Rachel Dratch

Infobox actor
name = Rachel Dratch

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birthplace = Lexington, Massachusetts, U.S.
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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.

Biography

Early life

Dratch was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA, the daughter of Elaine, an energy director, and Paul Dratch, a radiologist. She was raised in Reform Judaism [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/dratch.html Rachel Dratch ] ] at Temple Isaiah. Dratch graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988, where she majored in drama and psychology and was a member of the improv comedy group the Dog Day Players. She attended the National Theater Institute in the fall of '86. 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", ', "Click" and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". 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", which premiered at the New York Comedy Film Festival in 2001. Dratch also participated in a workshop for ' in the role of Paulette, but did not follow the production to its later San Francisco or Broadway incarnation.

"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. Dratch's first sketch featuring Downer became infamous when during the sketch, Downer's remarks about sterility, the greenhouse effect, and 'feline AIDS' caused everyone (including Dratch, but save for Fred Armisen) to break character. [ [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/03/03rdowner.phtml SNL Transcripts: Lindsay Lohan: 05/01/04: Debbie Downer ] ] With seven seasons under her belt, Dratch became "SNL"'s longest running female castmember 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 by Jane Krakowski. [ [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1516176,00.html The scoop on '30 Rock' | 30 Rock | Television News | TV | Entertainment Weekly ] ] Dratch made cameo appearances as various characters in several first-season episodes; however, she did not appear in any of the second-season episodes.

After a guest spot on "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", Dratch's voice has appeared in numerous episodes of "Assy McGee" on Adult Swim.

"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
* 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

*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")
*Calista Flockhart
*Cheb Mami
*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
*Elian Gonzalez (in a musical parody of the little Cuban boy's journey across the Florida Straits on an inner tube, encounter with dolphins and rescue by fishermen)
*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)
*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
*Jamie S. Gorelick
*James Madison
*Janeane Garofalo (former "SNL" castmember)
*Jean Schmidt
*Jeannie C. Riley
*Jenny Jones
*Judith Nathan
*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

* [http://www.rachel-dratch.com Rachel Dratch fan site]
* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/03/03rdowner.phtml Transcript of the Debbie Downer Debut]
*imdb name|id=0237222|name=Rachel Dratch