27 - Sisters in Hollywood

Whether you watch to spot your favorite Hollywood star walking the Red Carpet or to anxiously await who will be awarded Best Picture, we can all agree that our Chi Omega actresses and producers have always held a special place in our hearts over the years.

Kathryn Grant Crosby, an initiate of Iota/Texas, was an actress and singer who performed in films under the stage-names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff. She was most active in the 1950’s, and eventually returned to her alma mater as a guest professor in the Drama Department. During her stay for the guest professor position she, her mother, and her three children lived in the Chi Omega house! She was married to Bing Crosby.

Kathryn Grant Crosby, 1964

Sela Ward, Nu Beta/Alabama, is an actress, author, and producer, best known for her roles on television beginning in the early 1980s. She also acted in several films, most recently in 2014’s “Gone Girl.”

In 1994, Sela won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Teddy Reed on “Sisters” and won a Golden Globe for her role in “Once and Again.” Sela is also a Malinda Jolley Mortin Women of Achievement.

Sela Ward at the 1994 Emmy Awards

Joanne Woodward, Phi Gamma/LSU, was an actress and producer best known for her performance in “The Three Faces of Eve,” 1957, which earned an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

In her sixty-year career she received four Oscar nominations,winning one, ten Golden Globe Award nominations, winning three, four BAFTA Film Award nominations, winning one, and nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning three.

Allison Janney, who is not a Chi Omega, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “I, Tonya.” In her speech, she thanked Joanne Woodward who she says was “instrumental” in encouraging Janney to move to New York City to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse, a conservatory where she met “I, Tonya” screenwriter Steven Rogers.

Joanne Woodward with her husband Paul Newman, 1957.

Allison Janney, who says Joanne was instrumental in her career

Angela Kinsey, Theta Kappa/Baylor, is best known for her role as Angela Martin in the NBC television series “The Office,” 2005–2013, but has also been featured in several films beginning in the early 2000s.

Angela Kinsey
Nancy Utley Jacobs, Xi/Northwestern, is Co-Chairman of Fox Searchlight Pictures. Her films include “Birdman,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Wild,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Nancy has overseen many of Searchlight’s biggest films, boasting 117 Oscar nominations.
Nancy Utley Jacobs
Lucy Liu, Eta/Michigan, is an actress, voice actress, director and artist. Lucy has acted in the “Charlie’s Angels” series, “Kill Bill” series, and much more. She has also voice acted in moves like Disney’s “Tinkerbell” series and the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise. Lucy’s career began in the early 1990s and she is still very active in her career today as she currently stars in “Elementary” on NBC.
Lucy Liu
Annie Mumolo, Mu/University of California, Berkeley, is an actress, screenwriter, comedian and producer, known for co-writing the 2011 film “Bridesmaids,” for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA for best original screenplay. Annie has acted in films and on television, but she is also featured in her own movie as the anxious airplane passenger!

Annie Mumolo

Annie Mumolo with Kristen Wiig in “Bridesmaids”