Kristen Johnston

Kristen Angela Johnston (born September 20, 1967) is an American actress. Best known for her work on television sitcoms, she twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sally Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun. Johnston also starred as divorce attorney Holly Franklin on The Exes, and since 2018, stars as recovering addict Tammy Diffendorf on Mom. Johnston has also starred in such films as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), Ice Age (2002), Music and Lyrics (2007), and Bride Wars (2009).

Johnston attended St. Eugene's Catholic Grade School and Whitefish Bay High School in Wisconsin. She is of Swedish and English descent. She spent some of her teenage years in Sweden and in South America and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama at New York University.

Johnston made her professional stage debut with New York's Atlantic Theater Company, which was founded by playwright David Mamet. During her association with that company, she appeared in such productions as As You Like It and Stage Door, among many others. She has performed with the Naked Angels Theater Company in The Stand-In and Hot Keys, and with New York Stage and Film in Kim's Sister, with David Strathairn and Jane Adams. For her performance in The Lights at Lincoln Center Theater, Johnston was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Best Supporting Actress.

A Carsey-Werner casting agent who saw her in The Lights recommended her for the role of Sally Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun. After numerous auditions in 1996 for the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, she won the role. She starred in the series from 1996 to 2001. The role earned her two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

She made her feature film debut in The Debt, winner of Best Short at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, she played Kate in the film Backfire! She played Esmeralda, a sea hag in Thrill Ride, a family friendly film released in 2016.Other television credits include guest-starring roles on the series Chicago Hope, Hearts Afire, and The 5 Mrs. Buchanans. She was also the narrator in Microscopic Milton on the Disney Channel. Her significant roles in commercially successful movies included Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, Ice Age, and Music and Lyrics in 2007. In 1998, she was a spokesmodel for the Clairol company.

Johnston appeared in the sixth and final season of Sex and the City. In the episode entitled "Splat!", her character, Lexi Featherston, an aging party girl, accidentally falls out of a window and dies (after saying, "I'm so bored I could die."), prompting Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) to re-examine her life. In 2005, Johnston was featured in six episodes of NBC's ER. She was cast as Patsy in a proposed American remake of the British TV show Absolutely Fabulous, but the series was never picked up by a network. She appeared in a recurring role in the 2009 season of Ugly Betty and had a single-episode appearance as a dominatrix in the second season opener of Bored to Death.

She starred in the TV Land sitcom The Exes, which ran for four seasons between November 30, 2011, and September 16, 2015. In 2018, she began a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Mom, and was upgraded to series regular for season 7 (2019–2020).

Her father was former WisconsinRepublican state senator Rod Johnston.

In her autobiography, Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster, Johnston discusses an addiction to alcohol and pills that began when she was in high school. She mentioned that at the height of her addiction, she drank on average two bottles of wine per evening. She stated in the 2012 book that she had been sober for five years. Through her charity SLAM, NYC (Sobriety, Learning and Motivation), she mentors high school girls from New York City with addiction and self-esteem issues and has been crusading for the city to build a recovery high school.

Johnston said she was diagnosed in November 2013 with lupus myelitis, which caused her to miss filming for some episodes of her series The Exes. A character played by Leah Remini was introduced in season three to cover Johnston's absence.

Film

Television

• 2012: Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster., Gallery Books, ISBN 978-1451635065