Jane Krakowski

Jane Krakowski became engaged to Robert Godley in 2009, and they have one son, Bennett Robert Godley, who was born in April 2011. Krakowski and Godley separated in 2013.

Krakowski began appearing on television as a child and played Theresa Rebecca “T.R.” Kendall on the NBC soap opera Search for Tomorrow from 1984 to 1986. She later portrayed Elaine Vassal on the Fox legal comedy-drama Ally McBeal from 1997 to 2002, earning a Golden Globe nomination for the role.

Her breakthrough television role was Jenna Maroney, a narcissistic actress on Tina Fey’s NBC comedy 30 Rock, which ran from 2006 to 2013. Krakowski received four Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the performance. She reunited with Fey’s television work as Jacqueline White on the Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, receiving another Primetime Emmy nomination and winning a Critics Choice Award.

Krakowski has also appeared in Dickinson, Schmigadoon!, Modern Family, Curb Your Enthusiasm, At Home with Amy Sedaris, The Simpsons, and Elsbeth. She began hosting Fox’s revival of the musical game show Name That Tune in 2021, with Randy Jackson as bandleader.

Krakowski made her Broadway debut at age 18 as Dinah the Dining Car in Starlight Express in 1987. She received a Tony nomination for playing Flaemmchen in Grand Hotel in 1989 and later appeared in productions including Company, Once Upon a Mattress, and Tartuffe.

In 2003, she played Carla Albanese in the Broadway revival of Nine. Her performance earned her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. The production also became known for an aerial stunt Krakowski performed during “A Call from the Vatican.”

Krakowski played Miss Adelaide in the 2005 West End revival of Guys and Dolls, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She returned to Broadway in the 2016 revival of She Loves Me as Ilona Ritter, receiving the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Fred and Adele Astaire Award, along with a Tony nomination.

Her later stage credits include Mrs. Potts in the Hollywood Bowl production of Beauty and the Beast, Eve in the Off-Broadway production Shit. Meet. Fan., Marianne Brink in the West End production of Here We Are, and Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary! on Broadway.

Krakowski made her feature-film debut as Cousin Vicki Johnson in National Lampoon’s Vacation in 1983. Her subsequent film roles include Betty Rubble in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Dorie in Alfie, and appearances in Fatal Attraction, Mrs. Winterbourne, Go, Dance with Me, Pretty Persuasion, and The Willoughbys.

She has also provided voices for animated productions including Ice Age, Open Season 2, My Little Pony: A New Generation, and The Willoughbys. Her music work includes the 2002 single “You,” recorded with Jim Brickman, and her 2010 solo album The Laziest Gal in Town, a collection of cover versions recorded after her cabaret performances.

Krakowski was raised in Parsippany, New Jersey, in a family involved in theater. Her mother, Barbara Benoit, was a college theater instructor and producing artistic director, while her father, Edward Krajkowski, was a chemical engineer and former recording artist. Her father’s family is Polish, and her mother has French-Canadian and Scottish ancestry.

She began ballet lessons at age four before moving toward Broadway dance. She attended the Professional Children’s School in New York City and studied at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. She learned to skate for Starlight Express, a skill she continued to practice afterward.