Jan Hooks (born April 23, 1957 in Decatur, Georgia) is an American actress and comedienne best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live, on which she appeared from 1986 to 1991.
A member of the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe The Groundlings, Hooks first auditioned for SNL in 1985 but was turned down (mostly because, at age 28, she was thought to be too old for the show). After the 1985 season proved a ratings disaster, she was offered a contract and helped to pull the show out of its slump along with Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and others.
Her characters included one half of "The Sweeney Sisters" with Nora Dunn, as well as impressions of Nancy Reagan, Sinéad O'Connor, Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton.
Hooks left SNL in 1991 to join the cast of the sitcom Designing Women, where she played the role of Carlene Dobber for two seasons. Since then, she has made appearances in several movies, done voice work on The Simpsons as Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, and starred as Dixie Glick in the series Primetime Glick.
