Early career
Sagal comes from a Jewish-American show business family; she is the daughter of director Boris Sagal, best known for her work on 1960s television dramas, including ''The Twilight Zone''. Sagal is the older sister of twin actresses Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal, most remembered as the Doublemint Twins of the early 1980s and for their own brief sitcom of that era: ''Double Trouble''. She is also the sister of actor Joe Sagal. Sagal and her siblings grew up in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California.Sagal began her career working the Hollywood circuit. She appeared in several television films between 1971 and 1975, including the Columbo film ''Candidate for Crime'', and in 1973 working as a backing vocalist for various singers, including Bob Dylan, Gene Simmons, and Tanya Tucker. During this time she also was a member of the now-forgotten rock group The Group With No Name. She was plucked from relative obscurity by Bette Midler, who hired her for her 1979 tour as one of her back-up singers (The Harlettes).
Later career
Sagal returned to television in 1985 in the failed television series ''Mary'' starring Mary Tyler Moore. This led to her being cast in her best-known role, that of Peg Bundy on the very successful American sitcom ''Married... with Children'' (1987–1997). On the show, she portrayed the lower-class, unhappy, sex-craving wife of a shoe salesman. Her career focused almost entirely on this series for its ten-year run (with the exception of several television movies). Sagal briefly revisited her role of Peg in ''Futurama'' (below), when the sitcom was parodied in the episode "A Bicyclops Built for Two".After the end of ''Married... with Children'', several more television films followed for Sagal, and she was also a featured voice on the children's cartoon ''Recess''. In 1999, Matt Groening, who created ''The Simpsons'', cast her as one-eyed mutant spaceship pilot Leela in his science-fiction cartoon comedy ''Futurama''. The show developed a cult following, but was cancelled four years later. (The revival of ''Futurama'' was announced in 2006; Sagal has stated plans to return as Leela in the 2008 season.) Sagal also guest starred as Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde's mother in three episodes of ''That 70's Show'': "Punk Chick" (1999), "Prom Night" (1999), and "The Career Day" (1999). She starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom ''Tucker'' in 2000.
Sagal was cast as the wife of John Ritter in the sitcom ''8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter'' in 2002. After Ritter's unexpected death in September 2003, Sagal was suddenly given the difficult task of having to carry most of the weight of the show (with a little help from new cast members David Spade and James Garner). Ritter completed only three episodes of the second season of ''8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter'' with Sagal introducing each episode. The show was cancelled in 2005 after its third season.
Sagal is also an accomplished songwriter. In 1976, while a member of The Group with No Name, she contributed to the album "Moon over Brooklyn". She also performed backing vocals on the solo album by KISS Bassist Gene Simmons. On April 19 1994, she released her first solo album, ''Well...''. Ten years later, on June 1 2004 she released her second album, ''Room''.
In 2005, she made two guest appearances on ''Lost'' and CBS's ''Ghost Whisperer''. She currently hosts ''The Search for the Funniest Mom in America''.
Personal life
Sagal married Kurt Sutter (a writer, producer, and actor for ''The Shield'') in a private ceremony on October 2 2004 at their home in Los Feliz, California. Before that, she was married to Freddie Beckmeyer (1978–1981) and Jack White (November 26 1993–July 24 2000) with whom she has two children, Sarah Grace and Jackson James White.External links
*official Katey Sagal MySpace page*Katey Sagal cast bio on The WB
*Rules and recognition of Katey Sagal
Biography courtesy of the brilliant Wikipedia!
