JOAN
CUSACK

Joan Cusack was born in New York City on October 11, 1962. A 1984 University of Wisconsin–Madison alumna, she later joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for the 1985–86 season. Sketch comedy offered one setting for the sharply timed reactions that would become so useful in her screen work: a look or a sudden change of posture can register an entire argument before the character says much at all.

In Working Girl (1988), Cusack plays Cyn, the friend of Melanie Griffith’s Tess. The performance earned a supporting-actress Oscar nomination at the 1989 ceremony. Another followed in 1998 for In & Out (1997), in which she plays Emily, the fiancée of Kevin Kline’s Howard. Both are nominations, rather than wins. Seen together, the roles show how an ensemble performer can give a relationship its own comic rhythm without needing to carry every scene.

Animation brought a different instrument into focus. Cusack supplies Jessie’s original English-language speaking voice in Toy Story 2 (1999), and returns as the cowgirl in Toy Story 5 (2026). The energy of that voice makes Jessie easy to recognize even without the performer’s face. For viewers following her work, it is a useful companion to the live-action roles: the emotion has to travel through timing, breath and changes in tone.

Television gave her another long-running character in Sheila Jackson on Shameless. In 2015, the role won her the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. The distinction matters when tracing her career: an Oscar nomination for a supporting film performance and an Emmy win for a guest television role describe different kinds of recognition. Across these settings, her work invites attention to the person reacting at the edge of the main conversation as much as to the person speaking.