Katey Sagal (born January 19, 1954) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is known for playing Peggy Bundy on Married… with Children, Leela on Futurama, and Cate Hennessy on 8 Simple Rules. She is also widely known for her role as Gemma Teller Morrow on the FXseries Sons of Anarchy, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2011.

In 2019, she joined the cast of The Conners in which she portrays a love interest to the familial patriarch, Dan Conner.

One role was as a receptionist in the detective Columbo installment “Candidate for Crime,” which was directed by her father. Sagal’s first major role was as a newspaper columnist in the series Mary (1985–86) starring Mary Tyler Moore.^[13] This led to her being cast as Peggy Bundy on the sitcom Married… with Children (1987–1997); she portrayed the lower-class, sex-starved, lazy and free-spending wife of shoe salesman Al Bundy.^[14] The series ran for 11 years.^[15] Sagal brought her own red bouffantwig to audition for the role, and with the producers’ approval, the look transitioned into the show.^[16]

After the end of Married… with Children, several more television films followed; Sagal also guest starred on the children’s cartoon Recess as the voice of Spinelli’s mother. In 1998, Matt Groening chose her to provide the character voice of the purple-haired mutant spaceship captain, Leela, in his science-fiction animated comedy Futurama. The show developed a cult following, but was cancelled after four seasons.^[17] However, syndication on Adult Swim^[18] and Comedy Central^[19] increased the show’s popularity and led Comedy Central to commission a season of Futurama direct-to-DVD films, which the network later retransmitted as a 16-episode fifth season.^[20] She reprised her role as Leela in these films, and in the sixth season that began airing June 24, 2010. The series ended in 2013.^[21] Sagal guest-starred as Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde‘s mother, in three episodes of That ’70s Show. She starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom Tucker in 2000.^[22]

Sagal was cast as the wife of John Ritter in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter in 2002. Ritter had completed only three episodes of the second season before his death,^[23] and the show was cancelled in 2005 after its third season.^[24]

In 2005 and 2006, Sagal made two appearances on Lost as Helen Norwood. In 2007, she had a role in the season finale of The Winner as Glen Abbot’s former teacher, with whom Glen has his first sexual experience.^{[citation needed]}

From 2008 to 2014, Sagal starred as Gemma Teller Morrow on the TV show Sons of Anarchy, whose creator, Kurt Sutter, she had married in 2004, four years before the series premiered. In January 2009, Sagal reunited with David Faustino (who had played her son Bud Bundy in Married… with Children) for an episode of Faustino’s show Star-ving.^[25] In 2010, she appeared twice more on Lost. In 2009, she starred in the film House Broken with Danny DeVito. In 2010, she returned to the stage in Randy Newman‘s musical Harps & Angels.^[26]

In 2013, Sagal had a cameo on Glee as Nancy Abrams, Artie Abrams‘ mother.^{[citation needed]} She co-starred in Pitch Perfect 2, released in 2015, as the mother of Hailee Steinfeld‘s character.^[27][28][29] She next appeared in the biography drama film Bleed for This, as the mother of Vinny Pazienza.^[30]

On September 9, 2014, Sagal received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; most of the Married … with Children cast – including Ed O’Neill, Christina Applegate, and David Faustino – were present to celebrate the actor’s recognition.^[31]

On September 20, 2016, Sagal appeared on The Big Bang Theory as Susan, the mother of Penny (Kaley Cuoco). She had previously played the mother of Cuoco’s character on 8 Simple Rules.

Sagal was also a series regular on the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts from 2017 to 2018.

She appeared on Shameless as Frank’s latest, crazy lover.

Most recently she has appeared in a recurring role as Dan Conner‘s love interest, Louise, in The Conners and a cameo appearance in the Netflix series Dead to Me in season 2, episodes 9 and 10.^[32] as Judy Hale’s (Linda Cardellini) estranged, emotionally abusive, incarcerated mother Eleanor Hale.

In 2020, Sagal will play in the lead role of Annie “Rebel” Bello in the ABC drama pilot Rebel, which was written by Krista Vernoff.^[33]