Kate Flannery

Personal life

Flannery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Saints Colman- John Neumann School and Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor, Pennsylvania. She studied for two years at Shenandoah University and graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Flannery has been dating an NBC stills photographer since 2006. They met on The Office. She is one of seven children in an Irish-American family. She is three minutes younger than her twin sister who is a social worker.

Improvisation

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

The Lampshades, her cult comedy lounge act with veteran improviser Scot Robinson, has been running in Hollywood and in comedy festivals all over the country 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, and was declared "Best Saturday Comedy Show of the Year" by LA Weekly.

Stage work

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 Off Broadway hit Valley of the Dolls at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City and Los Angeles. 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.

She is the former musical director of the Los Angeles Drama Club, teaching Shakespeare to children and young adults.

Music

Jane Lynch's Christmas Album A Swingin' Little Christmas features Kate Flannery, and reached #8 on the Billboard top 100 charts.

Flannery was a member of the band Mono Puff, using the stage name "Lady Puff". She toured with the band and sang on their second album, It's Fun to Steal.

Television

Flannery appeared as the alcoholic, divorced, single mother Meredith Palmer on the television comedy The Office. Before The Office, she made appearances on The Bernie Mac Show, Boomtown, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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 she 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.

She has also appeared on The Jay Leno Show portraying Wendy in a skit at the time of the burger chain's 40th anniversary.

She was a contestant on for 19 episodes of Celebrity Name Game, two episodes of Hollywood Game Night with Jane Lynch, Don't Forget the Lyrics. Flannery hosted Standup in Stilettos for two seasons on the TV Guide network.

In 2016, she 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 and on ABC's American Housewife as Crossing Guard Sandy.