Allison Janney Net Worth, Career, Biography, Facts, Age, Life Story

Allison Janney is an American actress who has a net worth of $14 million. Janney has more than 130 acting credits to her name and is perhaps best known for playing C. J. Cregg on “The West Wing” (1999–2006), Margaret Scully on “Masters of Sex” (2013–2015), and Bonnie Plunkett on “Mom” (2013–present). She earned numerous awards for her performance as LaVona Golden, mother of Tonya Harding, in “I, Tonya” (2017), and her other notable films include “Juno” (2007), “The Help” (2011), “Tammy” (2014), and “Bombshell” (2019). Allison has also had a successful stage career, earning Drama Desk Awards and Tony nominations for her Broadway productions of “A View from the Bridge” (1997) and “9 to 5” (2009).

Salary History: For the first few seasons of “Mom,” Allison and her co-star Anna Faris earned $125,000 per episode. Sometime in the third or fourth season, their salaries were bumped to $200,000 per episode, and in 2019, they each signed a two-year contract that reportedly increased their salary per episode to at least $350,000. Janney’s peak salary per episode of The West Wing was $70,000.

Early Life: Allison Janney was born Allison Brooks Janney on November 19, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in Dayton, Ohio, with mother Macy (a former actress), father Jervis (a jazz musician and real estate developer), and brothers Jay and Hal. Allison attended Dayton’s Miami Valley School, and Connecticut’s Hotchkiss School; Miami Valley named her a distinguished alumna in 2005, and she was the Hotchkiss School’s Alumna of the Year in 2016. Janney originally wanted a career as a figure skater, but her dreams were dashed after a freak accident involving a sliding glass door caused her to cut a tendon and lose an artery. Allison enrolled at Kenyon College in Ohio and majored in theatre. In 1978, she met Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward when Newman directed her in a production of “C.C. Pyle and the Bunion Derby” at the school’s Bolton Theater, and they encouraged Janney in her pursuit of an acting career. She later studied acting at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, and she attended London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1984 after receiving a scholarship.

Theatre Career: In 1989, Allison made her professional stage debut with an uncredited role in an Off-Broadway production of “Ladies,” then had minor roles in productions of “Prescribed Laughter In The Emergency Café” (1991) and “Breaking Up” (1993). In 1993, she was one of the titular five women in “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” and in 1996, she appeared on Broadway for the first time, playing Liz Essendine in “Present Laughter,” a role that earned her a Theatre World Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Clarence Derwent Award. In 1998, Janney received rave reviews for her performance as Beatrice Carbone in “A View from the Bridge,” and in 2009, she co-starred with Megan Hilty and Stephanie J. Block in the musical “9 to 5.” She took a break from the stage after “9 to 5,” then returned in 2017 to play Ouisa Kittredge in a Broadway production of “Six Degrees of Separation” and won an Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance.

Television Career: Allison first appeared on television in two episodes of the CBS comedy “Morton & Hayes” in 1991, then guest-starred on “Law & Order” (1992; 1994), “Guiding Light” (1994; 1995), and “New York Undercover” (1995). During the 1990s, she also appeared in the television films “Blind Spot” (1993), “…First Do No Harm” (1997), “Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing” (1997), and “David and Lisa” (1998). In 1999, Janney began playing White House Press Secretary C. J. Cregg on the NBC drama “The West Wing” and won several awards for her performance on the series. The show ran for seven seasons, and Allison appeared in 145 episodes. While starring on “The West Wing,” Janney also lent her voice to the Spanish animated series “Scruff” (2000-2003), guest-starred on “Frasier” (2001; 2002) and “Weeds” (2005), and appeared in the TV movie “A Girl Thing” (2000).

Allison guest-starred on “Two and a Half Men” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” in 2007 and voiced Charlene Doofenshmirtz on nine episodes of “Phineas and Ferb” between 2008 and 2013. She then guest-starred on “Lost” (2010), “In Plain Sight” (2010), “Mr. Sunshine” (2011), “The Big C” (2012), and “Veep” (2013), and she appeared in nine episodes of Showtime’s “Masters of Sex” from 2013 to 2015. In 2013, Janney began playing recovering drug addict Bonnie Plunkett on the CBS sitcom “Mom.” As of this writing, the series has aired more than 150 episodes over eight seasons and earned Allison five Emmy nominations. Since “Mom” began, Janney has guest-starred on several other shows, including “Web Therapy” (2014), “Comedy Bang! Bang!” (2016), “Nobodies” (2017), and “The Kominsky Method” (2019), and she has done voice work on “The Simpsons” (2016), “F Is for Family” (2017), “American Dad!” (2017), and “DuckTales” (2018–present).

