Carol Kane

Carol Kane began her on-screen career as a teenager with minor film roles including Desperate Characters (1971) and Carnal Knowledge (1971). Her first leading role was in the Canadian film Wedding in White (1972). She appeared in The Last Detail (1973), followed by Hester Street (1975), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1975, she also appeared in Dog Day Afternoon. Subsequent film roles included The World’s Greatest Lover (1977), Annie Hall (1977), Valentino (1977), The Mafu Cage (1978), When a Stranger Calls (1979) and a cameo in The Muppet Movie (1979).

From 1980 to 1983, Kane starred as Simka Dahblitz-Gravas on the television series Taxi, winning two Emmy Awards. During the 1980s, she appeared on Cheers (1984), All Is Forgiven (1986), and in films including Ishtar (1987), The Princess Bride (1987), Rap Master Ronnie: A Report Card (1988), Scrooged (1988) and My Blue Heaven (1990). She was a regular on American Dreamer (1990–1991) and appeared in Addams Family Values (1993), Seinfeld (1994), Ellen (1996), and Pearl (1996), as well as films such as The Pallbearer (1996), Office Killer (1997), Jawbreaker (1999) and My First Mister (2001). She voiced Mother Duck in The First Snow of Winter (1998) and appeared as herself in Man on the Moon (1999).

On stage, Kane portrayed Madame Morrible in Wicked across multiple productions from 2005 to 2014, including the national tour, Broadway, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Additional stage work included Love, Loss, and What I Wore (2010), The Children’s Hour in London’s West End (2011) and Harvey on Broadway (2012). Her television roles during this period included Two and a Half Men (2009), Ugly Betty (2010) and Gotham (2014).

From 2015 to 2019, Kane played Lillian Kaushtupper on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, including the interactive special Kimmy vs. the Reverend. Film and television work since then has included The Sisters Brothers (2018), The Dead Don’t Die (2019), Los Espookys (2019), Hunters (2020) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2023– ). In 2024, she appeared in Between the Temples. She was announced in 2024 as part of the cast of Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing.