In Highlight Reel, Awards Insider speaks with some of this year’s most notable Emmy nominees about their entire body of nominated work. In this entry, we speak with Only Murders in the Building guest star Jane Lynch, a five-time Emmy winner continuing to build up an incredible TV résumé.

Used to be, Jane Lynch popped up on your favorite sitcom for an episode or two, and she’d bring a smile to your face: the government mole helplessly in love in Arrested Development, the edibles dealer known as the Candyman in Weeds, Monica and Chandler’s Westchester realtor in the final season of Friends. She’d sometimes amass a dozen credits in a single year, jumping from project to project, veering between small but memorable film roles, voice-over gigs, and her true love, TV comedy. Back then, there wasn’t much glamour, let alone awards attention, to Lynch’s career; she lived “the actor’s life.”

With Glee, that swiftly changed. In 2010 she won an Emmy for her breakout turn as the nasty Sue Sylvester on Ryan Murphy’s musical hit—and was also nominated for her yearslong guest role as Charlie Sheen’s therapist on Two and a Half Men. In the decade-plus since then, Lynch has won four additional Emmys for everything from a throwback game show to a lo-fi web series to an Emmy juggernaut.

All through this, Lynch’s love for working—a lot—has not abated. She continues to make a ton of guest appearances, including on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, playing Steve Martin’s character’s former stand-in. The difference between this kind of work now and, say, two decades ago? The industry pays close attention: Lynch is currently up for yet another Emmy for her work on Only Murders. Here, the comic legend takes us through all of her nominated work, and reveals how her ongoing project—the Broadway revival of Funny Girl—has her rethinking some things after being in this business for some 35 years.

2010: 1 win in 2 nominations

• Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, Glee (win)
• Outstanding guest actress in a comedy series, Two and a Half Men, episode “818-JKLPUZO” (nom)

Vanity Fair: These were your first two Emmy nominations, and they encapsulate the career phase that you were exiting, with the recurring role on Two and a Half Men, and entering, with a real showcase on Glee. Did it feel that way at the time?

Jane Lynch: I was shocked and pleased with the Two and a Half Men [nomination]. I never expected that. I had been doing it for five years, and I don’t even think I knew that a guest-star award existed—so that was news. [Laughs] But I like the way you put it—that it was kind of where my career was, which was doing guest spots and some recurring spots and pilots here and there. I was about to settle into a different phase where I started getting work because of my name, as opposed to just, “Oh, there’s this person we know, they can do it.”

You’d also guested on Arrested Development, Friends, Weeds, Desperate Housewives, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and many more before this. How did you find that experience, jumping from show to show? It’s very much like a working actor’s life.

Yeah, it was. I remember going out to lunch one day with my friend, I was remarking on how I just loved my career. I said, “It’s the actor’s life for me!” [Laughs] I liked jumping back and forth to different shows and sticking around on some of them for a little while and doing just kind of a hot two- or three-day thing. But I always wanted to get a regular spot. It makes a big difference in your life—how much money you make is obvious, but also just how you live your life. You’re doing one thing when you do one television show, and you can actually bring a pillow into your trailer and kind of settle in. I wanted to settle in somewhere. But I jumped up and down every time I got a job, every time I got a spot on whatever show.