Baranski attended high school at the Villa Maria Academy in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo. She then studied at New York City's Juilliard School (Drama Division Group 3: 1970–1974) where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.
Baranski made her Broadway debut in Hide & Seek in 1980.
Filmography:
1967 Who's Minding the Mint?
1980 Playing for Time
1982 A Midsummer Night's Dream
1982 Soup for One
1983 Lovesick
1982 Another World
1984 Crackers
1984 All My Children
1985 Big Shots in America
1985 The Equalizer
1986 Nine 1/2 Weeks
1986 Legal Eagles
1987 The House of Blue Leaves
1987 The Pick-up Artist
1988 The Thorns Polly
1990 Reversal of Fortune
1991 Law & Order
1992 Screenplay
1993 The Night We Never Met
1993 Life with Mikey
1993 Addams Family Values
1993 To Dance with the White Dog
1994 The Ref Connie Chasseur
1994 Getting In
1994 The War
1994 Law & Order
1995–1998 Cybill
1995 New Jersey Drive
1995 Jeffrey
1996 The Birdcage
1997 3rd Rock from the Sun
1998 The Odd Couple II
1998 Bulworth
1999 Cruel Intentions
1999 Bowfinger
1999 Now and Again
1999 Frasier
2000–2001 Welcome to New York
2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2001 Citizen Baines
2002 The Guru
2002 Chicago
2002 Speed Racer X
2002 Presidio Med
2003 Eloise at the Plaza
2003 Marci X
2003 Eloise at Christmastime
2003–2004 Happy Family
2004 Spellbound
2004 Welcome to Mooseport
2005 Scooby Doo in Where's My Mummy?
2005 Recipe for a Perfect Christmas
2005 Adopted
2005 In The Game
2005 Ghost Whisperer
2006 Inseparable
2006 Falling for Grace
2006 Relative Strangers
2006 Bonneville Francine
2006 American Dad!
2008 Mamma Mia!
2009 Ugly Betty
2009–present The Big Bang Theory
2009 Psych
2009–present The Good Wife
2010 The Bounty Hunter
2011 Who is Simon Miller?
2011 Ugly Americans (TV series)