Kate Flannery

Flannery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, daughter of Tom and Joan Flannery,^[1] and was raised in the suburb Ardmore, Pennsylvania.^[2] She studied for two years at Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia and then transferred to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.^[2] She has five sisters and a brother,^[2] and is three minutes younger than her twin sister, who is a social worker.^[3]

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

The Lampshades, a cult comedy lounge act consisting of Flannery and veteran improviser Scot Robinson, has been running in Hollywood and in comedy festivals since 2001 and was seen at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The Lampshades was New York magazine's "LA Pick" for 2006,^[4] and was declared "Best Saturday Comedy Show of the Year" by LA Weekly.^{[citation needed]}

Flannery appeared as the alcoholic, divorced, single mother Meredith Palmer on the television comedy The Office, following appearances on The Bernie Mac Show, Boomtown, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The Office earned her and the rest of its cast acclaim, along with several accolades, such as winning two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, with an additional five nominations for the same award. 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.

In 2010, Flannery played Harper's mom on the Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place as Elaine Finkle. Flannery also appeared as a judge in a 2009 episode of Iron Chef America.^[5] Flannery has been touring with Jane Lynch as her sidekick on stage since 2013 in her show See Jane Sing with Tim Davis and the Tony Guerrero Quintet, playing the Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub, the Borgata and 30 cities.

Flannery was in the long running New York hit, Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She also played Neely O'Hara in the 1996 off-Broadway musical Valley of the Dolls, an adaptation of the 1967 film, at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City and Los Angeles.^[6] 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 Three Feet Under at The Evidence Room. Jane Lynch's Christmas album A Swingin' Little Christmas features Kate Flannery, and reached #8 on the Billboard top 100 charts.^[7]

Flannery also appeared on The Jay Leno Show portraying Wendy in a skit at the time of the burger chain's 40th anniversary.^[8] She was a contestant on 19 episodes of Celebrity Name Game, two episodes of Hollywood Game Night with Jane Lynch. Flannery also appeared on Don't Forget the Lyrics and hosted Standup in Stilettos for two seasons on the TV Guide network. She is the former musical director of the Los Angeles Drama Club, teaching Shakespeare to children and young adults.

In 2016, she had a recurring role on ABC's American Housewife as Crossing Guard Sandy,^[9] played a janitor in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, appeared on FOX's New Girl and MTV's Mary + Jane, and in 2017, recurred on Cartoon Network's Steven Universe as Barbara "Barb" Miller.^[10] Flannery was a member of the band Mono Puff under the stage name "Lady Puff". She toured with the band and sang on their second album, It's Fun to Steal.

In 2019, Flannery was announced as one of the celebrities to compete on season 28 of Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with first-time professional Pasha Pashkov and was eliminated fifth.^[11] She joined the show's live tour in 2020, but it was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[12]

In 2022, it was announced that Flannery would star in the comedy film Plan B alongside Jon Heder, Tom Berenger, and Shannon Elizabeth.^[13]

In 2024, Flannery competed in season eleven of The Masked Singer as "Starfish". She was eliminated on "Queen Night" alongside Charlie Wilson as "Ugly Sweater".^[14]

In 2025, Flannery appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire alongside her co-star from The Office, Oscar Nunez. She and Nunez went on to win the million-dollar top prize, splitting $500,000 each for their respective charities, Philabundance and Planned Parenthood.^[15]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Can't Stop Dancing	Tonia
	Trick	Ridiculous Writer
2000	Amy Stiller's Breast	Reporter	Short film
2002	Life Without Dick	Crampy Legs Partygoer
2003	Carolina	Café Waitress
2005	The Heir Apparent	Heidi	Short film
	I'm Not Gay	Secretary	Short film
2006	Danny Roane: First Time Director	Marla
2007	Jesus People	Sharon Nyenhuis	Short film
	Wild Girls Gone	Reading Circle #4
2009	Coco Lipshitz: Behind the Laughter	Reporter	Short film
	You	Airline Counter Girl
2010	Finger Babies	Teacher	Video short
2012	Love or Whatever	Rosemary
2014	At the Devil's Door	Rosemary
	Break Point	Commonwealth Rep
	Helicopter Mom	Norma
	Cooties	Charman
2015	Emergency Contact	Carol	Short film
	Dial a Prayer	Cora's coworker
	Slow Learners	Principal Miller	[16]
2016	4th Man Out	Karen	[17]
2017	How to Get Girls	Linda Fox
2018	Fishbowl California	Susan	[18]
	Stuck	Ms. Jenkins
2020	Golden Arm	Randy	[19]
2022	The Prank	Loretta	[20]