Film Career: Allison’s first film was 1989’s “Who Shot Patakango?,” and she would not be in another movie until 1994 when she appeared in “Dead Funny,” “The Cowboy Way,” “Wolf,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” and “Heading Home.” By the end of the decade, she would appear in 18 more films, including “Private Parts” (1997), “Primary Colors” (1998), “The Object of My Affection” (1998), and “American Beauty” (1999). Janney appeared in “Nurse Betty” in 2000 and “The Hours” in 2002, then she voiced Peach in 2003’s “Finding Nemo.” In 2007, she played Prudy Pingleton in “Hairspray” and Brenda “Bren” MacGuff in “Juno,” and in 2011, she appeared in “The Help,” sharing several ensemble awards with her castmates, including a Screen Actors Guild Award. Allison followed the success of “The Help” with roles in “Bad Words” (2013), “The DUFF” (2015), “Spy” (2015), “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” (2016), and “The Girl on the Train” (2016). In 2017, she received critical acclaim and several awards for playing LaVona Golden in “I, Tonya,” a role that was specifically written for her by screenwriter Steven Rogers. In 2019, Janney appeared in the films “Troop Zero,” “Ma,” “Bad Education,” “The Addams Family” (voice only), and “Bombshell,” and she starred in the comedy “Lazy Susan” in 2020.

Personal Life: Allison dated computer programmer Dennis Gagomiros from 1994 to 2001 and production manager Philip Joncas from 2012 to 2017. She became engaged to her “Our Very Own” co-star in 2004, after two years of dating, but they ended their relationship in 2006. Janney has spoken about her brother, Hal, in interviews related to “Mom,” revealing that he struggled with drug addiction and died by suicide. When she won her Oscar, she dedicated her win to Hal while accepting the award.

Allison is a vocal proponent of same-sex marriage, women’s and LGBTQ rights, and addiction recovery, and she has supported several charities, such as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, American Heart Association, and GLAAD. Janney took part in the Los Angeles Women’s March in 2018, and she participated in Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote initiative in 2020, along with her “The West Wing” co-stars. In 2016, Allison appeared at the “Champions of Change” event at the White House, starting off in character as C.J. Cregg before getting serious and stating “I am here today to draw attention to the opioid epidemic and to celebrate those who are working to help others combat substance use disorder…This is a disease that can touch anybody, and all of us can help reduce drug abuse through evidenced-based treatment, prevention and recovery.” She made a $250,000 donation to Planned Parenthood in 2017 and a $10,000 donation to the Dayton Foodbank during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Awards and Nominations: In 2018, Janney won an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for “I, Tonya.” The film also earned her awards from the Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards, AACTA International Awards, Awards Circuit Community Awards, Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Film Independent Spirit Awards, Hollywood Film Awards, Online Film & Television Association, Screen Actors Guild, and Women Film Critics Circle Awards. Allison won an Austin Film Critics Association award for “Juno” in 2007, a CinEuphoria Award for “Away We Go” in 2011, a Hollywood Critics Association award for “Bad Education” in 2020, and a Mar del Plata Film Festival award for “Life During Wartime” in 2009.

Janney has received 14 Primetime Emmy nominations, winning for “The West Wing” in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004, “Masters of Sex” in 2014, and “Mom” in 2014 and 2015. For her TV work, she has also won three Critics Choice Television Awards (one for “Masters of Sex,” two for “Mom”), a Gracie Allen Award (“Mom”), a Gold Derby Award (“Masters of Sex”), a Golden Nymph award from the Monte-Carlo TV Festival (“The West Wing”), six Online Film & Television Association Awards (“The West Wing,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Veep,” and “Mom”), two Prism Awards (“Mom” and “Our Very Own”), a Satellite Award (“The West Wing”), and four Screen Actors Guild Awards (two individual awards and two ensemble awards for “The West Wing”). Allison received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016.

Real Estate: In 2001, Janney paid $799,000 for a 1,925 square foot home in the Studio City area of Los Angeles, and she put the 3-bedroom house on the market for $1.495 million in 2015. In 2014, she purchased a 4,829 square foot, 5-bedroom Studio City home for $3.25 million. Allison and friend Gregg Rapp bought a Palm Springs home for $3.95 million in 2006 and lost it to foreclosure in 2012; it eventually sold at auction for $2.2 million.