Molly Shannon

Shannon got married to Fritz Chestnut, an artist, in 2004 and the couple has two children together: Stella and Nolan.

Shannon was born Ohio to Mary Margaret Keating and James Francis Shannon. Her father was a sales manager and mother was a teacher. Shannon lost her mother and sister in a car accident when she was only 4.

She attended St. Dominic School in Shaker Heights for grade school, and Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio. Later, she went to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for her bachelor’s degree.

With aspiration to become an actress, she went to New York but struggled to get any proper opportunities and landed a brief supporting role in the horror film remake of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ in 1989.

Before her career really took off, Shannon did cameos on television with ‘Twin Peaks (1991)’, ‘In Living Color (1993)’ and comedy sketches and spoofs with well established comedians like Chris Rock and Jim Carrey.

Shannon’s major entertainment opportunity came with ‘Saturday Night Live’ when she was hired as a featured player to replace Janeane Garofalo in 1995. She was cast as a permanent later along with artists like David Spade, Mark McKinney, etc.

At ‘Saturday Night Live’ she became popular for the characters she brought into the show like that of ‘Mary Katherine Gallagher’--a weird, uptight Catholic school girl and then another senior showgirl ‘Sally O’Malley’.

In 1997, Shannon appeared on ‘Seinfeld’ titled ‘The Summer of George’ and also did a stint in singer Sheryl Crow’s video ‘A Change (Will Do You Good)’, along with a recurring role in ‘Will & Grace’.

The most prominent work of Shannon’s career is considered to be her stint with ‘Saturday Night Live’, a show which established her comic talents in the entertainment world. She is the longest-serving female cast member on the show.