Joanna Gleason is a Tony Award-winning actor who has been a fixture of stage and screen for over 40 years. On Broadway, she is best known for originating the role of the Baker’s Wife in the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. The role won her the Best/Outstanding Actress in a Musical Awards from all three major Broadway awards ceremonies — The Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, and OCCs. Her TV and film credits include the likes of Friends, Sex and the City, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and The West Wing.
Gleason was born in Toronto but relocated to Los Angeles when she was a child. She first began acting at high school in Beverly Hills, taking part in school productions. She then studied at UCLA and Occidental College, one of America’s oldest private art colleges. She first appeared on TV in the late 1970s on Let’s Make a Deal, a popular game show hosted by her father, Monty Hall. In 1977, she made her Broadway debut in a musical called I Love My Wife, for this she won a Theatre World Award, a much-coveted prize given to those who make a particularly outstanding debut on the Great White Way.
In 1987, Gleason was cast in the first Broadway production of Into the Woods, and her success in the part confirmed her status in the acting world. Her off-Broadway roles include a starring part in the Pultizer Prize-nominated play Sons of the Prophet, for which she was nominated for yet more awards. In 2007, the New England Theatre Conference awarded with her with a Special Award for Achievement in Theatre.
