The daughter of an engineer and a nurse, Jane Leeves was born in
Ilford, Essex, England. She was raised in
East Grinstead,
Sussex, along with two sisters and a brother. She was a regular on
The Benny Hill Show, in the dance troupe Hill's Angels. She made use of her experience as a dancer in a scene in the 1983 film ''
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life''. In the US, she appeared as a tourist with a baby in the video for
David Lee Roth's song "
California Girls", but struggled for several years to establish an acting career. She had a recurring role in the television series
Murphy Brown as Audrey Cohen, the smart but awkward girlfriend of producer Miles Silverberg (played by
Grant Shaud). She also appeared as the troublesome virgin
Marla Penny in four episodes of
Seinfeld: "
The Virgin", "
The Contest", "
The Pilot" and "
The Finale – Part 2". During this period, Leeves was cast as
Holly for the pilot of the US version of the science-fiction comedy
Red Dwarf. In 1993, Leeves joined the cast of the television series
Frasier as the eccentric, forthright and psychic
Mancunian Daphne Moon. By the start of the
eighth season, Leeves was pregnant, and the writers incorporated her pregnancy into shows as weight gain due to her character's stress from her relationship with
Niles Crane (portrayed by
David Hyde Pierce). By the conclusion of
Frasier, Leeves had been nominated for a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1998, and a
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards in 1995. Appearing less frequently in cinema, Leeves lent her speaking and singing voices to the animated film
James and the Giant Peach (1996) as Mrs. Ladybug, and appeared in
Music of the Heart (1999). In 2002, she appeared in the
Broadway musical
Cabaret. In 2004, she hosted an episode of the television comedy quiz show
Have I Got News for You. Her 2006 show,
The WB's sitcom
Misconceptions, went unaired. Leeves provided guest vocals in
The Penguins of Madagascar as Lulu, a female chimp with whom Phil fell in love. With her
Frasier costar
Peri Gilpin, Leeves also set up the production company Bristol Cities (
cockney rhyming slang for 'titties'). Their last project was in 2007, a pilot for a US remake of the British sitcom
The Vicar of Dibley titled
The Minister of Divine with
Kirstie Alley in the title role. In 2010, Leeves guest starred in two episodes in
ABC's Desperate Housewives as
Lynette Scavo (
Felicity Huffman)'s and
Tom Scavo (
Doug Savant)'s therapist Dr. Graham. From 2010 until 2015, Leeves played the 40-something ex-"eyebrow artist to the stars"
Joy Scroggs in the
TV Land comedy
Hot in Cleveland, with
Valerie Bertinelli,
Wendie Malick (also her co-star in the
final season of
Frasier) and
Betty White. In 2011, she was nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the rest of the cast at the
17th Screen Actors Guild Awards. The series ended in 2015 after six seasons and 128 episodes. She returned to television in 2018 with her first regular role in a dramatic series,
orthopaedic surgeon Kit Voss, in the
Fox medical drama
The Resident. == Personal life ==