Career
When Katie Aselton was a teenager, she took part in several pageants. In 1995, she won the Miss Maine Teen USA contest and went on to become the first runner-up at the Miss Teen USA 1995. She also came first in the Jantzen Swimsuit Competition.
In 2001, Aselton appeared in two season-five episodes of the MTV anthology series ‘Undressed’. This was her first job in the entertainment industry. In the early days of her career, she used to be credited as Kathryn Aselton in most of her projects before permanently switching to Katie Aselton. In the 2004 short film ‘Scrapple’, she worked with her future husband Mark Duplass and his brother Jay. The brothers wrote and directed the short film, with Mark sharing screen space with Aselton.
The 2005 romance-drama ‘The Puffy Chair’ was her first film. Directed by the Duplass brothers, the movie revolves around a son’s cross-country travel to gift his father a giant purple LazyBoy for his birthday. Aselton continued to work with her future husband and his brother in some of her following projects. In 2005, she appeared in their short film ‘The Intervention’.
In 2009, she played a glove girl in a season five episode of the US version of ‘The Office’. That year, she was also featured in the romance-drama ‘Easier with Practice’, which was directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, and the comedy-drama ‘Other People's Parties’, which starred Molly Bryant, Tamara Baranov Ham, and JR Reed. In the Duplass brothers’ 2010 directorial venture ‘Cyrus’, she shared screen space with John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill.
Aselton wrote, produced, directed, and acted in the comedy-drama ‘The Freebie’. The story is about a young couple that comes up with the idea that they should give each other one night off, no questions asked. On September 17, 2010, the film premiered in the non-competition "Next" category at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2012, she produced and directed her second film, ‘Black Rock’. Based on a story by Aselton herself, the screenplay was written by Mark Duplass. In the movie, Aselton portrays Abby, one of the three friends terrorized by two men. In the 2010s, she guest-starred in popular shows like ‘Burning Love’, ‘Newsreaders’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Wedlock’, and ‘Weird Loners’ before landing the role of Jenny MacArthur (née Banger) in the FX sitcom ‘The League’ (2009-15). The wife of Kevin MacArthur (Stephen Rannazzisi), she is as interested as he is in the fantasy football league.
Aselton appeared in five episodes of the second season of the short-lived HBO comedy-drama ‘Togetherness’ in 2016. Between 2016 and 2017, she lent her voice to several characters in the HBO animated comedy series ‘Animals’. In the second and third season of the Hulu comedy-drama series ‘Casual’, she played a therapist named Jennifer.
Aselton essays the role of Amy Haller, the adoptive older sister of the protagonist, in FX’s ‘Legion’ (2017-present). Created by Noah Hawley, the series is based on the Marvel’s X-Men universe character of the same name. In recent years, she has appeared in the comedy adventure ‘Father Figures’ (2017), romantic comedy ‘Book Club’ (2018), thriller-comedy ‘Deep Murder’ (2018), and romance drama ‘The Tomorrow Man’ (2019). She is set to star in the upcoming drama film ‘The Devil Has a Name’.
Family & Personal Life
Born on October 1, 1978, in Milbridge, Maine, USA, Katie Aselton is the daughter of Ora and Carl Aselton. After graduating from Narraguagus High School in Harrington in 1996, she enrolled at Boston University School of Communications. She studied there for two years and then relocated to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career as an actress. At some point, she also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York for two years.
She and filmmaker, actor, and musician Mark Duplass exchanged wedding vows on August 26, 2006. Their oldest daughter, Molly, was born in 2007. In 2012, they welcomed their youngest, Ora, into the world.
In September 2017, actress Amber Tamblyn alleged in an open letter that actor James Wood had attempted to seduce her when she was 16 years old. Aselton retweeted Tamblyn’s original post, adding that Wood had tried to do the same with her when she was 19 years old.
