Personal
1960: Born at Swedish hospital. I’m a month early and weigh less than 5 pounds.
1961: According to family lore I spend most of the year crying.
1962: Make Grandma Thora promise that she’ll never get old. She promises.
1963: John F. Kennedy dies.
1964: After winning the sack race at my own birthday party, am told that it isn’t polite for the birthday girl to claim the prize. I cry and pout and am sent to my room.
1965: Get caught drawing pictures of naked people.
1966: My dad and his best friend build an A-frame cabin on Whidbey Island. Spend a decade of idyllic summers on the shores of Useless Bay.
1967: Lay on a skateboard as I travel down a hill, dragging the toes of my saddle shoes because I hate them. Get in lots of trouble but it’s worth it because my replacement shoes are adorable red t-straps. Big sister Anne never gets over the unfairness.
1968: My straight-laced banker father brings home the Beatles’ White Album because his secretary Charlotte (who wore miniskirts) tells him he has to. We blast the record on our wall-mounted hi-fi and dance around the house all night.
1969: Move from Kirkland to Magnolia. Flunk weekly multiplication test until I realize, after weeks of post-dinner flashcard practice with Mom, that 3 x 5 means three fives or five threes! Regardless, math is dead to me.
1970: Steal carton of cigarettes from my mom. She doesn’t notice.
1971: Lock Linda Fry in our garage. She cries and I get grounded for a month and miss Halloween. Still blame Linda Fry.
1972: Find an unopened bottle of MD 20/20. And by “find” I mean “stole” from Albertsons.
1973: 7th grade, Blaine Junior High School. Smoke pot. Inhale.
1974: Greet my Mother’s cheery “good morning” with a monotone grunt and silent inner rage.
1975: As part of a student comedy group performing short sketches in the annual Junior High talent show, I get big laughs. Feels good. Also decide not to be a drunken stoner.
1976: My best friend Paulette moves to Arizona. Devastated.
1977: Try out for cheerleading and, even though I mentally blackout during my solo cheer and end up randomly kicking and twirling for two minutes, I make the squad.
1978: Graduate from Queen Anne High School with a good grade point and bad study habits. Enter the University of Washington that fall.
1979: First thing I learn in college is to never take classes immediately following lunch because it’s impossible to stay awake on a full stomach. I later learn to not take afternoon classes in spring quarter because they interfere with my laying-in-the-sun time.
1980: Fall in love with my geology class TA and, even though I hate to camp, sign up for the weekend trip to Mount Saint Helens because he is leading. Mountain blows up five weeks later.
1981: Sign up to ride a bike across America to raise money to end world hunger. Back out when I remember that I hate biking and realize that the organizing group is a cult.
1982: Graduate from the University of Washington with a degree in the mysterious field of Speech Communications. Job offers? None.
1983: Depressed for most of the year.
1984: Sign up for an introduction to acting class at Seattle Central Community College. Changes my life.
1985: Meet Joe Guppy. Changes my life.
1986: Take a 6-week backpacking dream vacation to Europe with a good friend. Ruin it by pining after Joe the entire time.
1987: Join the staff of KING TV’s late night comedy show “Almost Live!.” Oh yeah, I also marry Joe.
1988: Realize that Joe is not an extension of me. Irritating.
1989: Move to Los Angeles to write for HBO’s “Not Necessarily The News.” Get canned after 13 weeks.
1990: Work on numerous TV shows. All but one suck.
1991: Write jokes for Tony Danza. Get Danny Baldwin fired. See Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in an elevator.
1992: Following a minor mental breakdown, move back to Seattle and re-join the cast of “Almost Live!” Joe and I separate.
1993: A blur of individual therapy and couples counseling. Joe and I reunite and celebrate our fragile reconciliation by buying a house.
1994: While shooting a sketch for “Almost Live!” on Aurora Avenue, three separate drivers pull over, thinking I’m a prostitute.
1995: Get a 15-month old black poodle named Bebo. He is the light of our childless life and a total neurotic.
1996: Hire a director and six actors for “Cheaper Than Therapy,” a live show of my sketches, that runs for 6 weeks at the Market Theatre. Remarkably, I make a little money.
1997: Participate in three rear-enders, all my fault, in under a month. Insurance rate soars.
1998: Lose Joe’s wonderful older brother Ed and our dear friend Rachel.
1999: “Almost Live!” is cancelled. An amazing era comes to a close but lives on in early morning reruns.
2000: Hired to host an environmental show called “The Salmon Exchange.” Learn a whole lot about salmon.
2001: Find and buy a fixer-upper and move in with Joe’s parents while we remodel what is clearly going to be our dream home.
2002: Move into our dream home and realize it’s not dreamy enough. Joe feels frustrated with my “inability to be satisfied.”
2003: Hired by KMPS radio morning show “Ichabod Caine & The Waking Crew” to engage in witty banter and do traffic reports. Also, Grandma Thora breaks her promise by getting old and dying.
