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Rachel Dratch

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Rachel Dratch
File:Racheldratchdebbie.jpg
Rachel Dratch as Debbie Downer on SNL.

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

Biography

Early life

Dratch was born in Lexington, Massachusetts 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.

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. [1]

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 [2].

However, Dratch has remained on the show and she now makes a cameo appearance as a different character each episode. Among the roles played so far are: Cat wrangler, Maid on Boat, Elizabeth Taylor (Season 1, Episode 7), No-Feet Blue Man (Tracy Does Conan), Race Relations Counselor, Barbara Walters, and Jack's drunken Valentine's Prostitute.

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 artistically relevant
  • 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

Trivia

  • At an even 5 feet (1.52 m) tall, she is the second shortest regular SNL castmember, being 16 inches (41 cm) shorter than the tallest castmembers: Chevy Chase, Kevin Nealon and Randy Quaid. (Denny Dillon, from SNL's widely-panned sixth season, is the shortest castmember, standing only 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) tall).
  • 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.
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