Part of Friends featuring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer.
Rise to Fame
Janice's laugh was a defensive tactic. Matthew Perry couldn't get through a scene without cracking jokes, and Wheeler needed something to stay in character. The nasal cackle she invented for that purpose became the most recognizable sound effect on Friends, showing up in 19 episodes across all ten seasons. She'd been doing VO work through the 1980s, voicing heroes and villains in SilverHawks, but nobody plans a decade-long career on a laugh. Janice did.
In the Spotlight
Producers wanted her for Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, but CBS overruled them and went with Patricia Heaton instead. She was also reportedly cast in the Suddenly Susan pilot, then replaced by Kathy Griffin. The industry kept handing her characters, then pulling them back. What she built in the gaps is more interesting: VO work on Archer and Bob's Burgers, a 17-year run directing the 100-voice Golden Bridge Community Choir, and a children's book. Janice never left the culture, even when Hollywood kept moving on.
Side Notes
The voice that launched a thousand Janice impressions is her second voice. Her parallel life in music runs deeper: 30 years teaching her 'Singing In The Stream' vocal workshops, a catalog of choral music sung by choirs worldwide. She grew up in Manhattan, her father a member of the New York Stock Exchange, her mother an art collector. The nasal laugh was always a costume.