Jennifer Audrey Coolidge (born August 28, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American actor and comedian. Active since 1993, she initially took on small roles, before finding fame as Jeanine Stifler in American Pie, a role she would reprise for the sequels, and Paulette Bonafonte in Legally Blonde. She mostly stuck with small roles in film and television before a Emmy Award-winning turn as Tanya McQuoid in The White Lotus.
Notable roles
Film
- American Pie series as Jeanine Stifler
- American Pie (1999)
- American Pie 2 (2001)
- American Wedding (2003)
- American Reunion (2012)
- Best in Show (2000) as Sheri Ann Cabot
- Legally Blonde series as Paulette Bonafonté
- Legally Blonde (2001)
- Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)
- Zoolander (2001) as American designer
- A Mighty Wind (2003) as Amber Cole
- A Cinderella Story (2004) as Fiona Montgomery
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) as one of the White-Faced Women
- Robots (2005) as Aunt Fanny (voice)
- Aunt Fannys Tour Of Booty (2005)
- Click (2006) as Janine
- Igor (2008) as Jaclyn (voice)
- Living Proof (2008) as Tish
- The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) as Genevieve
- Austenland (2013) as Elizabeth Charming
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) as Ms. Suggs
- The Emoji Movie (2017) as Mary Meh (voice)
- Promising Young Woman (2020) as Susan Thomas
- Shotgun Wedding (2023)
- We Have a Ghost (2023)
Television
- Joey (2004-2006) as Bobbie
- Gravity Falls (2012-2016) as "Lazy" Susan Wentworth (voice)
- 2 Broke Girls (2012-2017) as Sophie Kachinsky
- The Loud House (2018) as Myrtle (voice)
- The White Lotus (2021-2022) as Tanya McQuoid
- The Watcher (2022) as Karen
Tropes found in her work include:
- Big Beautiful Woman: She's tall for a woman (5'10"), curvy, with a big presence, and everyone who knows her in real life says that she's as much fun to hang around with as you'd think.
- Cool Big Sis: Paulette in Legally Blonde to Elle and Sophie in 2 Broke Girls who acts as a surrogate big sister to Millennials Max and Caroline.
- Large Ham: Her characters in comedies usually tend to be larger-than-life in their expressions and mannerisms.
- Loveable Sex Maniac: She claimed that playing Mrs. Stifler in American Pie got her laid over 200 times. (She may have been joking.)
- Playing Against Type: She's known for playing the Large Ham Brainless Beauty, but in American Pie she plays a subdued, straight woman to her son and his friend's wild shenanigans, especially as she has a casual affair with Finch.
- Stacy's Mom: The term "MILF" saw a rise in popularity and entered the mainstream popular culture lexicon due to the success of the American Pie movies wherein she played Stifler's Mom.
- Typecasting: She tends to play hammy, comedic blondes.
