C.J. Cregg – The West Wing

Played by Allison Janney

C.J. Cregg – The West Wing

Claudia Jean “C. J.” Cregg is is White House Press Secretary in the administration of President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet. A Catholic like the president, she hails from Dayton, Ohio, where her beginnings qualify as a bit more humble than many of her high-society, Washington D.C. colleagues (her father was a high school math teacher — not a powerful attorney or political figure).

She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and worked at a prominent public relations firm before taking a huge salary cut and joining the Bartlet for America campaign. Her height is something of a running joke, and not to her liking, especially after discovering that her secret service code-name is “Flamingo.” C.J. is tough and resilient, accomplishing a number of firsts for a woman in Washington D.C. before the end of her time with the Bartlet administration.

She is extremely sharp, known for her wit, and can be devastating in a public dispute or argument – chiefly by using the White House press corps as a tool in her argument. Her outspoken approach is both a boon to her career and has resulted in death threats from certain contingents (C.J. has also been put in physical peril, as have others in the Bartlet administration, but not necessarily because of her strong, expertly articulated opinions).

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