Allison Cara Tolman is an American actress. She is best known for her role as

Molly Solverson Molly Solverson is a fictional character in the FX (TV channel), FX television program, television series ''Fargo (TV series), Fargo''. One of the main characters of the Fargo (season 1), first season, she is portrayed by Allison Tolman, who rece ...

in the first season of the FX television series '' Fargo'', earning

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

and

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

nominations.

Early life and education

Tolman has two older brothers and a younger sister. Her family moved to England when she was a few months old and stayed until she was four years old. She spent the next five years in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

and

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

, before moving to

Sugar Land, Texas Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around th ...

. She started taking acting classes when she was 10 years old at the Fort Bend Community Theatre. She attended

Clements High School William P. Clements High School, more commonly known as Clements High School, is a public high school in First Colony and in Sugar Land within the U.S. state of Texas that is named after former Texas governor Bill Clements, and is a part of the ...

, graduating in 2000. She graduated from

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

with a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

in theatrical performance. After college, she moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, where she was one of the founding members of Second Thought Theatre. In 2009, she moved to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, to study performance at

The Second City Training Center The Second City Training Center was founded in the mid-1980s to facilitate the growing demand for workshops and instruction from the world famous The Second City theatre. Training Centers are located in Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles. Satelli ...

Career

In 2014, Tolman starred in the first season of the FX black comedy crime series '' Fargo''. Inspired by the classic 1996

Coen brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

of the same name, ''Fargo'' starred veteran actors

Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller ''One False Move'', and received international attention after writing, directing, a ...

Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most no ...

and

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

. Tolman received accolades for her performance as Minnesota police officer

, with '' Vanity Fair'' writing that she "calmly and assuredly stole the entire show". For her role, she won the

Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie/Miniseries The Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie/Miniseries is one of the award categories presented annually by the Critics' Choice Television Awards (BTJA) to recognize the work done by television actors. The winners a ...

and received Best Actress nominations at the

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

and for the

Golden Globes The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

. The same year, it was also announced Tolman would have a two-episode guest role on ''

The Mindy Project ''The Mindy Project'' is an American romantic comedy television series created by and starring Mindy Kaling that began airing on Fox in September 2012 and finished its run of six seasons on Hulu in November 2017. The series was co-produced by Un ...

'' as Abby Berman, a romance novelist. In 2015, she had a supporting role in

Michael Dougherty Michael Patrick Dougherty (born October 28, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and animator, best known for the cult horror film ''Trick 'r Treat'' (2007), and the monster film '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' (2019) ...

's comedy horror film ''Krampus'', in which she co-starred with Adam Scott,

David Koechner David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the ''Anchorman'' films and Todd Packer on NBC's ''The Office''. Koechner first became involved in perf ...

Emjay Anthony Emjay Anthony Salazar (born June 1, 2003) is an American teen actor and model. His major films include '' It's Complicated'', '' Chef'', ''Krampus'', ''Replicas'', and ''Bad Moms''. Biography Emjay Anthony Salazar was born on June 1, 2003, in ...

, and

Stefania Owen Stefania LaVie Owen is a New Zealand-American actress. She is known for her roles as Puddle Kadubic in the television series ''Running Wilde'' and as Dorrit Bradshaw in the teen drama television series ''The Carrie Diaries''. She starred as Mela ...

. Following her breakout role on ''Fargo'', Tolman declined several supporting parts as mothers, wives and best friends, looking for a more unusual role. In 2017, Tolman starred in

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

Downward Dog Downward Dog Pose or Downward-facing Dog Pose, also called Adho Mukha Shvanasana ( sa, अधोमुखश्वानासन; IAST: ''Adho Mukha Śvānāsana''), is an inversion asana, often practised as part of a flowing sequence of pose ...

'', based on the Animal Media Group

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

, It was canceled after one season. She starred in the ABC drama series ''

Emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence ...

'', which premiered on September 24, 2019, and was cancelled after one season on May 21, 2020, despite getting "pretty solid" ratings according to Tolman on Twitter. She also guest starred in NBC's '' Good Girls''. In 2021, she starred as Alma Filcott in the second season of the drama series ''

Why Women Kill ''Why Women Kill'' is an American dark comedy-drama anthology television series created by Marc Cherry. Set in multiple time periods, the series depicts the events leading to deaths caused by women. It premiered on August 15, 2019, on CBS All ...

'', and played

Natalie Green This is a list of characters from the NBC sitcom '' The Facts of Life''. Characters table Edna Garrett Edna Ann Garrett Gaines, known as Mrs. Garrett or Mrs. G, was played by the actress Charlotte Rae from 1978 to 1986. Garrett was the you ...

in '' The Facts of Life'' portion of the third edition of ''

Live in Front of a Studio Audience ''Live in Front of a Studio Audience'' is a series of live television specials that was first broadcast by ABC on May 22, 2019. Conceptualized and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the specials feature all-star casting for live recreations of sitcom ep ...

''.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolman, Allison Living people 21st-century American actresses American television actresses Baylor University alumni Actresses from Houston American film actresses Actresses from Dallas Actresses from Chicago Year of birth missing (living people)