Laurie Metcalf

Laurie Metcalf is a theatre actor who became famous on television, an odd career shape that explains a great deal about how she works. She started with Steppenwolf in Chicago, made her Broadway debut in 1985, and has kept going back: six Tony nominations, with wins for A Doll's House, Part 2 and the revival of Three Tall Women.

Roseanne made her a household presence as Jackie and won her three consecutive supporting-actress Emmys. Jackie is a hard part disguised as an easy one, a woman whose comedy comes out of her instability rather than out of jokes, and Metcalf played her without once asking the audience to pity her. She did the same job later on The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon's mother could have been a punchline and instead kept walking off with the sharpest lines in the room.

Her film work is mostly small and mostly excellent. She has voiced Andy's mother across four Toy Story films, a few minutes each time and instantly recognisable every time. Lady Bird gave her the part the stage work had been preparing for, a mother whose love arrives entirely in the form of criticism, and earned her an Academy Award nomination. She is exceptionally good at people who cannot say the thing they mean, which is the opposite of what a comedy reputation usually implies.