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Kristen Johnston
Born	September 20, 1967 (1967-09-20) (age 41) Washington, D.C., United States
Awards won Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series 1997 3rd Rock from the Sun 1999 3rd Rock from the Sun

Kristen A. Johnston (born September 20, 1967) is an American Emmy Award-winning stage, film, and television actress. She may be most famous for her Emmy Award winning role as Sally Solomon in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun. She also starred as Wilma Flintstone in the sequel to the live-action movie adaptation of The Flintstones animated series. Johnston is also known for her tall 6 ft (1.83 m) frame and relatively deep voice for an actress. In 2005, Johnston was also featured in six episodes of NBC's ER.

Biography

Early life

Johnston was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of a real estate agent and a Republican state senator from Wisconsin.¹ Johnston was raised mostly in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She attended St. Eugene's Catholic Grade School and graduated from Whitefish Bay High School, although she spent some of her teen years as an exchange student in Sweden and in South America. She earned a B.F.A. degree in drama at New York University.

Career

Johnston made her professional stage debut with New York's Atlantic Theater Company, which was founded by playwright David Mamet. During her association with that company, she appeared in such productions as As You Like It, Girl's Talk, Stage Door, Author's Voice, Portrait of a Woman, and Rosemary for Remembrance.

In addition, she performed with the Naked Angels Theatre Company in The Stand-In and Hot Keys, and with New York Stage and Film in Kim's Sister, with David Strathairn and Jane Adams.

For her performance in The Lights at Lincoln Center Theatre, Johnston was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Best Supporting Actress. The show brought her to the attention of a Carsey-Werner television executive. After numerous auditions in 1996 for the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, she won the role of Sally Solomon, the alien lieutenant and security officer posing as a sexy female human in Ohio. She starred in the series from 1996-2001 along with John Lithgow, Jane Curtin, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Johnston made her feature film debut in The Debt, winner of Best Short at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, she played Kate in Backfire. Other television credits include guest-starring roles on the series Chicago Hope, Hearts Afire, and The Five Mrs. Buchanans. She was also the narrator in Microscopic Milton on the Disney Channel. Her significant roles in commercially-successful movies included Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999 and Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002.

In 1998, she was a spokesmodel for the Clairol company, as well as appearing on the Bad Religion's No Substance album cover.² Johnston appeared in the sixth and final season of Sex and the City. In the episode entitled "Splat!", she plays Lexi Featherston, an aging party girl. After the character accidentally falls out of a window and dies, Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) reexamines her life and decides to move to Paris with Aleksandr Petrovsky (played by Mikhail Baryshnikov).

Work

References

External links

• Kristen Johnston at the Internet Broadway Database
• Kristen Johnston at the Internet Movie Database
• 2006 Interview with Kristen Johnston on Theatre.com
• Kristen Johnston Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing, October 2007
• Kirsten Johnston Images (Google)