Busy Philipps

Elizabeth Jean “Busy” Philipps (born June 25, 1979) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), Dawson’s Creek (2001–2003), Love, Inc. (2005–2006) and ER (2006–2007), for her abortion access advocacy, and for her portrayal of Laurie Keller on the ABC series Cougar Town (2009–2015), for which she received a Critics’ Choice Television Award. She has also appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, such as The Smokers (2000), Home Room (2002), White Chicks (2004), Made of Honor (2008), He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), The Gift (2015), and I Feel Pretty (2018). From 2018 to 2019, Philipps hosted her own television talk show Busy Tonight, on E!.

Childhood

Philipps was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. She received the nickname “Busy” as a child; sources conflict on whether the nickname came from her parents or a babysitter named Susie. Busy stated on her late-night talk show, Busy Tonight, that her mother gave her the nickname, but stated during her book tour that her babysitter gave her the nickname. This was clarified on an episode of Comedy Bang! Bang! when she confirmed to host Scott Aukerman that it was her babysitter, in his quest to achieve Wikipedia clout.

She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. In her memoir she revealed that she was raped at age 14 by her then-boyfriend, whom she refers to as “Trey” in the memoir. Though she found the event emotionally scarring, she did not consider it rape until decades later. She disclosed in her book and on Busy Tonight that she had an abortion at 15.

She attended Loyola Marymount University at the same time as Freaks and Geeks costar Linda Cardellini and Colin Hanks; she dated Hanks for several years after they left school.

Career

While still in high school, Philipps worked the toy-fair circuit as a real-life Barbie (“Cool Teen Skipper”). Among the people who saw her at a toy convention was actress Sharon Stone, who was impressed with Philipps’ performance and told Philipps that she would be a star.

Her first major role was Kim Kelly in the 1999-2000 comedy-drama TV series Freaks and Geeks; Philipps appeared in all but one of the show’s 18 episodes (the exception being the episode “Chokin’ & Tokin'”). She made her film debut in the comedy The Smokers in 2000, and had various small appearances on television.

In 2001, Philipps was cast as Audrey Liddell in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek. She was a series regular in seasons 5 and 6, appearing in 46 episodes, before the show finished in 2003. Her portrayal of Audrey earned Philipps a Teen Choice Awards nomination in the category of “TV – Choice Sidekick”.

Philipps then appeared in several films, including Home Room (2002) and White Chicks (2004). She was cast in the UPN sitcom Love, Inc., in a role originally intended for Shannen Doherty. The show lasted for one season (2005–2006). In 2006, she had a major recurring role as Hope Bobeck on ER, alongside her Freaks and Geeks co-star Linda Cardellini. During her second year on ER, her character was written out as heading to South America to “fulfill her Christian mission”.

Philipps had a co-credit for the storyline of the 2007 comedy film Blades of Glory. A year later, Philipps returned to being in front of the camera with a supporting role in Made of Honor.

Philipps also made appearances in He’s Just Not That Into You as the character of Kelli Ann and on an episode of How I Met Your Mother.

From 2009 to 2015, Philipps portrayed Laurie Keller in the television series Cougar Town. She routinely contributed to the Thrilling Adventure Hour, a live stage radio show. Her primary recurring character is the Red Plains Rider.

On a 2010 appearance on Chelsea Lately, Philipps commented that she auditioned for the hit television show Glee just one week after giving birth, following a pregnancy during which she gained 80 pounds.

Philipps starred on the HBO series Vice Principals, which premiered in 2016 and ended in 2017.

In 2017, Philipps signed on as co-lead opposite Casey Wilson in Tina Fey’s comedy pilot, The Sackett Sisters, for NBC, but the series was not picked up.

In 2018 and 2019, Phillips played the role of Sheba Goodman in season 4 of Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Philipps had a late-night talk show called Busy Tonight, which aired on E! from October 28, 2018 to May 16, 2019. It was cancelled the same day Phillips was nominated for a 2019 Critics Choice Award. In August 2020 she began hosting a podcast, Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best, along with former Busy Tonight writers Caissie St. Onge and Shantira Jackson.

Book

Philipps’ memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, was released October 18, 2018. Her memoir includes a passage in which the actress describes a physical altercation that took place between James Franco and herself while on the set of Freaks and Geeks. Philips said she was “bummed” by the amount of attention drawn to just this incident in the book, saying the story was not new, and that she meant for it “to illustrate a larger point about the way women are treated in this business and in life.”

Political views

After the Alabama Legislature’s May 14, 2019 passage of House Bill 314 (also known as the “Human Life Protection Act”), Philipps advocated that women speak out if they had abortions. On May 14, she invoked the hashtag, #YouKnowMe (established on February 18) to her 370,000 followers on Twitter, with her call for testimonies:

1 in 4 women have had an abortion. Many people think they don’t know someone who has, but #youknowme. So let’s do this: if you are also the 1 in 4, let’s share it and start to end the shame. Use #youknowme and share your truth.

