Janeane Garofalo Biography
Born: September 28, 1964
Actress, comedian, and paragon of cynicism Janeane Garofalo was born on September 28, 1964, in Newton, NJ. During high school, her family relocated to Houston, TX, where the trauma of the move prompted her famously insecure, self-loathing persona to begin blossoming in full. While studying history at Providence College, Garofalo entered a comedy talent search sponsored by the Showtime cable network, winning the title of "Funniest Person in Rhode Island." Dreaming of earning a slot on the writing staff of the Late_Night_With_David_Letterman program, she became a professional standup upon graduating college but struggled for a number of years, working briefly as a bike messenger in Boston.
Upon moving to the Los Angeles area, Garofalo met actor/comedian Ben_Stiller, who in 1992 invited her to join the cast of his short-lived but acclaimed Fox television sketch comedy program The_Ben_Stiller_Show. A stint on Garry_Shandling's breakthrough HBO series The_Larry_Sanders_Show (for which she was nominated for an Emmy award in 1996) soon followed, and in 1994 Garofalo reunited with Stiller in the film comedy Reality_Bites, a role which earned her the much-despised tag of "Generation X comedian." That fall, she joined the cast of Saturday_Night_Live but exited before the conclusion of the season, publicly disheartened by the show's increasing drop-off in quality.
After signing on as a correspondent on Michael_Moore's news magazine TV Nation and hosting Comedy_Product, a standup showcase on the Comedy Central cable network, Garofalo began work on her breakthrough role, co-starring with Uma_Thurman in the 1996 romantic comedy hit The Truth About Cats and Dogs. That same year, she also co-starred with Bill_Murray in Larger_Than_Life, and appeared briefly in The_Cable_Guy and Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. Garofalo's prolific output continued in 1997; in addition to starring roles in two comedies, Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and The_Matchmaker, she was featured prominently in James_Mangold's Cop_Land and Paul_Schrader's Touch, she hosted the MTV series Indie Outing, and she remained a fixture of the emerging alternative comedy circuit.
In 1998, Garofalo's career continued to thrive, with starring and supporting roles in a number of films. Some of her more notable work included Clay_Pigeons, a black comedy with Vince_Vaughn and Joaquin_Phoenix; Permanent_Midnight, which marked another collaboration with Stiller; and the animated Kiki's_Delivery_Service, which featured Garofalo as the voice of a new age artist and mystic. She also acted against type as one half of a revoltingly cheerful couple in Bruce McCulloch's comedy Dog_Park. The following year, Garofalo appeared in no less than five films, with a supporting part in the ensemble piece 200_Cigarettes, a starring role as an unconventional action heroine called the Bowler in Mystery_Men (which also featured Stiller), and prominent turns in Kevin_Smith's eagerly awaited Dogma, Hampton_Fancher's psychological thriller The_Minus_Man, and the satirical comedy Can't_Stop_Dancing, in which she acted alongside fellow comedienne Margaret_Cho. Jason Ankeny, Rovi
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