Katey Sagal's Real Name: Catherine Louise Sagal

Quick answer: Katey Sagal was born Catherine Louise Sagal on January 19, 1954, in Los Angeles. Katey is a nickname form of Catherine. She played Peg Bundy on Married... With Children and voiced Leela on Futurama. She won a Golden Globe in 2011 as Gemma Teller Morrow on Sons of Anarchy (Library of Congress; Biography.com).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Sagal, Katey," with the variants "Sagal, Catherine Louise, 1954-" and "Sagal, Catherine, 1954-." Its citation reads "Katey Sagal, born Catherine Louise Sagal on January 19, 1954 ... born in Los Angeles, California." It adds that she graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, worked as a backing vocalist, and has sometimes been credited as "Katie Sagal."

Biography.com says she came from a show-business family: her parents were television and film directors and producers, and several siblings also acted. She landed a few TV movie roles in the early 1970s before focusing on music. She toured as a backup singer with artists including Olivia Newton-John and Bette Midler. The Television Academy adds that she was a Harlette with Midler for three years and sang backup for Bob Dylan, Etta James, and Tanya Tucker.

Career highlights

Sagal returned to acting in the 1980s as columnist Jo Tucker on Mary Tyler Moore's sitcom Mary. Her breakthrough came in 1987 on Fox's Married... With Children, as Peg Bundy, the brassy wife of Ed O'Neill's Al. The show ran until 1997, and the Television Academy says the role brought her three Golden Globe nominations.

From 1999 she voiced Leela, the spaceship captain, on Matt Groening's Futurama, including the film Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007). In 2002 she starred opposite John Ritter in 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. After Ritter's death in 2003, the show wrote his character's death into the series and ran until 2005. She guest-starred on Lost and Boston Legal.

On FX's Sons of Anarchy (2008–14), created by her husband, Kurt Sutter, she played motorcycle-club matriarch Gemma Teller Morrow. The role won her the 2011 Golden Globe. She later played Penny's mother on The Big Bang Theory and led the 2021 series Rebel. She has also released two albums, Well... (1994) and Room (2004).

Biography.com reports that she married Sutter in 2004. She has two children, Sarah and Jackson, from an earlier marriage and a daughter, Esmé, born in 2007.

Name notes for searchers

Catherine is her legal first name, and Katey is the familiar form she uses professionally. Louise is her middle name, and Sagal is her family surname. Library records note that she has also been credited as "Katie Sagal."