Early life

Vangsness was born in Pasadena, California, the daughter of Errol Leroy Vangsness (born 1938 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and his wife Barbara Mary (née Marconi; born 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Her paternal great-grandparents were Norwegian, with ancestry from Bergen, Gol, and Oslo. She was raised in Porterville, California, and later moved to Cerritos, California. She graduated from Cerritos High School in June 1990 and attended Cypress College. She later graduated from California State University, Fullerton in June 1995.

Career

Acting

Vangsness got her first big break in the theatre, where she won several awards, including the 15 Minutes of Female Best Actress Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Emerging Comic Actress, and the Golden Betty Award.

Writing

Vangsness' work has been published in the Los Angeles Times. Since 2014, Vangsness has co-written two episodes of Criminal Minds. In 2014 she co-wrote "Nelson's Sparrow" with Executive Producer, Erica Messer and in 2015 she co-wrote "A Beautiful Disaster" once again with Messer.

Personal life

Vangsness says that she is "as queer as a purple unicorn singing Madonna". She began dating film and television editor Melanie Goldstein in 2006. They were engaged, but separated in 2013.

In April 2015, she revealed on smashinginterviews.com that she had entered into a relationship with a new boyfriend and was examining that aspect of her sexuality. In November 2015, it was reported that she was engaged to her boyfriend, actor and writer Keith Hanson.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998.	Sometimes Santa's Gotta Get Whacked	Tooth Fairy	Short film
2006	A-List	Blue
2008	Tranny McGuyver	TV News Reporter	Short film
2009	Scream of the Bikini	Interior Decorator
2010	In My Sleep	Madge
2011	Sarina's Song	Party Guest	Short film
2011	Chicago 8, TheThe Chicago 8	Sketch Artist
2012	Remember to Breathe	Vocals for Young Alice	Short film
2015	Kill Me, Deadly	Mona Livingston
2016	Axis	TBA	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Phil of the Future	Veronica	Episode: "Age Before Beauty"
2004	LAX	Ticket Agent / Stephanie	3 episodes
2005-present	Criminal Minds	Penelope Garcia	Main Cast; 250 episodes
2010	Vampire Mob	Laura Anderson
2010-2012	Pretty the Series	Meredith Champagne	14 episodes
2011	Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior	Penelope Garcia	Main Cast
2011	Second City This Week	Herself	1 episode
2011-2013	Good Job, Thanks!	Therapist	2 episodes
2016	Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders	Penelope Garcia	Special Guest

[ Source: Wikipedia ]