Linda Wallem
Encyclopedia
Background
Wallem was born in Madison, WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, and raised in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
. She is also the sister of actor Stephen Wallem
Stephen Wallem
Stephen Wallem is an American stage and television actor. He is best known for his one man musical review, “Off the Wallem”, as well as numerous theater productions. Stephen is also a playwright, composer, and director...
- who co-stars on her show Nurse Jackie
Nurse Jackie
Nurse Jackie is an American series that premiered on June 8, 2009, on Showtime, Movie Central and The Movie Network.The series stars Edie Falco as the title character Jackie Peyton, an emergency room nurse at All Saints' Hospital in New York City...
, as a male nurse named Thor.
Early career
Wallem began her career at Dudley RiggsDudley Riggs
Dudley Riggs is a noted improvisational comedian who created the Instant Theater Company in New York, which later moved to Minneapolis to become the Brave New Workshop comedy troupe. Riggs was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and joined the circus when he was five years old. His family performed...
' Brave New Workshop
Brave New Workshop
The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre , located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 50 years – longer than any other theatre in the nation...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. She and fellow writer-performer Peter Tolan
Peter Tolan
Peter James Tolan III is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter.-Early life and career:Tolan was born in Scituate, Massachusetts where he was a perrenial favorite in the high school's dramatic productions. Before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood, Tolan founded a theater...
formed a double act called Wallem & Tolan and began performing on the cabaret circuit in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at such venues as the Manhattan Punch Line. Broadway veteran Martin Charnin
Martin Charnin
Martin Charnin is an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director and lyricist of the hit musical Annie....
caught the act and worked with the duo to present it as an Off Broadway called Laughing Matters in 1989.
Film and television
Wallem appeared in the 1993 film Sleepless in SeattleSleepless in Seattle
The film was originally to have been scored by John Barry, but when he was given a list of 20 songs he had to put in the film, he quit.#As Time Goes By - Jimmy Durante #A Kiss to Build a Dream on - Louis Armstrong #Stardust - Nat King Cole...
as the waitress from whom star Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
's character buys coffee from on the road. On Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
Wallem played Hildy, the waitress who refuses to serve Elaine Benes
Elaine Benes
Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...
her customary "big salad" in the 1994 episode "The Soup
The Soup (Seinfeld episode)
"The Soup" is the 93rd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 7th episode for the 6th season. It aired on November 10, 1994.-Plot:George is flirting with Kelly , a waitress from Monk's Cafe....
." Young viewers are likely to recognize her voice as Doctor Paula Hutchison and Virginia Wolfe and other female characters on the Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
animated television series, Rocko's Modern Life
Rocko's Modern Life
Rocko's Modern Life is an animated series created by Joe Murray. The show aired for four seasons between 1993 and 1996 on Nickelodeon. Rocko's Modern Life is based around the surreal, parodic adventures of an anthropomorphic wallaby named Rocko, and his life in the city of O-Town...
(1993–1996).
Writing and producing
Wallem wrote for the Cybill ShepherdCybill Shepherd
Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...
television situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Cybill during its entire run from 1995 to 1998, also occasionally acting on the series. She then wrote for the sitcom That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
from 1998 to 2000, serving as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
from 2000 to 2001 and then executive producing That '80s Show
That '80s Show
That '80s Show is an American sitcom that aired in half-hour long episodes from January through May 2002. Despite having a similar name, show structure, and many of the same writers and production staff, it is not considered a direct spin-off of the more successful That '70s Show, since the...
in 2002.
In 2007, Wallem and Liz Brixius
Liz Brixius
Liz Brixius is an American television writer and producer.In 2008 Brixius, Linda Wallem, and Evan Dunsky, created the series Nurse Jackie, a half-hour drama about a "flawed" emergency room nurse in a New York City hospital...
created and produced a pilot called Insatiable for Showtime which was not picked up. In 2008, the duo (with writer Evan Dunsky
Evan Dunsky
Evan Dunsky is an American television writer, producer and director.Evan Dunsky wrote and directed the 1997 feature film The Alarmist based on the play Life During Wartime by Keith Reddin...
) created the series Nurse Jackie
Nurse Jackie
Nurse Jackie is an American series that premiered on June 8, 2009, on Showtime, Movie Central and The Movie Network.The series stars Edie Falco as the title character Jackie Peyton, an emergency room nurse at All Saints' Hospital in New York City...
, a half-hour drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
about a "flawed" emergency room nurse in a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
hospital. Starring Edie Falco
Edie Falco
Edith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
of The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, the series premiered on Showtime in June 2009, with Wallem and Brixius serving as showrunners for the series and sharing executive producer duties with Caryn Mandabach
Caryn Mandabach
Caryn Mandabach is an American television producer.Caryn Mandabach produced ground-breaking US hits including The Cosby Show, Roseanne, A Different World , Grace Under Fire , Cybill , 3rd Rock from the Sun , That '80s Show , That '70s Show , and Grounded for Life .Most recently...
.