Jennifer Coolidge has been acting since 1993. She got her career’s first Emmy in 2022, as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, for her role in The White Lotus. 

The 61-year-old American actor is known for her comic presence, but the industry has never quite used Coolidge in films and shows. This is despite her ability to make most scenes just a little bit more humorous with her deliveries. However, Mike White’s HBO satire saw Coolidge as Tanya McQuoid, a childlike heiress who can’t get the required distance from her mother’s death. 

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Coolidge, who’s already made a mark in films like Legally Blonde and American Pie, shows a greater depth to her character than mere comic deliveries in The White Lotus. She plays a woman with her own set of insecurities and blatant self-absorption that only the bourgeoisie can pull off with any degree of charm. 

“Thank you! Gosh, what a night!”, Coolidge said while accepting the award, before hilariously sharing that she took a lavender bath earlier in the evening, which made her swell up inside her dress, leading to difficulties in talking. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I’m full, I’m full!”, Coolidge noted, as she ran out of time to thank everyone she wanted to. The actor was seen pleading with the music cues person but ultimately gave in to the schedule of the Emmys with an “Okay”, in typical Coolidge fashion. 

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The White Lotus has an ensemble cast, among whom Murray Bartlett has also won his career’s first Emmy. A second season of the show is already underway and Coolidge will reappear in the story that is now shifting to a resort in Italy. Her character gets some peace towards the end of Season 1 as she scatters her mother’s ashes. McQuoid also finds love but in the process, forgets her friend from the spa, whose career she’d promised to kickstart. 

A mix of irritating and endearing, McQuoid is a testament to Coolidge’s range of acting and her prowess to pull off deep characters.