Stephanie Courtney

Best known as Flo, the chirpy insurance saleswoman in a years-long series of TV and online ads for an insurance company, Stephanie Courtney was a comedian and actress whose comic gifts advertisements, TV series, and indie films. Courtney was born in Stony Point, NY in 1970. The youngest of three children, Courtney attended college at Binghamton University in upstate New York. After graduating in 1992, she moved to New York City to work and study acting. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she roomed with her sister and fellow aspiring actress Jennifer. The two created the sketch show "Those Courtney Girls," which they performed in L.A. Courtney also joined the improv comedy troupe The Groundlings, where she met her husband, lighting director Scott Kolanach. She made guest appearances on shows like the supernatural detective drama "Angel" (TNT 1999-2004) and classic family comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond" (CBS 1996-2005). On the big screen, she made her debut as the female lead in the Bob Odenkirk-directed indie comedy "Melvin Goes to Dinner" (2003), a film that met with some critical success but remained obscure. Her next film role came courtesy of another major player in American comedy, Christopher Guest, playing a film crew member in his Hollywood satire "For Your Consideration" (2006). Her first steady TV work came with the premiere of the offbeat animated series "Tom Goes to the Mayor" (Adult Swim 2004-06), the first TV effort by cult comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim; Courtney played both of the show's main female characters, Tom's antagonistic wife and the Mayor's receptionist. In her first major onscreen TV role, Courtney played cynical switchboard operator Marge on the first season of "Mad Men" (AMC 2007- ). Though she appeared in a variety of advertisements over the years, her breakthrough came in 2008 when she first began playing comical, peppy insurance saleswoman Flo in a long-running series of ads for Progressive Insurance. Though she continued playing small roles on TV and in film throughout the next several years, Flo remained her best known comic creation.