Julia Sweeney
(born October 10, 1959) is an American actress, comedian and author best known for her Saturday Night Live
career and autobiographical solo shows.
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Personal life
Sweeney was born in
Spokane, Washington, the daughter of Jeri, a homemaker, and Robert M. Sweeney, an attorney and federal prosecutor
[1] who made an appearance in her movie
It's Pat
as a
priest. The oldest of five children, she was raised in Spokane, and quickly found a talent for imitating voices and inventing characters. Despite successful appearances in high school plays, she decided to put acting aside to pursue
economic studies at the
University of Washington where she became a member of
Delta Gamma sorority. After graduation, Sweeney moved to
Los Angeles where she worked at various odd jobs, and as an accountant for
Columbia Pictures and
United Artists, before turning her attentions again to acting. She is now married to scientist Michael Blum. The couple and daughter Tara Mulan relocated to the Chicago suburbs in early 2009.
Career
In 1988, while still working as an accountant, Sweeney enrolled in classes with the
improvisational comedy troupe
The Groundlings, eventually being selected to be part of the troupe's Sunday Company. It was at The Groundlings that she began to develop personae she would later bring to the stage, film, and television. They include Mea Culpa, the title character of
Mea's Big Apology
(co-written by then-husband Stephen Hibbert), which won the Best Written Play Award from
L.A. Weekly
in 1988 and has been developed by Sweeney (in collaboration with Jim Emerson) into a screenplay; and the androgynous
Pat, whose impossible-to-determine
gender was the basis for Sweeney's popular
It's Pat!
skits on
Saturday Night Live
, and later for her feature film of the same name, which never received a national release but has since gathered a small cult following.
In 1992 she also worked with the rock band
Ugly Kid Joe, performing in the music video for their hit "Neighbor" and contributing introductory audio to two tracks, "Goddamn Devil" and "Everything About You." The latter was on the soundtrack to the
Lorne Michaels movie
Wayne's World
.
In 1994, she had a small role as "Raquel" in the movie
Pulp Fiction.
Saturday Night Live
At a Groundlings performance in 1989,
Saturday Night Live
(SNL) producer Lorne Michaels discovered Sweeney and offered her a spot as one of SNL's featured players. She joined the regular SNL cast the following year and remained with the show through four seasons, from 1990 to 1994.
Sweeney's 1993 impression of
Chelsea Clinton caused a stir when
Hillary Clinton found it offensive and sent an angry letter to SNL's Studio 8H.
[2]
Monologues
Sweeney has created and performed three autobiographical monologues,
God Said Ha!
,
In the Family Way
, and
Letting Go of God
.
God Said Ha!
After leaving the cast of
Saturday Night Live
, Sweeney returned to Los Angeles where, shortly afterwards, her career was put on hold by a series of personal traumas. Her brother Michael was diagnosed with
lymphoma, and shortly thereafter Sweeney discovered that she had
cancer, too. Following the ordeal, Sweeney began to tell of her experience in serio-comic performances at L.A.'s
alternative comedy club, the
Un-Cabaret, eventually developing the stories into a one-woman stage show,
God Said Ha!
, which debuted at San Francisco's Magic Theater in 1995.
Sweeney's unusually candid, humorous, and moving treatment of her painful and personal story won her a large new audience.
God Said Ha!
moved to
Broadway, winning the 1996 New York Comedy Festival's Audience Award, and a CD recording of the show earned her a
Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album that same year.
Miramax released a film version of the show in 1998, directed by Sweeney and produced by
Quentin Tarantino. The film earned the
Golden Space Needle Award at the Seattle Film Festival. It was released on DVD in 2003. Portions of the monologues from Un-Cabaret were featured on
This American Life
(TAL) in January 1996 in
episode 9. (
This American Life
was then known as "Your Radio Playhouse.") TAL rebroadcast the original episode in June 2006. Since her initial monologue, she has been a frequent contributor to TAL, with several of her monologues featured for broadcast.
In the Family Way
Sweeney's second monologue chronicled the adoption of her daughter from China.
In the Family Way
started on stage in New York City in early 2003 at the Ars Nova Theatre. The show was directed by the Broadway stage director,
Mark Brokaw. The show then migrated to the Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles. Sweeney has also released a CD recording of
In the Family Way
, and in 2006 she performed a 25-minute excerpt of this show at the
Hollywood Bowl with a new orchestration written especially for her piece by the composer
Anthony Marinelli and performed by the
Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Letting Go of God
Sweeney's third autobiographical monologue is titled
Letting Go of God
. In it, she discusses her
Catholic upbringing, early religious ideology, and the life events and internal search that led her to believe that the universe can function on its own without a deity to preside over it.
She workshopped the show in small theaters and clubs around Los Angeles for three years and then opened it at the Hudson Backstage Theater in October 2004. The show garnered great reviews and ran for ten months. In June 2005, it gained a much larger audience when an excerpt of the show was featured on American Public Radio's
This American Life
in an episode entitled "Godless America."
Sweeney's public declaration of her
atheism has brought her substantial attention from secular groups around the world, as well as new fans who share similar, personal loss-of-faith stories.
An audio recording of
Letting Go of God
was released on CD in 2006, and it was filmed live on stage in May 2007. The film premiered at the
Seattle International Film Festival on June 13, 2008. The DVD of the show was released in November 2008 and sold via amazon.com.
Richard Dawkins referenced
Letting Go of God
several times in his book
The God Delusion
.
Other roles
Sweeney has also appeared on the big screen in
Pulp Fiction
,
Clockstoppers
,
Whatever It Takes
, and
Stuart Little
. A veteran of live television, Sweeney made her mark on primetime television as a series regular on
George & Leo
and
Maybe It's Me
and she guest starred on
3rd Rock from the Sun
,
Hope & Gloria
,
Mad About You
, and
According to Jim
. In 2004, Sweeney co-starred in two episodes of
Frasier
(as Frasier's litigious unwanted houseguest, Ann) and had a guest role on
Sex and the City
. She served as a consultant on
Sex and the City
for its last three seasons. She also consulted on season two of
Desperate Housewives
. She is currently the voice of Margo on the ABC animated series
The Goode Family
.
References
- Julia Sweeney Biography (1961-)
- http://apps.wbez.org/blog/?p=2806