Jennifer Cody

Jennifer Cody is an American actress and dancer born on November 10, 1969, in Greece, New York. She studied acting at Fredonia State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Cody is married to actor Hunter Foster, with whom she has lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, and later New York City. The couple shares their home with two Shih Tzus. Foster's sister, actress Sutton Foster, is Cody's sister-in-law.

Cody launched her professional stage career immediately after graduating from college, joining the national tour of Gypsy in the role of Dainty June. She subsequently toured with Cats before joining the Broadway company of the Andrew Lloyd Webber production as a replacement in the role of Rumpleteazer. Additional Broadway replacement roles followed, including Cha-Cha in Grease and a Silly Girl in Beauty and the Beast. She appeared in the Broadway production of Seussical in 2000 as Cat's Helper and Ensemble, and in Urinetown in 2001. She played Poopsie in the 2006 Broadway revival of The Pajama Game, and appeared in Taboo in 2003. In 2008, Cody joined the original Broadway cast of Shrek The Musical, performing as the Shoemaker's Elf and other characters alongside sister-in-law Sutton Foster, remaining with the production from its November 2008 opening through July 14, 2009. The database also lists SIX: The Musical among her Broadway credits.

Off-Broadway, Cody played Mae in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party in 2000, a performance documented on the production's cast album. In 2006, she appeared at the Lucille Lortel Theatre as Annie in the musical Henry and Mudge, based on the children's book, earning a Drama League Award nomination for that role. She returned to the Lucille Lortel in 2008 to play Junie B. in Junie B. Jones. That same year, she portrayed Betty in the New York City Center Encores! staged concert of No, No, Nanette, opposite Sandy Duncan and Mara Davi.

Cody's regional theater work has been extensive. At the Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, New Jersey, she played the wicked stepsister Joy in Cinderella from October through December 2005, and returned as Hildy in On the Town in November and December 2009. At the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, she appeared as Maggie in Lend Me a Tenor in 2007 and as Rosalind in Moon Over Buffalo in 2009, the latter production featuring Gary Beach, John Scherer, and her husband Hunter Foster. The Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera cast her as Ado Annie in Oklahoma! and as Little Red in Into the Woods in 2009. At the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine, she played Natalie Haller in All Shook Up opposite Sally Struthers in 2009 and appeared as Gloria in Damn Yankees in 2012. The Sacramento Music Circus featured Cody in productions of West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, and Oklahoma!, in which she again played Ado Annie, in 2004.

At the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York — the regional theater closest to her hometown — Cody has played Patsy in Spamalot, Mary in the world premiere of Women in Jeopardy!, and the title character, a labradoodle, in Sylvia. In April and May 2014, she appeared there as one of the Pigeon sisters in The Odd Couple alongside Michael McGrath and Noah Racey, a production that subsequently moved to the Cape Playhouse in June 2014. In 2008, Cody received a Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Minnie Fay in the Muny production of Hello, Dolly! in St. Louis.

In film, Cody voiced Charlotte La Bouff in the Disney animated feature The Princess and the Frog in 2009, a role for which she won an Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting in a Feature Production. She also voiced Fifi the Zebra in the Triggerfish Studio animated film Khumba in 2013. On television, she was a series regular on the short-lived CBS series Untitled Paul Reiser Project in 2006, playing Clarissa Ruiz, and appeared in the Law & Order episode "Crimebusters" in 2009 as Vicki Sandusky. She provides the voice of Morgana, mother of Darcy and Roxy, on the Nickelodeon version of Winx Club.

Cody's recorded work includes cast albums for The Wild Party, Through the Years, The Pajama Game with Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli O'Hara, Shrek The Musical with Sutton Foster and Brian d'Arcy James, Taboo, and Seussical. She has also participated in Broadway Bares, a benefit event supporting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and has appeared with Don Richard at events including the Annual BC/EFA Easter Bonnet Competition, reprising their characters from Urinetown. She appeared as Linda Lou in the Actors Fund of America benefit concert of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas on October 6, 2006.