Watch Molly Shannon Online

Shannon was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio to an Irish American Catholic family.[1] Her mother, Peg, was a teacher, and her father, James F. Shannon, was a sales manager.[2] Shannon was involved in a traumatic car accident when she was four years old which killed her mother, younger sister, and cousin.[3] Shannon attended St. Dominic School in Shaker Heights for grade school, and Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio, for high school.

Shannon married artist Fritz Chesnut on May 29, 2004. They have two children: daughter Stella (b. 2003), and son Nolan (b. 2005).

Before Saturday Night Live, Shannon had a struggling career in films. She landed a supporting role as Meg in the present day sequences in the horror film remake of The Phantom of the Opera with Robert Englund and Jill Schoelen. In 1991, she had a brief appearance in the second season of Twin Peaks, and in 1993, she appeared in a supporting role in two episodes of In Living Color: one featuring a fake commercial where Chris Rock (played by Shawn Wayans) is the spokesman for a credit card given to token black actors on TV shows with an all-white cast (coincidentally Saturday Night Live); the other featuring a sketch where a crooked police chief (Jim Carrey) gives new recruits lessons on how to commit police brutality. She also featured in a film called Good Boy, as Owen Baker's mother, Mrs. Baker.

Shannon's major break came in February 1995 when she was hired as a featured player on Saturday Night Live to replace Janeane Garofalo after Garofalo left mid-season. Shannon was one of the few cast members to be kept (along with David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, and Tim Meadows) when Lorne Michaels overhauled his cast for season 21, after season 20 proved to be a critical and ratings disappointment. She played various recurring characters on the show, including 50-year old dancer Sally O'Malley (who constantly proclaimed her age), Goth Talk public access show host Circe Nightshade, quirky joyologist Helen Madden, and NPR radio co-host of Delicious Dish (with Ana Gasteyer). She was especially known for playing the character of neurotic, yet melodramatic Catholic school girl Mary Katherine Gallagher.

On a noteworthy Seinfeld episode called "The Summer of George", she played Sam, the co-worker who drove Elaine Benes crazy because she didn't swing her arms while walking. She also appeared in Sheryl Crow's video for the song "A Change (Will Do You Good)" and played the recurring role of loony neighbor Val Bassett, Grace Adler's nemesis, on Will & Grace, appearing in five episodes over the sitcom's eight-season run.

In 1989, Shannon was featured in "The Phantom of the Opera" with Robert Englund and Jill Schoelen as Meg in New York (Meg in London was played by Emma Rawson). Shannon left SNL in 2001 (surpassing Victoria Jackson as the show's longest-serving female cast member). In 1998, she played the role of Emily Sanderson in A Night at the Roxbury, featuring Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan who were also cast members of SNL at the time. In 1999, she reprised her Mary Katherine Gallagher character for the movie Superstar, and had a supporting role in Never Been Kissed. In 2004, she starred in a Fox network television series Cracking Up with actor Jason Schwartzman. It lasted only nine episodes before cancellation. She guest starred in an episode of Scrubs that same year.

In 2004, Shannon played "Mrs. Baker" in Good Boy! starring Liam Aiken as her son, Owen, and Matthew Broderick as the voice of her son's dog, Hubble. In 2006, Shannon was featured in the Sofia Coppola directed movie Marie Antoinette as Aunt Victoire. In 2007, Shannon guest starred on ABC's Pushing Daisies and in the films Year of the Dog and Evan Almighty.

Shannon hosted Saturday Night Live on May 12, 2007, making her the second former female castmember of SNL to host (after Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and the first to have worked for Lorne Michaels (Louis-Dreyfus worked for Dick Ebersol from 1982 to 1985).

It was revealed in 2007 she will play Kath in the US Version of Kath & Kim.