Catherine Keener

Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress.

She has portrayed disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films.

She graduated with her Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College in 1983.

Keener had a supporting role as Lt. Cricket Sideris in the television series Ohara.

Her first film appearance was one line in About Last Night... (1986).

The series ran from January 1987 to May 1988.

Although she struggled professionally over the next few years, one project had an unexpected dividend: Keener met her future husband, actor Dermot Mulroney, in 1987 while working on Survival Quest (1989), after Mulroney became stuck while attempting to scale a cliff.

She also guest starred as an artist on an episode of Seinfeld called "The Letter".

She played Jerry's girlfriend, an artist who painted a famous portrait of Kramer.

Keener then earned her first starring role, in Johnny Suede, with the then-unknown Brad Pitt.

Her performance gained critical acclaim and earned her first Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.

She went on to work with director Tom DiCillo again, in Living in Oblivion (1995).

Two years later, she was once again nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Walking and Talking, an independent cult-comedy film directed by Nicole Holofcener.

She has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for Being John Malkovich (1999) and for her portrayal of author Harper Lee in Capote (2005).

Keener starred in the six-episode HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, based on the 1999 nonfiction book of the same name by Lisa Belkin.

In 2000, Keener earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze.

In 2001, she worked with director Nicole Holofcener in Lovely and Amazing, garnering her a third Independent Spirit Award nomination.

In 2002, she co-starred with Edward Norton in the off-Broadway revival of Burn This and the film Death to Smoochy.

She also took part in the film Full Frontal, and Simone alongside Al Pacino.

Keener also starred in live-action roles in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Into the Wild (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Little Pink House (2017), Get Out (2017), as well as starring voice roles in The Croods (2013), its sequel The Croods: A New Age (2020), and Incredibles 2 (2018).

Keener is the muse of director Nicole Holofcener, having appeared in each of Holofcener's first five films.

She also appeared in each of director Tom DiCillo's first four films, and three films directed by Spike Jonze.

In 2005, she starred in the political thriller The Interpreter (as a Secret Service agent partnered with Sean Penn's character) and The Ballad of Jack and Rose with Daniel Day-Lewis and played the love interest of Steve Carell in Judd Apatow's The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

Keener's performance as writer Harper Lee in Capote (also 2005) earned her several awards and nominations, including her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2006, she starred in the film Friends with Money, directed by Nicole Holofcener.

In 2007, Keener played Jan Burres in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild, based on Jon Krakauer's best-selling book of the same name.

In 2008, her film An American Crime, the true story of Gertrude Baniszewski, a middle-aged mother who tortured and murdered Sylvia Likens in her Indiana home, was aired on Showtime.

Keener played Baniszewski and her portrayal earned her an Emmy nomination in the Best Actress in a TV Mini-Series or Movie category.

In 2008, Keener portrayed Philip Seymour Hoffman's wife Adele in Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York.

Keener played the title character's mother in the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on the series of books by Rick Riordan.

She and Hoffman again played husband and wife in the 2012 film A Late Quartet.

It aired in August 2015.

In 2016, Keener starred in the independent film Unless.

From 2018 to 2020, she starred in the Showtime dramedy series Kidding.

She is of Irish descent on her father's side, and of Lebanese descent on her mother's. Keener was raised in Hialeah as a Catholic and attended Catholic schools.

She attended Monsignor Edward Pace High School.

Keener's sister, Elizabeth Keener, is also an actress and a real estate agent working for Sotheby's in Los Angeles.

Keener attended Wheaton College, in Norton, Massachusetts.

She majored in American Studies, also enrolling in a theater course.

Her first theatrical production was the Wendy Wasserstein play Uncommon Women and Others, during her junior year at Wheaton.