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Emmy Award-winning actress, author and animal advocate Carolyn Hennesy joined me in The Locher Room to reminisce about her incredible career dazzling audiences with her various daytime, primetime and film roles.

On television, she played the deliciously vicious “Penelope Ellis” on ABC’s critically acclaimed series Revenge. She also joined the cast for the fifth season of the sleek vampires-meet-world saga, True Blood, and fast became a fan favorite as Rosalyn, the ageless vamp with a Texas twang. Prior to Revenge and True Blood, Hennesy was best known for her memorable work as “Barb” on ABC’s Cougar Town and for her (twice) Emmy nominated work as “Diane Miller” on ABC’s General Hospital. She has also guest starred on a long list of prime time favorites including Champions, NCIS, The Cool Kids, The Mindy Project, MOM, and Liza on Demand. Kids across America know her as the hilariously haughty Mrs. Chesterfield on Disney Channel’s Jessie. On the big screen, Hennesy’s credits include Click, Legally Blonde 2, Terminator 3 as well as starring in the horror film, St. Agatha (directed by SAW’s Darren Bousman,) the recently released comedy Swing of Things and the soon to be released Relentless for Lifetime…but the biggest recent large screen news is her role in J.J. Abrams Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker as fighter pilot Demine Lithe. Online, she's starred in the independent series’ Take it from the Top and These People, Business Doing Pleasure for TBS, Two Sentence Horror Stories for Time/Warner, and The Bay for Amazon Prime in the role of Karen Blackwell...for which she received her Emmy Award and the 2016 Indie Series Award. Most recently, she starred as Gloria in Sean Kanen’s series, Studio City for which she received Emmy nominations two consecutive years.

Hennesy received her training at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her razor sharp comedic timing was honed as a member of The Groundling’s Sunday Company and in ACME Theatre’s main company. Hennesy has appeared in over a hundred stage productions worldwide, most recently and to great acclaim as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s Master Class at the Garry Marshall Theatre for which she received the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for “Best Actress In A Play” for the entirety of Los Angeles, 2017-18. Among other accolades, the LA Drama Critics Circle has distinguished her with the Natalie Schafer Award and the LA Stage Alliance honored her with her first Ovation for THE FAN MAROO. For the last three years, Hennesy hosted the red carpet reception for the Daytime Emmy Awards for NATAS, FB, and nearly all social media platforms. Hennesy’s creative endeavors also include a successful career as a writer; she created the wildly popular “Pandora” (Bloomsbury USA) children’s book series and penned the New York Times Bestseller “The Secret Life of Damian Spinelli” (Hyperion).

When not on set, Hennesy is privileged to lend her time to a number of causes but she focuses on veteran affairs and particularly animal rescue, preservation, conservation and advocacy as an ambassador for American Humane and her own Los Angeles Zoo. She hosts her advocacy podcast “Animal Magnetism” back episodes of which may be found on YouTube. On January 2nd. 2017, Hennesy crossed something off of her bucket list: she rode on a float (Lucy Pet
Foundation) in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Now she simply has to go into space (difficult) and fly over Disneyland as Tinkerbell to set off the fireworks (impossible). She lives in her native Los Angeles with four dogs and one cat, rescues all, and…in what spare time is left…she flies trapeze. Seriously!

Original Airdate: 8/18/2021