The Hotchkiss Alumni Association is pleased to announce award-winning actress Allison Brooks Janney '77 as the recipient of the 2016 Alumni Award. As the 83rd honoree, Janney will be the first woman to receive the prestigious award since it was established in 1931.
The nominating committee of the Alumni Association's Board of Governors selects each recipient, who, through personal achievements, has brought honor and distinction to him or herself and to Hotchkiss. The committee seeks candidates who have made significant contributions in their fields and have earned the recognition of their peers on a national or international level.
Throughout her extraordinary career, Janney has demonstrated versatility on stage and in television and films. She currently stars in the CBS/Chuck Lorre sitcom, Mom, which earned her two of her seven Emmy awards. In 2014, Janney won Emmy awards for her roles on both Mom and Masters of Sex in the same year, a feat that has rarely been accomplished in Emmy history.
Prior to Mom, Janney is perhaps best known for her role as CJ Cregg in the popular NBC series, The West Wing, for which she received four Emmy awards and four Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards. She has also had roles in many features, including the Academy Award-nominated film The Help, for which the cast won ensemble awards from the SAG, National Board of Review, and the Broadcast Film Critics.
Just released are Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, The Girl on the Train, and previously, Tallulah. Other film work includes Minions; Spy; Juno;
A graduate of Kenyon College, Janney's pivotal moment came when Kenyon alumnus Paul Newman selected her for a role in a campus play he was producing. After graduating, she moved to New York to study at The Neighborhood Playhouse; in 1984, she was awarded a fellowship to study at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her Broadway debut in the 1996 revival of Present Laughter. She won Drama Desk Awards and Tony Award nominations for the 1997 Broadway revival of A View From the Bridge and the 2009 original Broadway production of the musical 9 to 5.
Janney, who was honored as Alum of the Month in November 2011, belonged to one of the first classes to include females at Hotchkiss. "I thoroughly enjoyed my time on campus, and my acting career really began in Lakeville, where I was in several full-scale HDA productions," she said.
Janney will accept her award during All-School Assembly at Hotchkiss in October.