On the previous week she revealed on her Busy Tonight TV show that she had an abortion at age 15.

On June 4, 2019 Philipps gave a testimonial before the House Judiciary Committee, defending the right for women to have access to more abortion clinics. In doing so, Philipps talked about her own experience with abortion, saying:

I am a human being that deserves autonomy in this country that calls itself free, and choices that a human being makes about their own bodies should not be legislated by strangers who can’t possibly know or understand each individual’s circumstances or beliefs.

Personal life

Philipps married screenwriter Marc Silverstein in 2007. They have two children, born in 2008 and 2013. Her older child, Birdie, came out as gay in 2020 and uses they/them pronouns. Philipps uses her podcast to advocate for the LGBTQ community and support parents of gay teens.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	The Smokers	Karen Carter
2002	Home Room	Alicia Browning
2004	Mummy an’ the Armadillo	Carol Ann
2004	White Chicks	Karen Googlestein
2005	Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story	Additional Voices	Voice
2008	Made of Honor	Melissa
2009	He’s Just Not That Into You	Kelli Ann
2010	Revolution	Emily	Short film
2011	I Don’t Know How She Does It	Wendy Best
2012	The Reef 2: High Tide	Cordelia	Voice
2012	Made in Cleveland	Shannon
2013	A Case of You	Ashley
2014	Jason Nash is Married	Busy Philipps
2015	The Gift	Duffy
2016	FML	Amanda
2018	I Feel Pretty	Jane

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Saving Graces	Mindy	TV series
1999–2000	Freaks and Geeks	Kim Kelly	18 episodes
2000	Malcolm in the Middle	Meghan	Episode: “High School Play”
2001	Anatomy of a Hate Crime	Chasity Pasley	TV movie
2001	Spring Break Lawyer	Jenny	TV movie
2001	Dead Last	Tracy Sallback	Episode: “Death Is in the Air”
2001–2003	Dawson’s Creek	Audrey Liddell	39 episodes
2002	Undeclared	Kelly	2 episodes
2003	Criminology 101	Polly	TV movie
2004	Foster Hall	Peg Hall	TV movie
2005	Life As We Know It	Alex Morrill	2 episodes
2005	Testing Bob	Madison ‘Maddie’ West	TV movie
2005, 2018	American Dad!	Dana / Blanch	Voice 2 episodes
2005	Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!	Korlianne	Voice Episode: “Girl Trouble”
2005–2006	Love, Inc.	Denise Johnson	22 episodes
2006–2007	ER	Dr. Hope Bobeck	19 episodes
2007	Entourage	Cheryl	Episode: “Dog Day Afternoon”
2007	How I Met Your Mother	Rachel	Episode: “Third Wheel”
2008–2009	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	Kacy Corbin	5 episodes
2009	Kath & Kim	Whitney	Episode: “Competition”
2009–2015	Cougar Town	Laurie Keller	102 episodes
2011	Community	Greendale Team Member	Episode: “For a Few Paintballs More”; uncredited
2011	Fish Hooks	Clamanda	Voice Episode: “We’ve Got Fish Spirits”
2012	Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23	Busy Philipps	Episode: “A Reunion…”
2012	RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars	Herself (guest judge)	Episode: “RuPaul’s Gaff In”
2013	Arrested Development	Joan	Episode: “Borderline Personalities”
2014–2018	Drunk History	Various	3 episodes
2014	Garfunkel and Oates	Karen	Episode: “Hair Swap”
2015	Bottom’s Butte	Beverly Bottom	Voice Pilot
2016	New Girl	Connie	Episode: “300 Feet”
2016	Angie Tribeca	Courtney Woodpatch-Newton	Episode: “Miso Dead”
2016–2017	Vice Principals	Gale Liptrapp	14 episodes
2016	Bajillion Dollar Propertie$	Cate Kates	Episode: “Spiritual Gurus”
2017	The Odd Couple	Natasha	Episode: “Should She Stay or Should She Go?”
2017	Chopped Junior	Herself (guest judge)	Episode: “Curry Hurry”
2017	The Sackett Sisters	Mandy Sackett	NBC sitcom pilot
2017	Beat Bobby Flay	Herself (guest judge)	Episode: “Tame the Flame”
2018–2019	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Sheba Goodman	2 episodes
2018–2019	Busy Tonight	Herself (host)	Also executive producer
2018	Camping	Allison	Episode: “Up All Night”
2019	Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show		Episode: “Full House But Black”
2021	Search Party	Donna	Episode: “Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig”
2021	Girls5eva	Summer	TV series

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Category	Result
2003	Teen Choice Awards	Dawson’s Creek	Choice TV: Sidekick	Nominated
2010	Entertainment Weekly	Cougar Town	Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Won
2011	Critics’ Choice Television Awards	Cougar Town	Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Won