Following her graduation from Casady School in Oklahoma City,[6] Mullally attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she studied English literature and art history. After her sophomore year, she began acting in theater in downtown Chicago. By junior year, she was performing in eight shows per week. She later dropped out of Northwestern to pursue acting.[7]
Career
Television
One of Mullally's earliest acting spots was on a McDonald's commercial that also featured John Goodman.[8] She made her series debut in 1986 in The Ellen Burstyn Show. She subsequently guest-starred on sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Frasier, Wings, Herman's Head, Ned and Stacey, Mad About You, Caroline in the City, 3rd Rock from the Sun and Just Shoot Me!. She played a central character in a season-five episode of Murder, She Wrote, "Coal Miner's Slaughter", recalling in 2012, "I hadn't gotten a job for so long, and I was in a complete panic because I didn't know how I was going to pay my rent. So I get a call one day from my agent that I'd gotten offered a guest role, and it paid $5,000. I literally fell down onto my knees and testified and wept. I played some former protégée of Jessica Fletcher. It's one of my favorite things I've ever shot."[9]
In 2005, Mullally saw comedian and actor Bill Hader performing with his Second City class in Los Angeles, and shortly thereafter brought Hader to the attention of Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels. Also in 2005, Mullally was awarded the Women in FilmLucy Award in recognition of her "innovation in creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television".[11] She also appeared in the movie Rebound opposite Martin Lawrence, which received both critical and box office failure.
Mullally guest-starred as an adoption case worker for Liz Lemon in the third-season premiere of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock and returned to play the same character two additional times during the show's run. Other appearances include Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, Campus Ladies, director/actor David Wain's "Wainy Days", an episode of HBO's Funny or Die, and the Funny or Die web video "That's What She Said".
Also in 2009, Mullally starred in the ABC sitcom In the Motherhood. Based on the original web series, the television adaptation focuses on three mothers. She played Rosemary opposite Cheryl Hines and Jessica St. Clair. The series was poorly received and was canceled by ABC due to low ratings after airing five out of seven episodes produced.
Mullally co-starred in 2010 as Lydia on the Starz ensemble series Party Down.[13] Mullally co-starred as "Chief" on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. In 2011, Mullally began a recurring role as Dana Hartz, the mother of Penny (Casey Wilson), on the ABC sitcom Happy Endings. In the following months, Mullally joined the series Breaking In for its second season in 2012, after which the show was canceled. Also in 2012, Mullally joined the first season of Bob's Burgers as Aunt Gayle. She reprised the role in subsequent episodes along with several minor roles. Mullally rejoined the Will & Grace cast as Karen upon the show's revival, which ran for three seasons from 2017 to 2020. In 2024, Mullally and Offerman starred together as Jean and Gene, respectively, in season 4 of the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.
In 1996, she starred in You Never Know at the Pasadena Playhouse. Mullally appeared in 2000 as Pamela in the multiple award-winning production of Chuck Mee's The Berlin Circle, for which she won both the LA Weekly Theatre Award and the Backstage West Garland Award. Mullally starred as Beverly in the acclaimed production of Adam Bock's The Receptionist at the Odyssey Theatre (notably, the longest sold-out run of a show in that theatre's history), for which she was awarded the 2010 Backstage West Garland Award for Best Performance by an Actress. On 3 April 2014, she portrayed Miss Adelaide in a one night only concert of Guys and Dolls opposite Nathan Lane, Sierra Boggess and Patrick Wilson at Carnegie Hall
From April 13 to June 1, 2014, Mullally starred alongside her real-life husband, Nick Offerman, in Annapurna at the off-Broadway Acorn Theatre on New York's 42nd Street Theatre Row.[15] In 2014 Mullally starred in the Broadway performance of It's Only a Play with F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Rupert Grint, Nathan Lane and Micah Stock. The show opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on October 9, 2014, and played through January 18, 2015. It then opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on January 23, 2015, and closed on June 7, 2015. The show played 48 previews and 274 performances.[16] In June 2021, Mullally was set to appear as "Reno Sweeney" in Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre in London for a strictly limited season, but had to pull out due to an injury.
Music
Mullally is a member of the band Supreme Music Program.[17] SMP has released three albums:[18]The Sweetheart Break-In, Big as a Berry and Free Again!.[17][19] Mullally and Stephanie Hunt formed the band Nancy & Beth in 2012.[20] They went on tour in March 2013, along with Mullally's husband, Offerman. Nancy & Beth performed at Lincoln Center as part of its American Songbook Series on February 13, 2019, and toured the US in April and May 2019, beginning in Los Angeles and ending in New York City.[21] The band subsequently toured Australia in June 2019, beginning in Hobart and ending in Brisbane.[22][23]
In August 2021, Bleecker Street and Stage 6 Films picked up the worldwide rights to James Ponsoldt's coming of age film Summering, starring Mullally alongside Sarah Cooper.[26] On October 6, 2023, A24's Dicks: The Musical was released, starring Mullally[27] alongside Nathan Lane, Megan Thee Stallion, and the movie's writers, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson. The movie musical is an R-rated twist on The Parent Trap, where two grown men discover they are identical twins separated at birth, and plot to switch places in order to get their parents back together. Mullally plays "Evelyn", the boys' mother. She can be heard singing her songs on the movie's soundtrack recording.
Published works
Mullally and husband Nick Offerman wrote The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, published by Dutton on October 2, 2018. The book is a New York Times Bestseller. The two reveal the full story behind their romance in chapters on religion, family, and more.[28]
Personal life
Mullally's first marriage was to James Thomas Hines in 1982 at Los Angeles, they separated without having children, and their divorce finalized in 1987 at the same city.[29] A few years later in 1992 she married Michael Katcher, a talent agent, at Los Angeles, they separated without dissent, and their divorce was finalized in 1996.[30][31] Mullally met actor and future husband Nick Offerman in 2000 while acting in The Berlin Circle,[32] a play produced by the Evidence Room Theatre Company, and she married for a third time, three years later in 2003.[33]
While they were dating, Offerman appeared in a guest role on Will & Grace, in a 2001 Thanksgiving episode. Offerman appeared again, in a different role, in the season 9 episode "Friends and Lover". The couple have also appeared together in films such as The Kings of Summer and Smashed and the television series Parks and Recreation and The Umbrella Academy, and they also performed voice work together in Bob's Burgers, Hotel Transylvania 2, and The Great North. In 2019, they launched the podcast In Bed with Nick and Megan, discussing their personal lives and interviewing guests.[34][35] In 1999, Mullally commented in an interview in The Advocate magazine, "I consider myself bisexual, and my philosophy is, everyone innately is."[36]
