---
name: "Lennon Parham"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/lennon-parham"
roles: ["Actor","Director","Writer"]
born: "26 October 1976"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 84
updated: "2026-09-17T04:20:40.162091+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Lennon Parham

Actor and director. Born 26 October 1976 in Marietta, Georgia, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor, Director, Writer
- **Born:** 26 October 1976, Marietta, Georgia, USA
- **Active:** 2000–present

## Fi1m on Lennon Parham

> Lennon Parham's work happens between two women who talk over each other, first as a performer opposite Jessica St. Clair, then behind the camera on *Somebody Somewhere*, where she helped find a plain, patient way of filming people who are not used to being looked at.

A kitchen, shot from the doorway. In *Somebody Somewhere* (2022) the camera does not follow anyone into the kitchen; it waits in the hall and lets the scene come to it. Lennon Parham shares the directing with Jay Duplass and Robert Cohen, and the three of them agreed on flat Midwestern light, long takes and big skies, so the town looks like the town and Bridget Everett looks like Bridget Everett. That last part is the point. Television still lights most women to look a shade better than they do, and here nobody is.

Parham came up in improvised comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade, and the habit shows: she is a performer who listens more than she talks. With Jessica St. Clair she co-created and starred in *Best Friends Forever* (2012), which lasted a season, and *Playing House* (2014–2017), which lasted three, both built on a friendship the two were already having off screen. Around them she took the parts a good comic actor is offered when she is not the lead: Karen Collins, the senior advisor in *Veep* (2015), and Mrs Greenfield in *Review* (2014), where she is part of the machinery and not what you remember afterwards. She began directing on *Playing House* and *Bless This Mess*, then on *Somebody Somewhere*, where she also wrote.

Directing is where we have most to go on. Her approach, by her own account, is preparation and patience, so that a performer in a hard scene has nowhere to fall. "I felt like it was my job in these two episodes to make you feel safe to go wherever you needed to go," she said of *Somebody Somewhere*, and the episodes bear it out. The cutting lets a joke land and then stays for the awkward second afterwards, and that second is where the laughs are. It is also where the grief is. We laughed at Everett and Jeff Hiller swearing at each other in a kitchen and then, a beat later, found we were not laughing, because nobody had cut away from her face when the joke finished. We cannot tell you which of the three directors shot which doorway; a shared look is meant to make that impossible, and it does.

The caveat is that most of what she is known for, the double act with St. Clair, we have not reviewed, and *Somebody Somewhere* is a collaboration in which her contribution is one of three. Her own screen presence is warm and unshowy and easily overlooked, which is useful in an ensemble and a limit in a lead. She has since directed on *Going Dutch* (2026). We will be watching for the doorway.

## Biography

Lennon Parham is an American actress, improvisational comedian, writer and director. She trained at the University of Evansville and performed with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

With frequent collaborator Jessica St. Clair she co-created and co-starred in the NBC series *Best Friends Forever* (2012) and the USA Network series *Playing House* (2014–2017), on which she also wrote and directed. She has appeared in recurring or guest roles on series including *Review* (2015, as Mrs. Greenfield), *Veep*, *Parks and Recreation*, *Mad Men*, *New Girl* and *Arrested Development*. Parham has directed and written episodes of the HBO series *Somebody Somewhere* (2022–).

Her film credits include *Confessions of a Shopaholic* (2009), *Horrible Bosses 2* (2014) and *Bombshell* (2019).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Somebody Somewhere* (2022), Fi1m 85, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/somebody-somewhere.md)
- *Review* (2014), Fi1m 83, as Mrs. Greenfield — [page](https://film.one/tv/review.md)
- *Veep* (2012), Fi1m 82, as Karen Collins — [page](https://film.one/tv/veep.md)
- *Curb Your Enthusiasm* (2000), Fi1m 84, as Randi — [page](https://film.one/tv/curb-your-enthusiasm.md)

## Also known for

- *How I Met Your Mother* (2005), Bev
- *Horrible Bosses 2* (2014), Roz
- *Bombshell* (2019), Beth's Employee
- *Adventure Time* (2010), Additional Voices (voice)
- *Confessions of a Shopaholic* (2009), Joyce
- *American Dad!* (2005), Crony Girl (voice)
- *Parks and Recreation* (2009), Kate
- *New Girl* (2011), Carol

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lennon-parham