Kathy Najimy parents Samia ("née" Massery) and Fred Najimy, a postal worker. She was raised Maronite Catholic and attended Crawford High School. Najimy's film career began in the early 1990s, with a number of off-beat minor roles, but her first major role was in the 1992 comedy "Sister Act", in the role of Sister Mary Patrick. She reprised this role in 1993 in "Sister Act 2". She also starred in "Hocus Pocus" with Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker as the Sanderson sisters. She appeared with Ellen Degeneres in three episodes of her sitcom "Ellen", playing a different character each time (including
Bette Midler remake of the 1975 film of the same name also based on the Ira Levin novel. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close, Midler played Bobbie Markowitz, a writer and recovering alcoholic. The project underwent numerous production problems that occurred throughout its shooting schedule, with reports of problems on-set between director Oz and the actors being rampant in the press. Oz later blamed Midler — who was amid recording her next album and rehearsing for her tour — for being under a lot of stress by other projects and making "the mistake of bringing her stress