the role earned her two Emmy Awards for best supporting actress in a comedy series.

Film

Johnston made her feature film debut in The Debt, winner of Best Short at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, she played Kate in Backfire. Other television credits include guest-starring roles on the series Chicago Hope, Hearts Afire, and The Five Mrs. Buchanans. She was also the narrator in Microscopic Milton on the Disney Channel. Her significant roles in commercially-successful movies included Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002 and Music and Lyrics in 2007.

Since 2009, Kristen has taught acting at NYU. She also mentors local girls from New York City on self-esteem issues. She appears in The Exes, which debuted on TV Land on November 30, 2011, and airs on Wednesday nights at 10:30 p.m., following Hot in Cleveland. Her next feature film, expected in 2012, is Vamps.

PETA

In November of 2008, Kristen Johnston posed naked for PETA. The pose features Kristen laying naked on a horse in a Lady Godiva influenced pose.