‏Barbara Keegan‏

Emmy Award winner and most recently introduced in the role of "Nell's Mom, Mrs. Jones" on NCIS: Los Angeles, Barbara Keegan made her Chicago stage debut at age 3, in a duet with her comedy godfather, first mentor and jester spirit-guide for all time - Danny Kaye. Since that storybook start, she's been entertaining distinguished, discerning, and quite possibly disturbed audiences from Miami to Montreal, from Los Angeles to New York, from San Diego to Singapore.Regional, dinner theatre (yeah, remember THOSE?) and Off- (sometimes way WAY Off-) Broadway stage turns have included playing daughters (and sometimes sons) of luminaries from Maureen O'Sullivan to Abe Vigoda, as well as original cast credit in four or five Samuel French-published scripts. Los Angeles theater audiences have seen Keegan in ten roles in the Pasadena Playhouse's award-winning Joined at the Head, five roles in the five year run of Bill W. and Dr. Bob at Theatre 68, well-known as well as original musicals from The Fantasticks to the country-western Tanglin' Hearts to the politically-themed Campaign to the borscht-belt Mamaleh!, and the occasional beloved classic such as the blarney-speaking Nurse in Romeo and Juliet for Merry War Theatre Group. She's thrilled beyond words to be working once again with her favorite living playwright, Jon Courie, having first had that pleasure a couple of years ago on his Carapace Isle in its West coast premiere, as well as last year's Hollywood Fringe Festival favorite Jennifer Aniston Stole My Life, which, she is more than honored to note, Mr. Courie wrote specifically with her in mind.A founder of the East-coast improv troupe The Public Trust, as well as its TYA arm The Lollipop Theatre for Children, Barbara's traded wit in live sketch comedy with Fred Willard, and raised money for worthy organizations co-starring in benefits with legends such as Shelley Berman, Robert Mandan, Bernie West, Sammy Shore, Marion Ross and Edward Asner, while making a decent living in her "day job" starring in hundreds of commercials and infomercials worldwide. A self-taught music prodigy, playing piano since eighteen months of age, Ms. Keegan was keyboardist/vocalist for femme rockers The Pickups, and has worked numerous live gigs and recording sessions for The Naked Apes, This Side Up, South American pop star Santiago, and more recently the Van Dyke Bros Band starring her husband Tom Van Dyke. For the record, she's never actually performed as a mermaid in Weeki Wachee, but has worn the crown of Miss Miami Beach, and squeezed into that very snug Starfleet uniform as a half-human, half-Vulcan in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. She's been immortalized as Cate Blanchett's favorite photodouble "evil twin", and has shared a soundstage "hotel room" with a Mr. B. Pitt. She also does a spot-on tribute to Davy Jones singing Daydream Believer. On stage, and come to think of it, off stage as well, Barbara's been compared to Peter Sellers, Peter Tork, Pee Wee Herman, Eddie Izzard, Groucho and Harpo Marx, Shirley MacLaine (yeah, we threw her in just to have a female in the mix)...and Hamlet. Hamlet. She's decided to take it as a compliment.