Biography
Patricia Scanlon has received widespread acclaim for her unique portrayal of the earnest and enigmatic Union Rep, Paula Pepperell, on HBO's, much lauded, Getting On.
She hails from a small town in Massachusetts and spent much of her youth working on her Grandmother's horse ranch in the nearby town of Holliston. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst and studied acting with Bill Pullman.
Scanlon later moved to New York where she received critical acclaim for her solo show Another Cup of Coffee which she has performed at numerous venues including Home For Contemporary Theater and Art in New York, The Public Theater, NY, Lincoln Center, NY and the inaugural Lucille Ball Festival in Jamestown, Massachusetts.
Garnering critical accolades for her performance in Blaming Mom by David Edelstein at the Ohio Theater in New York; Ben Brantley noted, "Patricia Scanlon, as a cripplingly high-strung femme fatale, provides one of the season's comic high points." Scanlon has performed in a number of plays in New York and Los Angeles. Her play What Is This Everything? is published by Smith and Kraus.
Scanlon developed an enormous cult following for her episodic theater serial, Hildy Hildy, that she penned and starred in. The show ran to sold out audiences for three seasons at the Cucaracha Theater In New York and was later produced as a play at Soho Rep in New York, where Scanlon co-starred along John C. Reilly. Hildy Hildy then moved to Los Angeles and ran at the Bootleg Theater for three seasons where material from the show was later produced as the play, Three Feet Under, presented by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. The long run of Hildy Hildy attracted such co-stars as Laurie Metcalf as Hildy Hildy's sister, Jane Lynch, Martin Donavan, Kevin Corrigan, Elizabeth Berridge, Blue Man Group, Siobhan Fallon, Tim Blake Nelson and others. The show was later animated by Disney animator Dan Lund and picked up for development by TBS.
Scanlon wrote and performed in her play Death of a Salesgirl at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. Ovation recommended, Death of a Salesgirl was one of the top ten critically acclaimed theatrical productions in Los Angeles, along with garnering seven LA Weekly Award Nominations, including Best Two-Person Performance and Best Production of The Year.
