Maya Rudolph

Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph (right) with Donatella Versace
Birth name	Maya Khabira Rudolph
Born	July 27 1972 (1972-07-27) (age 35) Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Years active	1996 - present
Children	Pearl Bailey Anderson (b. 2005)
Parents	Minnie Riperton Richard Rudolph

Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972, in Gainesville, Florida) is an American actress and comedian, currently best known as a cast member of NBC's Saturday Night Live.

Personal life

Family

Rudolph is the daughter of the late African American soul singer Minnie Riperton and Jewish American composer, songwriter and producer Richard Rudolph. She was in the studio with her mother on the day Riperton recorded "Lovin' You"; one can hear her mother sing "Maya, Maya, Maya" to her near the end of the track. Riperton passed away at age 31, from cancer, short of her daughter's seventh birthday. This loss at a young age and growing up multiracial had an effect, according to a July 2001 Rosie magazine article: "My mom was black and my dad is Jewish, and I lost my mom when I was seven. That made me feel really different from other kids."

Education

Growing up, Maya attended St. Augustine by the Sea School, where she met childhood friend Gwyneth Paltrow. The Paltrows and the Rudolphs became family friends. She attended high school in Santa Monica, California, and continued her education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she graduated in 1995 with a B.A. in photography from Porter College.

Relationships

Rudolph and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson are in a relationship, and have a daughter, Pearl Bailey Anderson, born on October 15, 2005. As of November 2006, she is involved in a lawsuit over a New York condominium she had leased with Anderson which, among other problems, was found to be infested with bedbugs.^[1]

Career

Saturday Night Live

Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler during a sketch which aired on May 19, 2007

She joined SNL late in season 1999-2000 as a featured player, after a stint as a member of The Groundlings improv troupe. Rudolph's characters on the show have included attorney Glenda Goodwin, and Megan from the "Wake Up, Wakefield!" sketches; she has performed impressions of Oprah Winfrey, Christina Aguilera, Condoleezza Rice, Paris Hilton, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Tyra Banks, Patti LaBelle, Liza Minnelli, LaToya Jackson, Whitney Houston, and most famously, designer Donatella Versace. Rudolph appeared in the first SNL episode of the 2005-2006 season (host: Steve Carrell; musical guest: Kanye West) before going on maternity leave. She returned for the February 4, 2006 episode (host: Steve Martin; musical guest: Prince). Rudolph's musical talents are frequently employed on SNL; she sings as Beyoncé Knowles in the Prince Show sketches, as the Space Creature in the Gays in Space sketches, and elsewhere. Her chameleon-like ability to change her looks, and her impressive command of many accents have also led to her playing an unusually wide range of ethnicities on the show, often with only a change of wigs; she has been white (Lisa Kudrow, Barbra Streisand), Asian (Lucy Liu, Lisa Ling), black (Diana Ross, Tina Turner), Latina (Charo, Jennifer Lopez), and more. As Nooni Schoener, she, along with Fred Armisen, created a couple from an unspecified Scandinavian country, who have unplaceable accents and bewilderingly foreign manners. Rudolph is also able to play male characters (Scott Joplin, Lorne Michaels, Justin Guarini, Mario Vazquez) in addition to playing females. While it had been reported that Rudolph would not return to the show for the 2007-2008 season, she eventually decided to stay with the show.^[2]

Characters

• Apprecianté (Starkisha & Apprecianté)
• Beertje Van Beers (Club Traxx)
• Britannica (Gemini's Twin)
• Charli Coffee, a drunk nightclub singer who keeps falling during her performances.
• Cocktail Waitress (Rialto Grande)
• Glenda Goodwin (Second Time Around)
• Jodi Deetz (Bronx Beat)
• Jo-Jessica (HipHop-Kids)
• Leilani Burke (The Pet Psychic)
• Megan (Wake Up Wakefield!)
• Mrs. Denmont (Appalachian Emergency Room)
• Nooni Schoener (Art Dealers)
• Patti Sylviac (Pat N' Patti's Shack)
• Rebecca (Fiesta Politica)
• Space Creature (Gays In Space)
• Tuhnay Griggs (Deep House Dish)

Impressions

• Amanda Byram
• Ananda Lewis
• Barbra Streisand
• Beyoncé Knowles (as the co-host in the recurring sketch "The Prince Show")
• Brenda Song
• Charo
• Christina Aguilera
• Condoleezza Rice
• Darcel Wynne
• Diana Ross
• Donatella Versace
• Donna Fargo
• Emily Robison
• Fredricka Whitfield
• Free
• Gayle King
• Halle Berry
• Ivanka Trump
• Jennifer Lopez
• Joyce Irby
• Justin Guarini
• Kara Saun
• Katrina Campins
• Kristin Davis
• Latoya Jackson
• Lisa Kudrow
• Lisa Ling
• Liza Minnelli
• Lorne Michaels
• Lucy Liu
• Lynda Lopez
• Macy Gray
• Melinda Doolittle
• Mario Vasquez
• Marta Mercado
• Mary Roach
• Melissa Stark
• Mýa
• Nelly Furtado
• Nicky Hilton
• Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth
• Oprah Winfrey
• Paris Hilton
• Patti LaBelle
• Rocsi
• Scott Joplin
• Teresa Heinz Kerry
• Tina Turner
• Tyra Banks
• Valerie Simpson
• Vanessa Bryant
• Vanessa Anne Hudgens
• Wanda Sykes
• Whitney Houston

Television and film

In addition to her work on SNL, Rudolph has appeared on a few television shows, including City of Angels and Chicago Hope. She has also appeared in Hollywood films. She had small parts in Chuck & Buck, Gattaca, As Good As It Gets, Duplex and Duets and, for the latter, she was also the music supervisor. Her first prominent film role came in 2006 with A Prairie Home Companion, filming her role during her pregnancy (her character is visibly pregnant during the film). Earlier, she had co-starred with Luke Wilson in the 2005 Mike Judge sci-fi comedy Idiocracy, although that film was shelved until September 2006 and then only given a limited release. She also guest starred as Rapunzel in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek the Third. She guest starred as Julia in The Simpsons episode "The Homer of Seville".

Music

Prior to joining SNL, Rudolph was briefly a keyboardist and backing singer for the band The Rentals. She also appears in the music video for the song "Waiting" by the band. She sang backing vocals for "Barcelona" and "My Head Is in the Sun," both from the album Seven More Minutes. She recently recorded some tracks with The Rentals frontman Matt Sharp, particularly a cover of Tegan and Sara's "Not Tonight". Rudolph also performed "Together In Pooping" and "Little Roundworm" with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on his CD, Come Poop With Me.

References

External links

• Maya Rudolph at the Internet Movie Database
• Bio at official NBC Saturday Night Live site
• USA Weekend magazine article from January 2004