Born on June 10, 1964 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kate Flannery was educated at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her family is the proud owner of the bar TA Flannery's in downtown Philadelphia. She is a former member of The Second City's National Touring Company and an original member of Chicago's Annoyance Theater, where she created more than 15 shows, including The Miss Vagina Pageant and The Real Live Brady Bunch. Her comedy act, The Lampshades had been performing at the ImprovOlympic West stage in Hollywood for over four years, and had also performed at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
Flannery's stage performances include those in the off-Broadway hit Valley of the Dolls at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City. Also in Los Angeles, Flannery played a teen prostitute and Blair's sister in The Phacts of Life at the Renberg Theatre. She later portrayed Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner in a production of Hildy, Hildy, Three Feet Under at The Evidence Room. From 2005, she rose to fame for her role of Meredith Palmer on the NBC series, The Office. She said that her character was explained to her as “divorced, with a hysterectomy, lactose intolerant, blue collar, no makeup.” After auditioning, she got a callback where she gave a more deadpan performance. This got her the part. Before working on the series, she made appearances in The Bernie Mac Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boomtown and Jimmy Kimmel Live. In 2008, she joined her Office co-star Brian Baumgartner in taking on a role as a talent scout for Last Comic Standing. Flannery has also been seen on episodes of Saturday Night Live, and appeared with the cast of The Office in Celebrity Family Feud.
Aside from stage acting, Flannery can also be heard on the Air America show, Ravenburst. She is also the musical director of the Los Angeles Drama Club, where she teaches Shakespeare to children aged 5 to 8.