Bridget Flanery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
March 24, 1970
Yale University (MFA)
Bridget Flanery | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bridget Christine Flanery March 24, 1970 Guthrie Center, Iowa , U.S. |
| Education | Drake University (BA) Yale University (MFA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Spouse | Brandon Christy (m. 2009) |
Bridget Christine Flanery (born March 24, 1970) is an American actress and screenplay writer. She is sometimes credited as Bridget Flanery-Fownes.
Born Bridget Christine Flanery, on March 24, 1970 in Guthrie Center, Iowa,[1][2] Flanery is the daughter of Judith and James Flanery, the latter of whom was a county district clerk in Guthrie County before his death in 1987. Flanery has a sister, Jill, and three brothers, James, William and John.[3]
Flanery attended Guthrie Center Elementary School, where she was receiving accolades for her acting as early as 1982.[4] In high school, she starred as Anne Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at the age of 15, winning the role over several older students.[5]
Flanery studied Theatre and Dance at Drake University, graduating in 1992.[6][7] After graduation, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.[5] She later received her MFA from Yale School of Drama.[8]
Career
While a student at Drake University, Flanery appeared in several local productions at Wichita Summer Theater, including Blithe Spirit,[9] A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,[10] To Gillian on her 37th Birthday,[11] Fatal Attraction,[12] and Nunsense.[13] She also appeared in several commercials while in college.[14]
Upon graduating from Drake, Flanery moved to LA and booked her first television role playing a high school student in Sweet Dreams.[5] In 1994, she was cast as Lila Fowler in the comedy-drama series Sweet Valley High.[15] She was part of the main cast until 1996, when she was replaced by Shirlee Elliot. Between 1996 and 1998, she portrayed Jill on the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch.[16]
Flanery has appeared in several guest starring television roles, including Teen Angel,[17] Unhappily Ever After,[18] Love Boat: The Next Wave, Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, Boy Meets World,[19] Out of Practice, Without a Trace,[20] Hart of Dixie, Babylon 5, All My Children, Guiding Light, Pearl and Two and a Half Men.[5][21][8] She was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1997 for the Best Performance in a TV Comedy — Guest Starring Young Performer for the television show Pearl.
In 1997, Flanery starred as Kathy in Vanities at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.[22] She went on to have many more theater roles throughout the 2000s, including A Streetcar Named Desire at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Loves and Hours at the Old Globe Theatre,[23] Cats Talk Back at the New York International Fringe Festival,[24] Twelfth Night at the Shakespeare Festival LA,[25] Spring Awakening at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, The Rainmaker at The Noise Within,[26] The Taming of the Shrew at The Odyssey, The Psychic at The Falcon Theater,[27] The Road to Appomattox at Colony Theater,[8] Three Sisters at Studio Theatre,[28] New York Water at the Pico Playhouse.[29][5]
Her roles in The Rainmaker and The Taming Of The Shrew awarded her Best Performance By A Lead Actress (Comedy) by StageSceneLA in 2010.[5] Flanery has also written several screenplays which have won awards on the festival circuits,[8] including Best Screen Feature Screenplay for Gossamer Folds at the George Linley UNA Film Festival in 2012.[30]
In 2009, Flanery starred in a film directed by her old Drake classmate, Sean Gannon. The film, Something Blue, was screened at the Starz Denver Film Festival, and filmed in Flanery's native Iowa.[5] In 2010 she co-wrote the pilot episode of the show Complete Bull, with Colleen Krantz, who is also from Guthrie Center.[31]
Flanery wrote the screenplay for the 2020 film, Gossamer Folds, which tells the story of a transgender woman befriending her young neighbour in the 1980s.[32] The film was shown at several festivals, and was nominated for the 2022 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film: Limited Release.[33]
From 2019-2023, Flanery taught acting at The Studio School in Los Angeles.[21] Since then, she had been the Academic Department Director for Acting at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.[34] She has also taught acting classes at Drake University since 2015.[6]
Personal life
Flanery married composer Brandon Fownes (sometimes known as Brandon Christy) on August 8, 2009. The couple divorced in 2021.[35]