Kaitlin Olson

Early life

Olson was born in Portland, Oregon. She resided on Vashon Island, Washington, in Puget Sound, 13 mi (21 km) west of Seattle, until the age of eight. Her family relocated back to the Portland area, settling in Tualatin, where Olson grew up on a farm. Her father, Donald Olson, worked as the publisher of the Portland Tribune. At age twelve, Olson was involved in a serious bicycle accident involving a vehicle, resulting in a fractured skull requiring reconstructive surgery. She graduated from Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon.

Olson studied theatre at the University of Oregon, graduating with a B.S. in Theater arts in 1997. After college, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting professionally.

Career

Olson was a member of the improvisational group The Groundlings. She toured with the USO to Bosnia, Kosovo and Norway. She made several guest appearances in films and television series such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Drew Carey Show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Out of Practice, Miss Match, Family Guy, and Punk'd. She had a minor role in the film Coyote Ugly.

In 2004, she was cast as Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds in the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. She also voiced Ethel in the first season of the Comedy Central animated series Brickleberry. In the 2013 film The Heat she appeared as a Bulgarian druggie who engages in an exchange of cultural perspectives and insults with Melissa McCarthy's character.

She played a recurring role as Hartley Underwood, the "one-armed" neighbor in the FX series The Riches. In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Olson and others told the stories of the people killed there.

Olson stars in the Fox sitcom, The Mick, which premiered in January 2017. She also serves as an executive producer for the series.

Personal life

Olson married her It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia boss and co-star, Rob McElhenney, in California on September 27, 2008. The couple started dating secretly during the second season of the series. They had their first child, a boy named Axel Lee, on September 1, 2010. Olson went into labor at a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, and Axel was born in their California home as planned. Their second son, Leo Grey McElhenney, was born on April 5, 2012.