Molly Helen Shannon (born September 16, 1964) is an American actress, comedian and writer. She is best known for her work as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1995-2001, and starred on the NBC sitcom Kath & Kim. She is also well known for appearing in movies with Will Ferrell.

Shannon was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio to an Irish American Catholic family. Her mother, Peg Shannon, was a teacher, and her father, James F. Shannon, was a sales manager. Shannon was involved in a traumatic car accident when she was four years old which killed her mother, younger sister, and cousin. Shannon attended St. Dominic School in Shaker Heights for grade school, and Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio, for high school.

Before Saturday Night Live, Shannon had a struggling career in films, her most notable being a supporting role as Meg in the 1989 horror film remake of The Phantom of the Opera with Robert Englund. In 1991, she had a brief appearance in the second season of Twin Peaks, and in 1993, she appeared in a supporting role in two episodes of In Living Color, the first in a fake TV commercials with Chris Rock (played by Shawn Wayans), and the second in a sketch with Jim Carrey, playing a crooked police chief.