Checking in with JANE KRAKOWSKI

Since Jane Krakowski is quite musical herself, it’s appropriate that she’s presiding over one of the most musical games on television.

The award-winning “Ally McBeal,” “30 Rock” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” alum is back as the host of “Celebrity Name That Tune,” which has just returned to Fox with new episodes on Tuesdays. In the update of a classic contest that dates back to the 1950s, personalities from the worlds of entertainment and sports challenge one another to name a song via the fewest clues, thus yielding the familiar phrase, “I can name that tune in [whatever number] notes.” Correct guesses can help the players win sizable money for the charities of their choice. Music industry veteran and former “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson is the show’s bandleader.

Though Krakowski started her screen career with roles in such movies as “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983) and “Fatal Attraction” (1987), she established her musical cred fairly quickly by appearing on Broadway as a teenager in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express.” She soon followed that with a Tony Award-nominated performance in “Grand Hotel,” and such other New York shows as “Company” and “Once Upon a Mattress” followed for her. So did a revival of “Nine,” which earned her a Tony in 2003.

At that time, Krakowski had just finished a five-season run as Elaine Vassal on Fox’s “Ally McBeal,” a comedy-drama that was famous for integrating fantasy and musical sequences, making the show an ideal fit for her — particularly on the occasions when she was permitted to cut loose within a tune. The actress sometimes got to do the same on NBC’s “30 Rock” as Jenna Maroney, a self-involved performer whose career was marked by mishaps and wrong turns; conversely, Krakowski earned four Primetime Emmy nominations for the show.

Lately, Krakowski also has been appearing in the Apple TV+ series “Schmigadoon!,” another show with a musical motif. Thanks to that and “Celebrity Name That Tune,” if she’s not as comfortable and satisfied with her TV employment as she’s ever been, that certainly must come close.

Birthdate: Oct. 11, 1968

Birthplace: Parsippany, N.J.

Current residence: New York

Marital status: Single; she has a son

Movie credits include: “Pixels,” “Adult Beginners,” “Open Season,” “Open Season 2,” “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,””The Rocker,” “Barnyard,” “Pretty Persuasion,” “Alfie,” “Marci X,” “Ice Age,” “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas,” “Go,” “Dance With Me,” “Mrs. Winterbourne,” “Fatal Attraction,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation”

Other television credits include: “Schmigadoon!,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “30 Rock,” “Ally McBeal,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Drunk History,” “Match Game,” “A Christmas Story Live!,” “Tangled: The Series” (voice only), “BoJack Horseman,” “Robot Chicken,” “Saturday Night Live,” “American Dad!,” “Modern Family,” “The Simpsons,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Hack,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Everwood,” “Early Edition,” “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” “Alex Haley’s Queen,” “Another World,” “Search for Tomorrow”

Stage credits include: “Beauty and the Beast,” “She Loves Me,” “Damn Yankees,” “Guys and Dolls,” “”Mack & Mabel,” “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Tartuffe,” “One Touch of Venus,” “Company,” “Grand Hotel,” “Starlight Express,” “A Little Night Music”

Education: Parsippany (N.J.) High School, Professional Children’s School (New York), Rutgers University

Her solo music album: “Laziest Gal in Town”