Kate Flannery Biography

Katherine Patricia "Kate" Flannery (born June 10, 1964) is an American actress best known for playing the role of Meredith Palmer on the NBC hit series The Office.

Personal life

Flannery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Saint John Neumann School and Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is one of seven children in an Irish-American family. She is three minutes younger than her twin sister who is a social worker.

Flannery is one of only two cast members from The Office who is actually from Pennsylvania, where the show is set. The other is Zach Woods, who plays the character Gabe.

Career

Improvisation

A former member of The Second City's National Touring Company, Flannery is an original member of Chicago's Annoyance Theater, where she created over 15 shows including "The Miss Vagina Pageant" and "The Real Live Brady Bunch".

The Lampshades, her comedy lounge act with veteran improviser Scot Robinson, has been running in Hollywood at the iO WEST stage for over four years and was seen at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The Lampshades was New York magazine's "LA Pick" for 2006 and was declared "Best Saturday Comedy Show of the Year" by LA Weekly.

Stage work

Flannery played Neely O'Hara in Off Broadway hit Valley of the Dolls at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City and Los Angeles. Also in Los Angeles, she played the teen prostitute and Blair's sister in The Phacts of Life at the Renberg Theatre and in the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner production of Hildy, Hildy, Three Feet Under at The Evidence Room.

She is the musical director of the Los Angeles Drama Club, teaching Shakespeare to children and young adults.

Music

Flannery was a member of the band Mono Puff using the stage name "Lady Puff". She toured with the band and sang on their second album, It's Fun to Steal.

Television

Flannery appeared as the alcoholic, divorced, single mother Meredith Palmer on the television comedy The Office. Before The Office, she made appearances on The Bernie Mac Show, Boomtown, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! She currently blogs (sometimes as her Office character) on MySpace.

In 2008, Flannery was a talent scout on Last Comic Standing with her Office costar Brian Baumgartner, and she appeared with the cast of The Office on Celebrity Family Feud.

Flannery also appeared as a judge in a 2009 episode of Iron Chef America.

She has also appeared on The Jay Leno Show portraying Wendy in a skit at the time of the burger chain's 40th anniversary, Mother Earth in a skit on the November 19, 2009 episode and Mrs. Claus on December 21, 2009.

In an interview on Chelsea Lately, Flannery stated that she plays Harper's mother on the Disney Channel series, Wizards of Waverly Place.

She was a contestant on Don't Forget the Lyrics.

She is currently the host of Standup in Stilettos on the TV Guide network.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Can't Stop Dancing	Tonia
1999	Trick	Ridiculous Writer
2000	Amy Stiller's Breast	Reporter	Short film
2002	Life Without Dick	Crampy Legs Partygoer
2003	Carolina	Café Waitress
2005	'	Heidi	Short film
2005	I'm Not Gay	Secretary	Short film
2006	Danny Roane: First Time Director	Marla
2007	Jesus People	Sharon Nyenhuis	Short film
2007	Wild Girls Gone	Reading Circle #4
2009	Coco Lipshitz: Behind the Laughter	Reporter	Short film
2009	You	Airline Counter Girl
2010	Finger Babies	Teacher	Video short
2012	Love or Whatever	Rosemary
2014	Home	Rosemary	Post-production
2014	Break Point	Commonwealth Rep	Post-production
2014	Helicopter Mom	Norma	Post-production
2014	Cooties	Charman	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Spyder Games	Bunny	Recurring role (5 episodes)
2002	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Cop #2	Episode: "The Corpse-Sniffing Dog"
2002	Saturday Night Live	Lucy (voice)	Episode: "Al Gore/Phish"
2003	Boomtown	Tracey	Episode: "Inadmissable"
2004	Crossballs: The Debate Show		Episode: "Plastic Surgury: Nip-pocalypse?"
2004	'	Christopher's Mom	Episode: "Stiff Upper Lip"
2005-2013	'	Meredith Palmer	Main role (186 episodes)
2006	'	Meredith Palmer	Episode: "Meredith"
2008	'	Meredith Palmer	Episode: "The Explanation"
2009	Rise and Fall of Tuck Johnson	Nikki Strokums	TV series
2009	'	Meredith Palmer	TV series
2009	'	Wendy / Mrs. Claus	Episodes: "1.10", "1.69"
2010	Wizards of Waverly Place	Elaine Finkle	Episode: "Wizards vs. Finkles"
2010	'	Meredith Palmer	Episodes: "The Final Product", "Moving On"
2011	'	Brenna	Episode: "The Soup Awards"
2011	'	Beverly Simmons	TV film
2011	'	Irene / Jean Gillis (voice)	2 episodes
2013	Jessie	Corporal Cookie	Episode: "GI Jessie"