Kathy Najimy

Najimy was born on February 6, 1957, in San Diego, California, the daughter of Lebanese-American parents Samia (née Massery; 1928–2015) and Fred Najimy, a postal worker. Her mother immigrated from Lebanon to the United States in 1946. She was raised Maronite Catholic and attended Crawford High School. Her father died when she was 14. She is a 1995 graduate of San Diego State University.Najimy and Mo Gaffney's feminist comedy play The Kathy and Mo Show premiered in 1981 and had three long term New York City runs and generated two HBO specials, Parallel Lives and The Dark Side.

Najimy's film career began in the early 1990s, with a number of offbeat minor roles in The Fisher King, Soapdish, This Is My Life, The Hard Way. Her first major role was as Sister Mary Patrick in the 1992 comedy Sister Act, a role she reprised in 1993 in Sister Act 2. She also starred in Hocus Pocus as Mary Sanderson, alongside Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker, and the 1994 made-for-TV movie In Search of Dr. Seuss as Kathy Lane. In 2000, she played the Stepmother in CinderElmo, a primetime special for Sesame Street. In 2001, she co-starred in the hit comedy film Rat Race alongside John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz and Seth Green. She has made four movies with Goldberg (Soapdish, Sister Act 1 and 2, and Rat Race). Najimy starred in Disney and Pixar's Academy Award winning film WALL-E and Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas.

From film, Najimy expanded into television roles, including a dramatic recurring role on Chicago Hope. She was part of the cast of Veronica's Closet from 1997 to 2000. She played Wendy Keegan in HBO's Veep for four seasons. She appeared with Ellen DeGeneres in three episodes of her sitcom Ellen, playing a different character each time (including a non-speaking cameo in the iconic "Puppy Episode"), and in the TV movie If These Walls Could Talk 2. Najimy was a series regular season 4 of Unforgettable, season 4 of The Big C, and season 3 of Numbers. She guest-starred on That's So Raven, Drop Dead Diva, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, and Franklin & Bash. She starred in TNT's In Search of Dr. Seuss.

Najimy starred as Mae West in the Broadway hit Dirty Blonde. She appeared in V'Day's Vagina Monologues on Broadway and in Nassim Soleimanpour's plays White Rabbit Red Rabbit and Nassim. She is the co-creator and director of the musical revue Back to Bacharach and David, which ran in New York City in 1992 and 1993, and which she directed again in Los Angeles in April 2009.

Najimy starred as Peggy Hill in Fox's King of the Hill from 1997 to 2010. Her voice is featured in the animated films Brother Bear 2, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story, Cats Don't Dance, and Tinkerbell. She has also lent her voice to hundreds of animated television shows and movies, including BoJack Horseman, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, American Dad!, Hercules, Pepper Ann, and played a role in the Nightmare Ned video game. In 2003, Najimy provided the voice of Margalo in Stuart Little: The Animated Series, taking over from Melanie Griffith, and in 2000 took over from Madeline Kahn as Mrs. Shapiro in Little Bill. She stars in Disney Junior's reboot of The Rocketeer and Amy Poehler's Duncanville.

In late July 2015, Najimy appeared in Disney's Descendants as the Evil Queen. Later that year, she took part in the successful Christmas TV movie A Christmas Melody starring Mariah Carey, Brennan Elliott, Lacey Chabert and Fina Strazza. It debuted on the Hallmark Channel on December 19, 2015. The film was viewed by 3.95 million people upon its debut.

She appeared in Netflix's 2018 film Dumplin' alongside Jennifer Aniston. Dumplin' was released on December 7, 2018, on the platform.

In 2021, she appeared in musical drama film Music, directed by singer-songwriter Sia. In the United States, it was released in select IMAX theatres for one night on February 10, 2021, and was followed by a premium video on demand release across the country on February 12. The same year, she starred in the Netflix Christmas romantic comedy Single All the Way alongside Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers and Jennifer Coolidge.

In 2022, Najimy reprised her role as Mary Sanderson in Hocus Pocus 2 for Disney+.