Do we like Melissa McCarthy?
Our score: 8 out of 10. She backs LGBTQ+ people loudly, speaks up about bad bosses, and fixed her one real misstep quickly.
Melissa McCarthy grew up in Illinois in an Irish-Catholic farming family, finished school in Joliet in 1988, then headed to New York to try stand-up. She later spent nine years on the main stage at the Groundlings in Los Angeles, and that improv grind set her up for everything that followed.
The big break was Sookie on Gilmore Girls, then Mike & Molly, then Bridesmaids, which earned her an Oscar nomination. A second nomination came for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and in 2017 she won an Emmy for hosting Saturday Night Live, where she played press secretary Sean Spicer.
Her one proper stumble was in 2020. She and HBO Max put the anti-trafficking group Exodus Cry in a charity drive, and The Daily Beast reported the group's anti-gay and anti-abortion ties. McCarthy pulled support within days, posting a video that said “We blew it.” She owned it, which is more than plenty do.
On the harm check, the record leans well the other way. In March 2023 she shared a post on Instagram backing drag while states moved to restrict it, and in June that year she wore a “Say Gay” headpiece at the WeHo Pride parade as its Ally Icon. Nothing harmful in her own words turned up, and I found no pattern of dodgy company.
She has also copped her share of nastiness. When critic Rex Reed dismissed her in 2013 with insults about her size, she said she felt for someone swimming in so much hate. Her real worry was the message it sent to younger girls.
On how she treats people, she told The Observer in 2023 that she once worked for someone who ran a hostile set and that she will never keep quiet again. She and husband Ben Falcone now run their production company on a “no screamers or crazy egos” basis. She was also named in the Sesame Street lawsuit over The Happytime Murders, but that suit targeted the film's distributor, and a judge let the film keep its tagline.