Jane Lynch

This achingly funny character actress honed her comedic skills touring with the famed Second City troupe and playing the matriarch in the early '90s cult stage hit The Real Live Brady Bunch, which also helped launch Andy Richter. For the rest of the decade, Lynch racked up an impressive array of TV guest spots, mostly on sitcoms (Married... with Children, 3rd Rock from the Sun, NewsRadio) that showcased her dry delivery. But it was her riotous turn as a lesbian dog trainer in Christopher Guest's 2000 mockumentary Best in Show that launched her movie career. Not only did she go on to appear in small but memorable roles in a string of popular comedies (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), she enjoyed a creative collaboration with Guest, who used her to great effect in his subsequent films (a porn star turned folk singer in A Mighty Wind, a condescending entertainment reporter in For Your Consideration). However, Lynch landed her biggest role to date on the small screen, as the scheming cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on Glee, where she got to show off her singing and dancing talents to great effect. ~ Rovi