Jackie Hoffman

Jackie Hoffman, born Jacqueline Laura Hoffman on November 29, 1960, in Queens, New York, is an American actress, singer, and comedian. She is married to jazz trumpeter Steve Smyth.

Hoffman built an early foundation in comedy through an eight-year tenure with Chicago's The Second City improv group, during which she earned the Joseph Jefferson Award, Chicago's theater prize. Her solo stage work encompasses a series of Jewish-themed one-woman shows featuring original songs and monologues, among them "If You Call This Living," "The Kvetching Continues," "Jackie Hoffman's Hanukkah," "A Chanukah Charol," "Jackie's Kosher Khristmas," and "Jackie's Valentine's Day Massacre." She also participated in "The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy," a three-woman production staged at the Actors' Temple in April 2007, and regularly performs one-woman concerts at Joe's Pub in New York. A recording of one such engagement, Jackie Hoffman: Live at Joe's Pub, was released by PS Classics in fall 2008.

Her off-Broadway and regional credits include The Sisters Rosensweig, Straightjacket, Incident at Cobbler's Knob, and One Woman Shoe, for which she received a Jeff Award. In David and Amy Sedaris's 2001 comic play The Book of Liz, she performed numerous roles and won an Obie Award for her work.

Hoffman's Broadway career began in 2002 when she was cast in the musical Hairspray, playing Prudy Pingleton, Gym Teacher, Matron, and Denizen of Baltimore. That performance earned her the 2003 Theatre World Award. She next appeared on Broadway as Calliope, muse of epic poetry, in the rock musical Xanadu, a run that lasted from July 2007 to September 2008. In 2010, she originated the role of Grandmama in The Addams Family at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, a production that ran from its April 8, 2010 opening through December 31, 2011. She played Madame Dilly and additional roles in the 2014 Broadway revival of On the Town, which closed in September 2015, and took on the role of Mrs. Teavee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which opened April 23, 2017, and closed January 14, 2018. Hoffman can be heard on the original Broadway cast recordings of Hairspray, Xanadu, The Addams Family, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as the revival cast recording of On the Town. Following her Broadway work, she joined the National Yiddish Theatre's production of Fidler Afn Dakh in the summer of 2018, playing Yente the matchmaker.

On screen, Hoffman appeared in films including Kissing Jessica Stein, Mo' Money, Garden State, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Queer Duck: The Movie, Down, A Dirty Shame, and Robots, for which she provided the voice of the Water Cooler. She had a cameo role in the Oscar-winning film Birdman in 2014 and appeared in The Sitter in 2011. Her television credits span Curb Your Enthusiasm, Strangers with Candy, 30 Rock, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Difficult People, The Other Two, and numerous other series. She voiced Dilmom on the animated series Dilbert and provided the voice of Mary Phillips, a talk radio host, in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In 2017, Hoffman starred as Mamacita, Joan Crawford's housekeeper, in the FX miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan, earning nominations for both a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and a Critics' Choice Television Award. Since 2021, she has appeared in the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building as Uma Heller, and in 2023 she portrayed Assistant Principal McGee in the ten-episode Paramount+ series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. In 2020, she appeared as Nicky in the musical podcast Propaganda. Hoffman was also featured in the 2007 film Making Trouble, a Jewish Women's Archive tribute to female Jewish comedians.