Personal details
Name: Jane LynchBorn: 14/07/1960 (Age: 51)
From: Illinois, USA
Famous for: Her role as Sue Sylvester in Glee.
Relationship status: Married to Dr. Lara Embry.
All about this star
In a nutshell
She shot to fame in hit TV show Glee as the tyrannical cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, but Jane Lynch had been grafting away as a working actress for two decades before getting her Hollywood break.
She grew up in Illinois and at high-school found herself on the fringes of social groups (not unlike the Glee misfits) and even sought comfort in the student choir, go figure. But acting was her real passion and she went on to study theatre at her home state university before a 10 year stint performing for the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Her breakthrough film role was getting cast alongside Harrison Ford in The Fugitive in 1993 and she moved to LA to try her hand in Hollywood. She was mid thirties by this point, the age most LA actresses getting neurotic and Botox-happy but Jane enjoyed steady work in theatre, commercials and sitcoms such as The West Wing and The L Word.
She landed a role in a commercial for Frosted Flakes directed by Christopher Guest, which may not sound on the face of it particularly glamourous, but Jane was grrrr-eat enough to be memorable and Guest went on to cast her as the butch lesbian dog handler in his 2000 mockumentary hit Best in Show. This launched her film career (and comedic potential) in earnest and she went on to star in big Hollywood projects such as The 40 Year Old Virgin and Julie and Julia.
To date, Jane Lynch has more than 100 film and TV credits to her name but it is seemingly only with her sublimely villainous role in cult series Glee that she has achieved star status. In 2009 she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting actress and a Primetime Emmy Award Nomination for her comedic turn.
