Bio
Annie Potts is an American actress best known for her role as Janine Melnitz in the Ghostbusters films, and for her starring role as Mary Jo Shively in the television sitcom Designing Women, from 1986-1993.
She also starred as Amanda's fabulously Texan mother Gigi Stopper, the societal matriarch of Dallas, on the short-lived comedy-drama television series GCB, in 2012.
Potts' work in Love & War garnered her an Emmy Award nomination, and with Any Day Now she scored two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
In addition she has played recurring or guest star roles on such series as Law & Order: SVU, Huff, Joan of Arcadia, Men in Trees, Ugly Betty, Two and a Half Men and Boston Legal. She also starred in the Hallmark movie Freshman Father and in Marry Me for Lifetime.
Potts has appeared in numerous feature films, including Corvette Summer, for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination, King of the Gypsies, Ghostbusters I & II, Pretty in Pink, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Who's Harry Crumb? and Elvis Has Left the Building.
Additionally, she voiced the memorable Bo Peep in Toy Story I and II.
She made her Broadway debut in Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning black comedy, God of Carnage, replacing Tony nominee Hope Davis. She appeared in off-Broadway productions such as The Vagina Monologues, Diva, Love Letters, Charley's Aunt, The Merchant of Venice, A Little Night Music, Cymbeline and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
She also received rave reviews for her performance as a distraught wife dealing with her husband's suicide in Aftermath. The play received the LA Times' Critics Choice Ovation Recommendation.
Born in Nashville and raised in Kentucky, Potts was the youngest of three girls. Interested in stage and film at an early age, she received her BA in Theatre from Stephens College in Missouri, where she's currently a visiting professor of Drama and a dedicated Board Member.