Joan Cusack

Joan Cusack (born October 11, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress and comedian.

Cusack was born in New York City to Irish American Catholic parents Nancy and Richard Cusack, an actor and director; her brother is actor John Cusack, and her sister is actress Ann Cusack. She grew up in Evanston, Illinois, where she studied drama at the Piven Theater Workshop. She attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She had her first major film role in 1980’s My Bodyguard, at the age of 18.

Cusack was a cast member of Saturday Night Live for one season in 1985. Her other television work includes a short-lived series What About Joan (2001) and It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002). She received Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nominations for her role as Melanie Griffith’s blue-collar best friend in Working Girl (1988) and as the jilted bride of a man who realizes that he is gay in In & Out (1997).

To date, she and her brother John have appeared in eight movies together: Class (1983), Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), Sixteen Candles (1984), Broadcast News (1987), Say Anything (1989), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Cradle Will Rock (1999), and High Fidelity (2000). She will next appear with Him in Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens due for release in 2007.

Cusack married Richard Burke in 1993, and they have two sons, Dylan and Miles. She has been the speaker for many of the U.S. Cellular commercials.