<P> Reed earned a Drama Desk Award for the off - Broadway play Getting Out and an Obie Award for "sustaining excellence in performance in theater". She was a regular in the cast of the 1977 CBS drama The Andros Targets . She had minor film and television work in the 1980s . She won a CableAce Award for Best Actress for the HBO series Tanner' 88 (1988). She also co-starred with Daryl Hannah in the film The Clan of the Cave Bear (1985). </P> <P> Her notable film roles include The Long Riders (1980), The Right Stuff (1983), The Best of Times (1986), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Bean (1997), and Proof of Life (2001). </P> <P> Reed played Janice Pasetti in the quirky NBC sitcom Grand, and then played a judge and single mother in the short - lived NBC sitcom The Home Court . She has provided the voice for the character Ruth Powers in 3 episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons and guest - voiced in an episode of the 1994 - 1995 animated series The Critic . She played a main role in Jericho and has appeared as the mother of main character Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) on Parks and Recreation . </P> <P> In 2005 Reed portrayed executive producer Esther Shapiro in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty . </P>

Who plays leslie knope on parks and recreation