2004: Borrow $3000 from my Dad to make the pilot episode of “City a Go Go,” a 5-minute weekly TV show about the local art scene.
2005: The “Almost Live!” cast reunites for a reunion show. Bob Nelson still the nicest cast member.
2006: Sell our “not-dreamy-enough” house just before the market tanks and move into a condo where I immediately exclaim, “This is perfect and I totally swear that I’ll never want to move again!” Joe stares blankly and turns away.
2007: Bebo dies. Joe begins to write his memoir that will take, according to him, “about a year.”
2008: Launch “Art Zone with Nancy Guppy,” a weekly half-hour local arts show on Seattle Channel 21. Joe still writing his memoir.
2009: Yank a huge hunk of slimy hair out of the shower drain, take a picture of it, and post it on Facebook—575 likes! Joe still writing his memoir.
2010: Turn 50. Spend $900 on tight black leather pants. Joe still writing his memoir.
2011: My new short bangs cause way too many people to exclaim; “Wow, those bangs sure make you look younger!” Joe still writing his memoir.
2012: Celebrate 25 years of marital bliss. Arrive at the opening night of the Seattle International Film Festival in a dog crate. Joe still writing his memoir.
2013: Discover planking and the joyful power of prune juice. Joe still writing his fucking memoir.
2014: Good news: my itchy skin condition turns out not to be Leprosy! Plus, Joe’s memoir is published to critical acclaim.
2015: Produce “MUSICIAN: A Portrait Project,” a large scale exhibit of photography by Ernie Sapiro. May be the coolest thing I’ve ever worked on.
2016: Discover RevitaLash, the miraculous beauty product that stops eyelashes from naturally shedding resulting in an exotic Cleopatra look with no dangerous side effects. That they know of.
2017: Thrilled to interview Art Garfunkel in front of a live audience on the Neptune Theatre stage until I realize that he’s a narcissistic jackass.
2018: Open my first ever visual art show, “The Further Adventures of Snippity Snap,” at Solo Bar & Gallery. People buy stuff.
2019: Agree to a month-long house/cat-sitting gig without seeing the house or the cat. Becomes clear within five minutes of meeting “Momo” that this decision was a cataclysmic error in judgement.
2020: Scale down "Art Zone with Nancy Guppy” into the COVID-friendly format, “AZ Phones It In,” and eat homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch 73 days in a row.
2021: Discover that the “shareable” size bag of Peanut M&M’s is just enough for me. Also discover that—as Joe recovered from knee surgery—Florence Nightingale I am not.
2022: Officiate the wedding of beloved nephew Nick to the beautiful Jenny. Also, keep freezer stocked with slices of homemade cake, thickly frosted, for nightly consumption. Share begrudgingly.
2023: Realize that I don’t have to hate people who disagree with me! Also learn first hand that staying hydrated is essential to staying alive.
2024: work in progress…
Professional
2008—Present: Writer, Host, Senior Producer, Co-Creator; “Art Zone with Nancy Guppy.” The Seattle Channel.
2022: Receive the Silver Circle Award from NATAS / National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
2020: Writer, Host, Senior Producer “Art Zone Phones It In.” The Seattle Channel.
2016—2019: Writer; “Coffee with Guppy,” interview column. Seattle Business Magazine.
2007: Producer; “Verve,” artist profile show. The Seattle Channel.
2004: Writer, Host, Creator; “City A Go Go,” arts show. The Seattle Channel & KCTS-TV.
2003—2005: Writer, On-Air Talent; “Ichabod Caine & the Waking Crew.” KMPS radio.
2000: Host; “Salmon Exchange.” University of Washington TV.
1997: Writer, Producer; “KCTS Currents,” interstitial arts segments. KCTS-TV.
1996: Writer, On-Air Host; KONG-TV.
1992—1993: Staff Writer, Cast Member; “Almost Live.” Comedy Central.
1992—1999: Staff Writer, Cast Member; “Almost Live.” KING-TV.
1991: Writer; “Julie,” sitcom starring Julie Andrews, directed by Blake Edwards. ABC.
1990: Writer; “Haywire,” sketch comedy show, Kevin Bright, executive producer. FOX TV.
1990: Writer; “My Talk Show.” Imagine Entertainment for Fox TV.
1989: Writer; “Disneyland’s 35th Anniversary Show,” directed by John Landis. NBC.
1989: Staff Writer; “Not Necessarily the News.” HBO.
1988—1989: Staff Writer, Cast Member; “Almost Live.” KING-TV.
1986: Freelance Actor; “Almost Live.” KING-TV.
Nancy Guppy won a Writers Guild Award for “Not Necessarily The News” on HBO and multiple Northwest Regional Emmy Awards as host, writer, producer, and cast member for “Almost Live” on KING-TV and “Art Zone with Nancy Guppy” on Seattle Channel 21.