See also this page, Summary Page of Transgender Enemy Kathy Najimy
Born: 6-Feb-1957
Birthplace: San Diego, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Bisexual [1]
Occupation: Actor, Activist, Author
Party Affiliation: Democratic
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Voice of Peggy on King of the Hill
Kathy Najimy is a Lebanese-American comedienne and actress, who played Olive on Veronica's Closet, and provides the voice for Peggy on King of the Hill. In Sister Act and Sister Act 2, she played the orotund Sister Mary Patrick. On Broadway, she played Mae West in Dirty Blonde, and on HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2 she played Sharon Stone's gynecologist. For decades, Najimy has been half the comedy duo of Kathy & Mo, with Mo Gaffney (best known as Bo on Absolutely Fabulous). They shared a Cable ACE Award for their 1991 HBO special Parallel Lives, and shared an Obie for their off-Broadway play The Kathy and Mo Show.
Najimy is an outspoken feminist, and says she has been since she was nine years old, without even knowing there was a word for what she felt. When Kathy & Mo were first booked to appear in New York, a publicist tried to talk them out of including the phrase "feminist humor" in their promotional poster, because feminism, of course, is not funny. Najimy disapproves of that stereotype, and disproves it. With Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, Najimy wrote a late-1990s pilot for a TV sitcom that, not surprisingly, no network was willing to film, let alone green-lighting a series. As Najimy remembers, "My character was a performance artist/journalist living in a loft in SoHo with her HIV-positive, drag queen brother."
At 24, long before she was famous, Najimy appeared with her family on Family Feud with Richard Dawson. The Najimys won $10,000.
[1] Adam B. Vary, "Kathy and Mo's Wild Ride", The Advocate, 9 June 2004: "One could reasonably assume that Kathy and Mo are, well, 'mos. One wouldn't be right, but one wouldn't be totally wrong either. You know, we're both so soft-edged straight, Najimy says after talking about the six gay couples who attended her daughter's first birthday party. Neither of us define ourselves as heterosexual. [...] I think [the press] would like us to define ourselves as something, Gaffney adds with a laugh. Are you straight or gay? Yeah."
Father: Fred Najimy (postal worker, d. 1971)
Mother: Samia (Massery) Najimy
Boyfriend: John Boswell (composer, Festival Of The Heart, b. 1960, cohabited 1980s-90s)
Husband: Dan Finnerty (actor-musician, b. 1970, m. 8-Aug-1995)
Daughter: Samia Najimy Finnerty (b. 12-Dec-1996)
University: San Diego State University
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