Film Finneran's biggest film role was as Judy Rose in the remake of
George A. Romero's
Night of the Living Dead. Her film credits include ''
You've Got Mail, Chicken Little, Liberty Heights, Bewitched, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, and Death to Smoochy''.
Television She co-starred in television series
Wonderfalls. She was also featured as a part of the cast on the Fox show
The Inside, in the short-lived
CBS sitcom
Bram & Alice, and in many guest roles in shows like
Frasier,
Sex and the City and
Oz. In 2007 Finneran was featured in the new series
Drive. She played the sister of the main character, Alex Tully (
Nathan Fillion). In an interview for the DVD of the full series of
Wonderfalls, Finneran said that when asked if she felt nervous about playing
lesbian immigration attorney Sharon Tyler on
Wonderfalls she replied, "I'd rather have people think that I'm a lesbian than a lawyer." In 2012, she co-starred in the Fox sitcom
I Hate My Teenage Daughter. From 2013 to 2014, she played Leigh Henry on the NBC sitcom,
The Michael J. Fox Show. She has also appeared in the
Netflix series
Bloodline. In April 2019, CBS announced that Finneran would be starring in a recurring role as Naomi in the
CBS All Access series
Why Women Kill. In 2022, Finneran starred in
The Gilded Age on
HBO.
Theatre Finneran "has played barflies and rich girls, giggly ingénues and world-weary lowlifes..." She played a "lovely but dim fashion model" in the original
Broadway production of
Neil Simon's
Proposals in 1997–98,
Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of
Cabaret (from November 21, 2000 to January 18, 2001), and call girl Cora in the 1999 Broadway revival of
The Iceman Cometh, opposite
Kevin Spacey. She also has appeared in
My Favorite Year with
Tim Curry,
John Guare's
Bosoms and Neglect, and
Smell of the Kill, with
Kristen Johnston. She won the
Tony Award and the
Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2002 for her role as Brooke Ashton in the Broadway revival of
Noises Off. Finneran appeared
Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theater in the Greg Kotis play
Pig Farm, in the original opening cast as Tina. The play opened in June 2006 and ran through September 23, 2006.--> Finneran appeared in the original cast of
Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which opened Off-Broadway at the Westside Theater on September 19, 2009 for a four-week engagement ending on October 18, 2009. The play "....is performed by a rotating cast of five. For the first four weeks of the run Ms. [Rosie] O'Donnell is joined by the actresses Tyne Daly, Katie Finneran and Natasha Lyonne, and Samantha Bee..." Finneran returned to the show (after her initial four-week engagement) on November 18, 2009, to fill in for Kristin Chenoweth, and continued on in the play in the next four-week rotation as well (from December 14, 2009, to January 3, 2010). She appeared in the first Broadway revival of the musical
Promises, Promises as Marge MacDougall, opposite
Kristin Chenoweth and
Sean Hayes. The show opened March 27, 2010 and Finneran left the show on October 10, 2010 because of her pregnancy. She won the 2010
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for this role. In 2011 she played the role of Amy in
Company, a filmed version of the 1970 musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth. The production was directed by Lonny Price and accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Paul Gemignani. It was filmed live at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. The show was led by
Neil Patrick Harris. Finneran played the role of Miss Hannigan in the 2012 Broadway revival of the musical
Annie. She left the role in May 2013 to pursue a TV pilot. Finneran returned to Broadway in 2015 to star in Terrence McNally's ''
It's Only a Play'' as Julia Budder. ==Personal life==