Biography for
Jane Lynch (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

14 July 1960, Dolton, Illinois, USA

Birth Name

Jane Marie Lynch

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Spouse

Lara Embry

(31 May 2010 - present) (filed for divorce)

Trade Mark

Plays straight-shooting, nonchalant personalities with a dry sense of humor

Distinctive clipped manner of speaking

Short blonde hair

Towering height

Trivia

Performed all her own singing and guitar playing in A Mighty Wind (2003).

Penned and starred in the award winning play "Oh, Sister, My Sister!".

She has performed in a lot of commercials; she is usually cast as an office professional.

Lynch's wife, Dr. Lara Embry, is a clinical psychologist in west central Florida and a professor of psychology at New College in Sarasota, Florida. Embry made Florida headlines in 2009 when a Florida court ruled that she had the right to share custody of a child she had adopted with her ex-girlfriend, and, more widely, that the State of Florida had to accept the validity of other states' gay-parent adoptions.

Has a fear of elevators.

Fan of Olivia Newton-John and childhood fan of John Travolta.

Carol Burnett is a fan.

Deaf in one ear.

Married Lara Embry at the Blue Heron Restaurant in Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Step-mother of Laura Embry's daughter Haden.

Started dating wife Laura Embry in May 2009. They go engaged on October the same year.

Her favorite films are The Crossing Guard (1995), Ninotchka (1939), The Big Lebowski (1998), Zoolander (2001), and Private Benjamin (1980).

Hosts the 'Do Something' Awards on Vh1 - the nation's largest awards show honoring celebrities and young people's efforts to create social change. Glee won the 2010 award in the TV Show category for promoting diversity.

For her role on "Glee" (2009), she was named one of the "Eight Actors Who Turn Television into Art", in cover story of The New York Times Magazine (9/11/11).

Grew up in Dolton, Illinois a south suburb of Chicago.

Struggled with alcoholism years before stardom, which she details in forthcoming memoir, 'Happy Accidents.' She also describes how she used to secretly wear her brother's clothing and wanted to fill the athletic 'son' role her father had wished for her brother.

Hosted the 63rd Emmy Awards broadcast on Fox, Sept. 19, 2011.

Attended Illinois State University.

Mother is Swedish.

Is deaf in her right ear due to an illness as an infant.

Cites actress and comedian Vicki Lawrence as one of her Idols.

Personal Quotes

On her first Golden Globe nomination: I slept through (the nominations announcement). But, I got up to six messages and went, 'Ah! I wonder if there is some good news for us?' And there was. My agent called me three times and said, 'Why aren't you up?' So, yeah. I called my mom, and she said, 'The golden what?'

[In an Interview with the UK Mirror on why she didn't tell her parents she is a lesbian until she was 31 years old] I didn't want to be gay. I wanted to be...I wanted an easy life. And you know what? I am gay and I still have an easy life.

[on being a stepmother to her partner's daughter, Haden Ryan-Embry] I'm almost 50, and I thought that possibility was behind me, so this is a real delight. I never went through a biological clock experience. I never even heard it ticking.

[on her clothing] I don't wear particular designers. I wear whoever fits me well. I try to dress the bottom I have. The body I have and the bottom I have. I have the intention of looking fabulous every time, and I care about it a great deal. I'm very vain.

[on realizing, at 12, she was gay] I knew instinctively it was a disease and a curse. No one could ever, ever know.

To this day, well, like, I'll see a very fey guy on TV and I'll be thinking, 'Couldn't you butch it up a little?' I want us to make ourselves palatable to the world.

Salary

The Fugitive (1993)

$8,000