Career
Elfman began her professional career as a dancer, appearing in the music video for "Halo", a song by Depeche Mode from the 1990 album Violator, a video that was exclusively included on the band's 1990 music video compilation Strange Too. She also danced in the video for Chris Isaak's 1995 single "Somebody's Crying" and toured with the rock band ZZ Top on their 1994 World Tour as a "Legs Girl".
After appearing in numerous national television commercials, most notably as the girl in the Honda ad who said "Regular or Decaf?", Elfman landed her first principal cast acting role on the short-lived 1996 American sitcom entitled Townies on ABC. Although the show didn't catch on with viewers, it did impress critics, particularly the performances of Elfman and co-star Lauren Graham. Soon after, 20th Century Fox began talking to Elfman about developing her own sitcom. Elfman thus started her five-year run as Dharma Freedom Finkelstein Montgomery in the American comedy series Dharma & Greg on ABC.
Elfman guest starred in two episodes of Two and a Half Men in 2004 and one episode of Brothers and Sisters in 2007. She made a guest appearance in the sixth episode of season four of My Name Is Earl as a cheer team leader.
Elfman starred in the CBS comedy Courting Alex in 2006, then starred in Accidentally on Purpose for CBS three years later during the 2009-10 television season. The show was canceled after a single (2009–2010) season.
She appeared in a supporting role in a feature film, Friends with Benefits, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, released in 2011. Also in 2011, she returned to do a cameo appearance on the Two and a Half Men Season 9 premiere episode reprising her "Dharma" character together with former co-star Thomas Gibson ("Greg").
Elfman acted in the season finale of Shameless on April 1, 2012.
She is appearing in a recurring role in Season 5 of Damages.
It was announced in May 2012 that Elfman will be playing a fictional version of the First Lady of the United States in 1600 Penn, a comedy series expected to premiere on NBC during the 2012-13 television season.
Read more about this topic: Jenna Elfman
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)