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| Rachel Dratch | |
|---|---|
 Rachel Dratch as Debbie Downer on SNL. |
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| Born | February 22 1966 Lexington, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Rachel Susan Dratch (born February 22, 1966) is an American actress and comedian, perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006.
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Biography
Early life
Dratch was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA, to Elaine, an energy director, and Paul Dratch, a radiologist. She was raised in Reform Judaism[1] at Temple Isaiah and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988, majoring in drama and psychology. She is also an alumna of Lexington High School in Massachusetts.
Career
Dratch was a member of the mainstage cast of The Second City comedy troupe for several years, performing alongside future SNL head writers Adam McKay and Tina Fey, as well as future 30 Rock performer Scott Adsit. The first incarnation of her SNL "Wicked" sketch was performed in Second City's Paradigm Lost. In addition to acting, Dratch also played the cello onstage. The theater also hosted the first incarnation of Dratch & Fey (her critically praised two-woman show with Tina Fey) which was later performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, where it was dubbed "the funniest thing to be found on any New York comedy stage" by Time Out New York. Dratch has appeared in several movies, including Martin & Orloff, The Hebrew Hammer, Down with Love, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and Click, to name a few. She also has joined fellow SNL cast members on A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T.: Improv which aired September 7, 2005, on the Bravo channel. Dratch has also made television appearances on NBC's Third Watch and in a recurring role on King of Queens. Dratch wrote, directed, and performed in the short film The Vagina Monologues Monologues, which premiered at the New York Comedy Film Festival in 2001. Dratch also partcipated in a workshop for Legally Blonde: The Musical in the role of Paulette, but did not follow the production to its later San Fransisco or Broadway incarnation. In 2007, Dratch played Larry's caseworker in the comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, starring Adam Sandler as "Chuck", and Kevin James as "Larry", the dad who needs to place his pension in his children's names.
Saturday Night Live
After joining SNL in 1999 as a featured player and then a repertory player in 2001, Dratch played many people, both real and fictional. One of her most famous recurring characters was Debbie Downer, a depressed woman who creeps others out with disturbing non sequiturs. The first sketch featuring Dratch's Downer character caused everyone on the set including Dratch (save for Fred Armisen) to break character.[2] With seven seasons under her belt, Dratch became SNL's longest running female castmember (a record first held by Ana Gasteyer), and the first female castmember to have turned forty while on the show.
30 Rock
Dratch left SNL after the 2005-2006 season to join her co-star Tina Fey's new NBC sitcom 30 Rock, loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer on SNL. Although the pilot episode originally featured Dratch as Jenna, the main star of 30 Rock's show-within-a-show, the show's format was re-worked and Dratch was replaced as Jenna by Jane Krakowski.[3] However, Dratch has remained on the show and she now makes a cameo appearance as a different character in several episodes. See a full list here.
Saturday Night Live characters
Original characters
- Abe Scheinwald, a sleazy movie executive who tries to stop his son (played by Seth Meyers) from making Scheinwald Studios' films artistic
- A cocktail waitress in "Rialto Grande"
- Debbie Downer
- Denise "Zazu" McDonough, one of the Boston Teens
- One of the dancers in the "Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour"
- Lynne Bershad from Delicious Dish (replacing Molly Shannon's character for a short time)
- Nicole, the Girl With No Gay-Dar!
- Phoebe, a woman who has giant pets who ruin her dates (both giant pets [a parrot and a cat, respectively] have been played by Fred Armisen)
- Ruth Weinstock, one of the Adult Students
- Sheldon from Wake Up, Wakefield!
- Virginia Klarvin, one of the The Lovers
- Qterplix, a rejected X-Men character, said to be the love child of Angelina Jolie and her brother
- Loretta, one of the space lesbians from "Gays in Space"
- David Mack Wilson, a child Broadway star
- Tiara Zee, one of the veejays from "Deep House Dish"
- One of the Telemundo actresses from "Besos Y Lagrimas"
Celebrity impersonations
- Amelia Henry
- Amy Ray (of The Indigo Girls)
- Anne Robinson
- Arianna Huffington
- Barbara Walters (also performed on 30 Rock)
- Brenda Chavis
- Brett Somers
- Britney Spears (in a pretaped fake commercial for the short-lived reality show, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic)
- Calista Flockhart
- Cheryl Cooley (of the music act, Klymaxx)
- Daniel Radcliffe (As Harry Potter)
- Denise Nickerson (best known for her role as Violet Beauregard, the girl who swelled up into a blueberry after chewing Willy Wonka's experimental gum, in the 1970s film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
- Diane Warren
- Drew Barrymore
- Elián González
- Elijah Wood
- Elizabeth Cohen
- Elizabeth Taylor (also performed on 30 Rock)
- Eva Longoria (coincidentally, on the episode hosted by Longoria in a sketch spoofing Vanity Fair's Desperate Housewives photo shoot)
- Harriet Miers
- Helena Bonham Carter portraying Smurfette in a fake commercial for an NBC made-for-TV mini-series based on The Smurfs
- Hilary Duff
- Hillary Clinton
- Jamie S. Gorelick
- Janeane Garofalo (former SNL castmember)
- Jean Schmidt
- Jeannie C. Riley
- Jenny Jones
- Judith Nathan
- Kelly Osbourne
- Kimberley Locke
- Lynndie England
- Maria Burrell
- Martha Stewart
- Martha-Ann Bomgardner
- Michael Gelman
- Monica Lewinsky, in an HBO: First Look parody of the latest Star Wars prequel at the time
- Natalie Maines (of The Dixie Chicks)
- Nicole Richie
- Paula Jones (in a Weekend Update segment about her Celebrity Boxing match with Tonya Harding, played by Amy Poehler)
- Paula Poundstone
- Rebecca DeWitt
- Rita Rudner
- Roger Garth
- Sheb Mami
- Sue Johanson
- Tara Reid
- Toni Basil
- Wendy Pepper
- Zelda Rubenstein, portraying her character from Poltergeist
