Career
Nancy McKeon and her older brother Philip appeared in numerous commercials. McKeon also appeared on the soap operas The Secret Storm and Another World. The McKeons moved to Los Angeles in 1975, when Philip began appearing on the television series Alice with Linda Lavin.
In 1979, McKeon was discovered by a casting director for The Facts of Life on the basis of her performance in a Hallmark greeting cards advertisement, in which she was able to cry on cue.
She was cast as tom boy type character Jo Polniaczek, and debuted on the show in the fall of 1980. This is her most famous role and she portrayed the character until the show was canceled in 1988. McKeon also provided the voice for many ABC Weekend Special cartoon characters, including the voice for Scruffy.
In 1994, both she and Courteney Cox auditioned for the role of Monica Gellar on Friends. The role went to the latter. When asked in interviews about the auditions McKeon said, "I have no hard feelings. The role went to the right person, Courteney was brilliant. Now, I can't see anybody playing the role, not even myself." In 1995 she starred in her own series, Can't Hurry Love, which lasted one season. In 1998, she starred in a sitcom with Jean Smart titled Style & Substance.
McKeon portrayed Inspector Jinny Exstead on the Lifetime police drama The Division from 2001 to 2004, with her pregnancy incorporated into the storyline of the last year of the series. Since 2009, McKeon has appeared in a recurring role in the Disney Channel Original Series Sonny With a Chance, as Connie Munroe, the mother of Demi Lovato's title character.
McKeon also starred in numerous made-for-TV movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrayed the title role of Tracey Thurman, and The Wrong Woman, portraying a woman framed for killing her boss. In 2003, McKeon starred in the film Comfort and Joy. According to her A&E Biography, she initially turned down the role of Tracey Thurman because she feared that she couldn't work with the material, she then met Thurman herself, and chose to take it on, she again had second thoughts during the second day of shooting, wanting to be replaced because she felt she would not be able to do Thurman any justice if she were to remain in the role, she was once again talked into remaining with the cast and finished the shooting.
On June 24, 2011 McKeon was named Cougar of the Week by The Danettes on The Dan Patrick Show.
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