Rachel Dratch

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Rachel Dratch
Dratch at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York City, at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Rachel Susan Dratch February 22, 1966 (1966-02-22) (age 43) Lexington, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Comedienne
Years active	1994–present

Rachel Susan Dratch (born February 22, 1966) is an American actress and comedienne, perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006.

Biography

Early life

Dratch was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, the daughter of Elaine, a transportation director, and Paul Dratch, a radiologist.^{[citation needed]} She is a graduate of Lexington High School in Massachusetts. Dratch is also an alumna of Dartmouth College (class of 1988), where she majored in drama and psychology and was a member of the improvisational comedy group, Said and Done. She attended the National Theater Institute in the fall of 1986.

Career

Dratch was a member of the mainstage cast of The Second City comedy troupe for four years. She received the Joseph Jefferson award for Best Actress in a Revue for the latter two revues in which she performed: "Paradigm Lost," and "Promisekeepers, Losers Weepers." At Second City she performed 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, Click, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, "Spring Breakdown" and "My Life in Ruins." 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 (playing Denise, the on-off girlfriend of Spence, who worked in a bowling alley). Other television appearances include "Monk", ""Frasier", "Wizards of Waverly Place", and "30 Rock."

Saturday Night Live

1999-2006. Dratch's recurring characters include the Boston Teens (Sully and Denise); Sheldon, the junior high school boy from "Wake up Wakefield"; The "Lovers" with Will Ferrell as two pretentious professors; and Abe Scheinwald, Hollywood Producer. One of her best-known recurring characters was Debbie Downer, a depressed woman who creeps others out with disturbing non sequiturs. Dratch's first sketch as Downer attracted fan and media attention when her remarks about sterility, the greenhouse effect, and feline AIDS caused the guest star, Lindsay Lohan, and the rest of the cast, including Dratch, to break character.^{[citation needed]} She performed on SNL for seven seasons.

Saturday Night Live characters

Original characters

• Abe Scheinwald, a sleazy movie executive who tries to stop his grandson (played by Seth Meyers) from making Scheinwald Studios' films artistic
• A cocktail waitress in "Rialto Grande"
• Debbie Downer
• Suckin' Dick, a terrible amateur Asian actor.
• 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"
• Alice, Ben's assistant in Click

Celebrity impersonations

• Amy Ray (of The Indigo Girls)
• Anne Robinson
• Arianna Huffington
• Barbara Walters (also performed on 30 Rock)
• Brett Somers
• Britney Spears (in a pretaped fake commercial for the short-lived reality show, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic with Seth Meyers as Kevin Federline)
• Calista Flockhart
• Cheb Mami
• Cynthia Nixon
• 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
• Elijah Wood
• 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 Longoria played Teri Hatcher)
• Harriet Miers
• Harry Potter
• 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
• James Madison
• Jamie S. Gorelick
• Janeane Garofalo (former SNL castmember)
• Jean Schmidt
• Jeannie C. Riley
• Jenny Jones
• Judith Nathan
• Julie Seitter (the voice of the Amtrak telephone line interactive voice response agent)
• Kelly Osbourne
• Kimberley Locke
• Lynndie England
• Martha Stewart
• 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
• Rita Rudner
• Sue Johanson
• Tara Reid
• Toni Basil
• Wendy Pepper
• Zelda Rubenstein, portraying her character from Poltergeist

References

External links

• Rachel Dratch at the Internet Movie Database