Jane Krakowski

Biography: Award-winning actress Jane Krakowski has enthralled and entertained television audiences worldwide with her brilliant portrayals of the dim-witted yet ambitious blonde actress Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock and the attention-starved snoopy secretary Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal. She is also recognized for her exceptional vocal talent, which she has exhibited with the characters she has played on stage and in television. Exposed to the local theater at an early age and encouraged by her parents to become a performer, Jane took ballet lessons when she was four and attended the prestigious Professional Children's School in New York City. At age 15, she made her small screen debut in the made-for-TV movie No Big Deal and appeared in her first feature film as the oversexed cousin Vicki in National Lampoon's Vacation.

Over the next decade and a half, Krakowski was involved in several film and television projects, most notable of which are her Daytime Emmy award-nominated appearance on the long-running CBS soap Search for Tomorrow (1986) and her roles in the Glenn Close stalker thriller Fatal Attraction (1987) and the 1996 romantic dramedy Mrs. Winterbourne, starring alongside Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser. During that period, Jane was also active in the New York City and Los Angeles theater circuits, performing in various stage productions such as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express from 1987-1989 and Grand Hotel (1989) which earned her critical praise and Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Featured Actress. Her love for the theater never faded even as her television career flourished beginning in the mid-'90s. In 2005, she starred opposite Ewan McGregor in the musical revival Guys and Dolls in London, a performance which won her the Laurence Olivier Best Actress Award in 2006.

In 1996, Jane landed the television role of her career as she was hired to play Elaine, the energetic and vivacious personal assistant of Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart) on the popular FOX legal comedy-drama by David E. Kelley. In the series, she often showcased her versatility as a singer/performer during the show's numerous musical productions. She portrayed the character for five full seasons, during which she received a Golden Globe Best Actress award nomination and consecutive Screen Actors Guild nominations as part of the ensemble cast. Ten years after her breakthrough TV role, Krakowski once again found herself portraying a fascinating and colorful character in Jenna -- putting her own spin to the dumb blonde stereotype on Tina Fey's 30 Rock, an award-winning sitcom which has wittily parodied the making of a live sketch-comedy show.… Expand