Emmy Award-winning actress and comedian Jane Lynch was the keynote speaker at the 2016 commencement ceremony for Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department graduates on Saturday, May 14, at the Chicago Theatre in downtown Chicago. Lynch also received an honorary degree from the college. Lynch was introduced by Anne Libera, coordinator of the Comedy Writing and Performance Bachelor of Arts program at Columbia College Chicago — a collaborative partnership between the departments of Theatre, Television, and Business and Entrepreneurship at the college and The Second City, America’s premier comedy theatre and training center.

Here is a video of Libera’s and Lynch’s speeches:

Graduating students in Columbia College’s Audio Arts & Acoustics, Creative Arts Therapies, Dance, Music Technology, and Television departments and in the Science and Mathematics Department‘s Art and Materials Conservation BA program also attended the commencement event to receive their degrees and to hear Lynch speak.

Born and raised in Chicago’s south suburbs, Lynch launched her acting career in Chicago. She performed with The Second City National Touring Company as well as in productions at Steppenwolf Theatre and the Organic Theatre. With Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, she played “Carol Brady” in the long-running hit The Real Live Brady Bunch, in which authentic Brady Bunch TV scripts were performed tongue-in-cheek onstage.

Lynch is the two-time Emmy Award-winning host of Hollywood Game Night and an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for her portrayal of Sue Sylvester on Glee. Her film credits include The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Taladega Nights, Julie & Julia, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and the forthcoming Mascots, directed by Christopher Guest, set to premiere on Netflix this summer. Additional TV credits include The L Word, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Two and a Half Men, Party Down, and Lovespring International. On Broadway she played Miss Hannigan in the musical Annie. Her memoir Happy Accidents topped several national best-seller lists, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

Lynch was one of a roster of Emmy-, Grammy-, and Pulitzer Prize-winning artists and creative industry leaders selected as 2016 commencement ceremony keynote speakers and honorary degree recipients at Columbia College Chicago this spring. Each honoree addressed students at one of five commencement ceremonies on May 14 and 15 at the historic Chicago Theatre.