Please Rewind Talent Wall

Joan Cusack

Joan Cusack has built a career around a rare kind of screen presence: slightly off-centre, sharply funny and always alert to the emotional life underneath the joke. Born in New York City on October 11, 1962, and raised in Evanston, Illinois, she studied English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before establishing herself across film, television, sketch comedy and voice acting. Cusack was a cast member on Saturday Night Live during its 1985–86 season, but some of her most distinctive work has come from supporting characters who refuse to stay in the background. Her performances in Working Girl and In & Out both earned Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In Addams Family Values, she played Debbie Jellinsky, a serial killer who marries wealthy men and murders them, while School of Rock gave her the role of tightly wound school principal Rosalie Mullins. She also appeared as Dr. Burton, Charlie’s therapist, in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. That ability to balance broad comedy with genuine vulnerability has served Cusack just as well in animation. She voices Jessie in the Toy Story series, including Please Rewind movies Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4 and Toy Story 5. Jessie’s rapid-fire energy is a natural fit for Cusack’s expressive delivery, but the performance also leaves room for tenderness and uncertainty. Television has offered another strong outlet for her character work. Cusack played Sheila Jackson in Shameless, receiving multiple Primetime Emmy nominations and winning for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015. She has also appeared as Justice Strauss in A Series of Unfortunate Events and narrated the animated series Peep and the Big Wide World. Across these roles, Cusack’s gift is not simply being funny. It is the way she can make awkwardness, intensity and warmth occupy the same moment, turning supporting parts into characters with their own peculiar rhythm.