Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress. A highly prolific character actress, Janney has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, seven Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Janney won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the summer of 1984, following her graduation from Kenyon College. After years of minor and uncredited film and television appearances, Janney's breakthrough came with the role of C. J. Cregg in the NBC political drama The West Wing, for which she received four Primetime Emmy Awards.