Biography

Kathy Connell has produced the Screen Actors Guild Awards® since its inception in 1995, when she led a small group of SAG Board members who devised the plans for a televised awards show based on actors honoring their union peers, including the innovative and distinctive Ensemble categories.

Deeply involved with the entertainment industry, Connell is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy's Producers Peer Group. She also has been honored to serve on the jury panel for several industry awards, including the Irish Film & Television Academy's Film & Television Awards and the Motion Picture Academy/U.S. China Film and Television Entertainment Industry Expo's Golden Screen Awards.

For the union, Connell serves as Executive Producer, Awards and National Programming for SAG-AFTRA. In this role, she serves as liaison to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and oversees SAG-AFTRA's Special Projects Department, in addition to working on many other SAG-AFTRA initiatives. Her efforts have led to the SAG Awards being the only television special event to be honored with 10 consecutive Green Seals from the Environmental Media Association as well as the Green Production Award for continually redoubling those efforts.

Other productions she's worked on include the Screen Actors Guild's yearlong celebration of its 75th Anniversary, featuring SAG's receipt of the Hollywood Historic Trust's Award of Excellence Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a series of tributes and celebrations in Los Angeles, New York and the union's other locals.

A second-generation actor and union member who performed in film, television commercials and stage for more than 25 years, Connell has always been an active supporter of SAG and SAG-AFTRA. She has held various positions on the Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors, including National Recording Secretary.

Connell also is an ardent advocate for actors' rights, women and the environment, a trinity of passions woven throughout her career.
- IMDb mini biography by: SAG AFTRA Official Site Bio

You have to acknowledge that Hollywood has been a major force in helping shape and reflect the country," says the show's producer, Kathy Connell. "We're going to give everyone a feel for where we started, what's gone on and where we're going." Connell also expects the unexpected. "This is live television. The actors are going to do what the actors want to do and that's what makes it exciting.

In early 1976, I went to see "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" at the old Playhouse on West 48th. Out came a pretty young actress. It was a nice few minutes but nothing out of the ordinary, I thought. As I watched, I became aware of smoke starting to waft through the theater. The actress continued until the smoke was so distracting that the audience was murmuring. The actors left the stage and the audience vacated the theater until the smoke from an air conditioning malfunction had cleared. The play started over again a half hour later. The actress started again. Everything about her performance was exactly the same but at the same time it was fresh, all new. Wow. I immediately dived into my program to find out whom I was watching. The name was unfamiliar. Meryl Streep, I thought, I'll be seeing more of her.