Joan Cusack

Joan Mary Cusack (; born October 11, 1962) is an American actress and comedian. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the comedy-drama Working Girl (1988) and the romantic comedy In & Out (1997). Her other starring roles include those in Toys (1992), Nine Months (1995), Cradle Will Rock (1999), Where the Heart Is (2000), and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008). She has also provided the voice of Jessie in the Toy Story franchise (1999–present) for which she won an Annie Award and Abby Mallard in Chicken Little (2005). Cusack was a cast member on the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1986. She starred on the Showtime hit drama/comedy series Shameless (2011–2021) as Sheila Jackson, a role for which she received five consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning for the first time in 2015. She is the sister of actress Ann Cusack and actor John Cusack. Early life Cusack was born on October 11, 1962, in New York City and was raised in Evanston, Illinois. Her mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" Cusack (née Carolan), was a former mathematics teacher and political activist. Her father, Dick Cusack, was an actor and filmmaker, and two of her four siblings, Ann and John, are actors. Her family is of Irish Catholic descent. Cusack is an alumna of the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1984). Career Cusack has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Working Girl (1988) and In & Out (1997). She has appeared with her brother John in 10 movies: Class (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), Broadcast News (1987), Say Anything... (1989), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Cradle Will Rock (1999), High Fidelity (2000), Martian Child (2007), and War, Inc. (2008).