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Spyder Games	Bunny	Recurring role (5 episodes)
2002	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Cop #2	Episode: "The Corpse-Sniffing Dog"
	Saturday Night Live	Lucy (voice)	Episode: "Al Gore/Phish"
2003	Boomtown	Tracey	Episode: "Inadmissable"
2004	Crossballs: The Debate Show		Episode: "Plastic Surgery: Nip-pocalypse?"
	The Bernie Mac Show	Christopher's Mom	Episode: "Stiff Upper Lip"
2005–2013	The Office	Meredith Palmer	Main role (187 episodes)
2006	The Office: The Accountants	Meredith Palmer	Episode: "Meredith"
2008	The Office: The Outburst	Meredith Palmer	Episode: "The Explanation"
	Iron Chef America	Herself, judge	Episode: "Morimoto vs. Mason"
2009	Rise and Fall of Tuck Johnson	Nikki Strokums
	The Office: Blackmail	Meredith Palmer
	The Jay Leno Show	Wendy, Mrs. Claus	2 episodes
2010	Wizards of Waverly Place	Elaine Finkle	Episode: "Wizards vs. Finkles"
	The Office: The 3rd Floor	Meredith Palmer	2 episodes
2011	The Soup	Brenna	Episode: "The Soup Awards"
	The Christmas Pageant	Beverly Simmons	Television film
	The Life & Times of Tim	Irene, Jean Gillis (voice)	2 episodes
2013	Jessie	Corporal Cookie	Episode: "G.I. Jessie"
	Lakewood Plaza Turbo	Carol, Gertie (voice)	Pilot for OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes[21]
2015–2018	Steven Universe	Barb Miller (voice)	5 episodes[21]
	Another Period	Anne Sullivan	2 episodes
2016	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	"Mean" Marge Bronigan	Episode: "Adrian Pimento"
	New Girl	Mary Ellen	Episode: "Hubbedy Bubby"
	Disengaged	Chef	Super Deluxe web series; episode "Food and Wine"
	American Housewife	Crossing Guard Sandy	2 episodes
2017	Kevin (Probably) Saves the World	Ann Russo	Episode: "How to Be Good"
2017–2019	OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes	Carol (voice)	Main cast[21]
2018	All Night	Principal Saperstein	9 episodes
	Liza on Demand	Karaoke Woman	Episode: "MoJoe"
2019	Young Sheldon	Nurse Nora	Episode: "A Tummy Ache and a Whale of a Metaphor"
	Dancing with the Stars	Contestant	9 episodes
2019–2020	Summer Camp Island	Georgina (voice)	2 episodes
2021	That Girl Lay Lay	Mitzy	Episode: "Lay Lay the Legendary"
	Magnum P.I.	Erin	Episode: "Texas Wedge"
2022	PBC	Jessica
2023; 2025	Kiff	Agnes, Kion (voice)	3 episodes[21]
2023	Is It Cake?	Herself / Judge	Episode: "S'more Cake Please"
2024	Hell's Kitchen	Herself	Guest diner; episode: "#HellishHangover"
	The Masked Singer	Herself/Starfish	Season 11 contestant
2025	Night Court	Marge	Episode: "The Jakeout"
	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire	Herself	Contestant

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Video games

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	OK K.O.! Let's Play Heroes	Carol	[21]

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Dancing with the Stars performances

More information Week #, Dance/Song ...

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' score			Result
		Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli
1	Cha-cha-cha / "She Works Hard for the Money"	5	5	5	No Elimination
2	Foxtrot / "Fly Me to the Moon"	7	7	7	Safe
3	Quickstep / "9 to 5"	8	8	8	Safe
4	Argentine Tango/ "Hands to Myself"	7	71/6	6	Safe
5	Jazz / "A Spoonful of Sugar"	8	8	8	No Elimination
6	Viennese waltz / "I Have Nothing"	9	9	9	Safe
7	Rumba /"Wicked Game" Team Freestyle / "Sweet Dreams"	8 8	8 8	8 8	Bottom Two
8	Jive /""Heat Wave"" Cha-Cha-Cha / "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"	8 Won	8 Dance	8 Off	Eliminated

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¹ Score given by guest judge Leah Remini.