JENNA ELFMAN

'Jenna Elfman' (born September 30, 1971, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is an American television and film actress.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Elfman was born 'Jennifer Mary Butala' in Los Angeles, California, to Sue Grace, a homemaker, and Richard Wayne Butala, a Hughes Aircraft executive. She attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a dance major and graduated in 1989. Her uncle is Tony Butala of The Lettermen. She studied with acting teacher Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse before beginning her television career.

Career

She began as a professional dancer, then made a switch to acting in the early 1990s. Elfman did extensive commercial work before landing her first series jobs, making guest appearances in the 1995–1996 season on the ABC series ''Roseanne'', ''NYPD Blue'', ''The Monroes'', and ''Murder One'', and the CBS sitcom ''Almost Perfect''. A role as a drug counselor in the NBC made-for-TV movie ''Her Last Chance'' came in 1996 as well, before the charismatic actress auspiciously landed a regular role as the boy-crazy Shannon, one of three young working class waitresses in the Molly Ringwald sitcom vehicle ''Townies''. Although short-lived, ''Townies'' proved a big break for Elfman, who impressed ABC executives with her scene-stealing turn and signed her own sitcom deal before the last ''Townies'' episode aired.
This deal led to Elfman's best known role on the popular sitcom ''Dharma & Greg'', which ran on ABC from 1997 to 2002. She won a Golden Globe Award for this role, and was nominated twice for an Emmy Award. In 1999 , she co-hosted the Emmy Awards presentation with David Hyde Pierce.
In 2004 , Elfman produced and starred in a feature film called ''Touched''. In November 2005 , CBS announced that Elfman vehicle, ''Courting Alex'' would be a midseason replacement, premiering in January 2006. It was announced in May that the show did not get picked up, and was thus cancelled. However, CBS immediately inked a new development deal with Elfman to create a comedy vehicle for her, as reported in ''The Hollywood Reporter'' on June 2, 2006.
Elfman also starred in the movies ''Krippendorf's Tribe'', ''EDtv'', '', and ''Keeping the Faith''.

Personal life

Elfman met her husband, actor Bodhi Elfman, at a Sprite commercial audition in February of 1991. They married in 1995, making director Richard Elfman her father-in-law and noted composer Danny Elfman her uncle-in-law.
In 2005, Elfman appeared at the Church of Scientology-affiliated Citizens Commission on Human Rights' controversial ""^[1] museum grand opening and is described on the organization's website as a supporter.^[2]
In May 2006, Jenna visited her high school alma mater to urge students to set career goals and encourage them to persist in their chosen professions.^[3]
In January 2007, Elfman and her husband announced they are expecting their first child together. ^[4]
On July 23, 2007, Jenna and her husband welcomed a son, Story Elias, weighing 7 pounds, 2 ounces.
Will Ferrell's site Funnyordie.com, aired a video "Mama Jams" of Elfman and her husband. [1]

References

1. New L.A. Museum Targets Psychiatry as an "Industry of Death"
2. An Anatomy of Today's Terrorism; PsychAssault.com CCHR's Latest Website
3. Jenna Revisits Her High School
4. http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=25dbce97-7f25-401e-b427-3505b4c7825f

External links

★ Jenna Elfman's official site

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★ Jenna Elfman's short film on Funny Or Die