Cleo King

Cleo King
King at the 2014 Seventh Annual Bel Air Film Festival at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills
Cleo King
Born	8/21/1962
Birthplace	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Known for	Mike & Molly; The Hangover

Cleo King (born August 21, 1962) is an American actress whose career in film and television has spanned more than three decades. She is best known to television audiences for her recurring role as Carl McMillan's mother, Sondra, on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly (2010–2016), and to film audiences for supporting roles in studio comedies including The Hangover (2009). King has worked steadily as a character actress, accumulating credits across drama, comedy, and procedural genres on broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, King built her career primarily in Los Angeles, where she became a frequently cast supporting player on network television beginning in the 1990s. Her work has ranged from recurring roles on dramas such as Boston Public to guest appearances on procedurals, sitcoms, and prestige series, and she has appeared on stage in New York theater productions including the Broadway play Chicken & Biscuits. Profiles of King have emphasized her longevity in the industry as a working character actress, a category in which she has been described as one of the more recognizable faces on American television during the 2010s.

Early Life

Cleo King was born on August 21, 1962, in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in the St. Louis area before relocating to pursue acting professionally. Public biographical sources have offered limited detail about her family background and childhood, focusing instead on her professional development as an actress after she entered the industry.

King has spoken in interviews about the path that led her to acting and about the persistence required to establish a career as a working performer in Los Angeles. In a feature with Gloss Magazine Online published during the run of Mike & Molly, she discussed her trajectory from auditions and small parts toward more substantial roles in network television, framing her career as the product of accumulated experience across many small credits rather than a single breakout role.

Career

Early television and film work

King's screen acting career began in the early 1990s with small roles in film and on episodic television. Across the late 1990s and early 2000s she accumulated guest credits on network series, frequently cast in supporting or single-episode roles typical of working character actors based in Los Angeles. Her filmography from this period includes the ensemble drama In the Game (2002), among other independent and studio projects.

From 2001 to 2002, King appeared in a recurring capacity as Helene Parks on the Fox drama series Boston Public, created by David E. Kelley. The role placed her within an ensemble cast in one of the more prominent network dramas of the period and gave her sustained on-screen exposure across multiple episodes of the series.

Film roles

King appeared in the 2009 Warner Bros. comedy The Hangover, directed by Todd Phillips. The film became one of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies of its era and introduced King's face to a substantially wider audience than her earlier television work had reached. The supporting role in The Hangover is among the credits most frequently cited in summaries of her career, alongside her later television series work.

She has also appeared in a range of additional feature films, including the horror picture The Bye Bye Man (2017), part of a cast that included Michael Trucco and other character performers; trade coverage of the production noted King's casting among the supporting players. Her broader film work has included comedies, dramas, and genre projects in both lead-supporting and smaller character roles.

Mike & Molly

From 2010 to 2016, King played Sondra McMillan, the mother of Reno Wilson's character Carl, on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, created by Mark Roberts and executive-produced by Chuck Lorre. The series, which starred Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy, ran for six seasons and was among CBS's higher-rated multi-camera comedies during its initial run. King's recurring presence across the show's run made it the most prominent and sustained role of her television career to that point.

During the run of Mike & Molly, King attended industry events tied to the series and to its producer Chuck Lorre. The Television Academy noted her appearance at the 21st Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2012 in support of Lorre, who was inducted that year. Interviews King gave during the show's run focused on her experience as a working character actress and on the differences between sitcom and dramatic television production.

Later television work

After the conclusion of Mike & Molly in 2016, King continued to work steadily in television, taking recurring and guest roles on a mix of streaming and network series. She appeared in the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the book series by Daniel Handler; Thrillist's coverage of the show's casting included King among the ensemble of guest and recurring performers populating the series' eccentric world.

King also appeared on the Fox first-responder drama 9-1-1: Lone Star. A preview by TV Insider for a season-two episode focused on the storyline of the character Paul (played by Brian Michael Smith) and his family, with King appearing as part of the family ensemble featured in that episode.

Her later television credits span procedural dramas, situation comedies, and prestige limited series, continuing the pattern established earlier in her career of frequent guest and recurring work across multiple genres and networks.

Stage work

In addition to her screen work, King has appeared in theater productions. In October 2021 she was photographed at the opening night celebration for Chicken & Biscuits, a Broadway play by Douglas Lyons that ran at Circle in the Square Theatre in New York. Coverage of the opening identified King among the cast and company members in attendance.

Recognition

King's career has been documented by the Television Academy, which maintains a biographical entry for her summarizing her television credits and noting her recurring role on Boston Public as well as her work on Mike & Molly. Her name and career have been catalogued by national and international library authorities, including the Library of Congress, the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek), and the Virtual International Authority File, reflecting the use of her credited work in cataloged media holdings.

Feature coverage of King during the run of Mike & Molly positioned her among the recognizable supporting players of contemporary American sitcom television. Gloss Magazine Online published an extended interview profile focusing on her role on the series and her broader career as a working character actress. TV Guide covered her involvement with the series as part of its reporting on the show's cast.