Life and career

Chalfant was born as Kathleen Ann Bishop in San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 and raised in her parents' boarding house in Oakland

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. Her father, William Bishop, was an officer in the Coast Guard

Coast guard

A coast guard or coastguard is a national organization responsible for various services at sea. However the term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to being a volunteer organization tasked with...

. She studied acting with Wynn Handman

Wynn Handman

Wynn Handman, is the Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre, which he co-founded with Sidney Lanier and Michael Tolan in 1963. His role in the theatre has been to seek out, encourage, train, and present new and exciting writing and acting talent and to develop and produce new plays by...

, who was a protégé of Sanford Meisner

Sanford Meisner

Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....

 and with Alessandro Fersen in Rome, Italy.

She was nominated for Broadway's 1993 Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) for her role in Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner

Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...

's "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches". Chalfant earned kudos for her performance as Vivian Bearing in Margaret Edson

Margaret Edson

Margaret Edson is an American playwright. She graduated with a B.A. in Renaissance History from Smith College, and received a master's in English literature from Georgetown University...

's play Wit

Wit (play)

Wit is a play written by American playwright Margaret Edson. Edson used her work experience in a hospital as part of the inspiration for her play. Wit received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, in 1995...

. She shaved her head for the role. During her work with Wit, she incorporated her experiences dealing with terminal cancer of her half-brother, Alan Palmer, who died in 1998. Her awards for her performance include the Outer Circle Critics, Drama Desk, Obie

Obie Award

The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...

 and Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel was an American actress and theater producer who is remembered as the namesake of an off-Broadway playhouse and theatrical award....

 awards. For her 2003 performance in Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...

's Talking Heads

Talking Heads (play)

Talking Heads is a stage adaptation of the BBC series of the same title created by Alan Bennett. It consists of six monologues presented in alternating programs of three each.-Program A:The Hand of God...

, Chalfant won a second Obie award

Obie Award

The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...

.

In 1966, Chalfant married Henry Chalfant

Henry Chalfant

Henry Chalfant is a well known and highly regarded urban culture photographer and videographer most notable for his graffiti and breakdance photography and film...

, a photographer and documentary filmmaker. They have a son, David Chalfant, who was the bass player for the folk-rock band, The Nields

The Nields

The Nields was a folk-rock band that performed from 1991 to 2001. It toured much of the United States, performing with artists such as Dar Williams, Moxy Früvous, and Catie Curtis and appeared at many folk festivals...

, and a daughter, Andromache, who is a set designer in New York.

In 2009, Chalfant performed in The People Speak

The People Speak (film)

The People Speak is a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. The film gives voice to those who, by insisting on equality and justice, spoke up for social change throughout U.S...

, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...

's "A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States

Chapter 7, "As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs" discusses 19th century conflicts between the U.S. government and Native Americans and Indian removal, especially during the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren....

”.

As of August 2011, Chalfant is starring in an independent feature film, "Isn't It Delicious?" The film is being produced by Aquapio Films and directed by Michael Patrick Kelly.

External links

• Kathleen Chalfant Biography from filmreference.com
• http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-people-speak12-2009dec12