Dot Marie Jones has received two Emmy® Award nominations (2011, 2012) for her role as football coach Shannon Beiste on FOX’s megahit television show Glee. In its third season the show received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. With an expansive list of diverse film and television credits, Jones is known for her poignant roles in both dramas and comedies.

This coming year, moviegoers will see Jones in the independent romantic comedy, 40 Is The New Dead, written by bestselling novelist, Cathryn Michon, and directed by Ken Locsmandi. The film also stars some of the funniest women in comedy including Melissa Peterman and Marissa Jaret Winokur. Previous film credits include Material Girls with Hilary Duff, The Boondock Saints with Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, and Patch Adams with Robin Williams.

Jones, who had no intentions of acting, met Shirley Eson of American Gladiators fame, and it was Eson who urged Jones to audition for the Gladiators-like Knights and Warriors. Jones got the part, becoming one of the few female warriors.

It was after Knights that Jones made the decision to become an actress, and landed her first recurring role on FOX’s popular sitcom Married… with Children. She then had a recurring role on the Disney Channel’s series Lizzie McGuire as Coach Kelly. Since then, she has appeared in many popular television shows such as FX’s Nip/Tuck, ABC’s Desperate Housewives, FOX’s Prison Break, TNT’s Hawthorne, among others.