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

Personal

Rudolph is the daughter of the late soul singer Minnie Riperton and Jewish American composer/songwriter/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. Growing up biracial and losing her mother at a young age 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."

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.

Rudolph and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson are in a relationship, and had a daughter, Pearl Bailey Anderson, 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

TV & 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 movies. She can be seen briefly in the Jack Nicholson film As Good As It Gets as a police officer after the robbery scene. She had small parts in the 2000 films Chuck & Buck 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 of 2006 and then only given a limited release.

Music

Prior to joining SNL, Rudolph was briefly a keyboardist and backing singer for the band The Rentals. 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 (most notably a cover of Tegan and Sara's "Not Tonight").

Rudolph performed Together In Pooping with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on his CD, Come Poop With Me.

Saturday Night Live

She joined SNL 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, Charo, Paris Hilton, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Tyra Banks, Patty LaBelle, time-travelling Scott Joplin, Beyoncé, Liza Minelli, LaToya Jackson,and most famously, designer Donatella Versace.

Rudolph appeared in the first SNL episode of the 2005-2006 season 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 Beyonce Knowles in the Prince's 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 a blonde white woman (Lisa Kudrow, Paris Hilton), Asian American (Lucy Liu, an embodiment of the Japanese yen on a one-off sketch about the American dollar (played by Amy Poehler) being bullied by foreign currencies because of how weak the dollar has become, and a sarcastic Japanese waitress on the fake commercial, "How To Order Sushi Like A CEO"), African American (Condoleezza Rice, Whitney Houston), Latin (Charo, Christina Aguilera, a "Besos Y Lagrimas" actress), and more. As Nuni Showner, she, along with Fred Armisen, created a couple from an unspecified European country, who have unplaceable accents and bewilderingly foreign manners. Rudolph is also able to play male characters (Scott Joplin, Lorne Michaels, Justin Guarini, a male doppelganger of herself on the fake commercial "MeHarmony.com") on top of playing females.

Characters

• Appreciante (Starkishka & Appreciante)
• Beertje Van Beers (Club Traxx)
• Brittanica (Gemini's Twin)
• Cocktail Waitress (Rialto Grande)
• Gelnda Goodwin (Second Time Around)
• Jackie
• Leilani Burke
• Megan (Wake Up Wakefield!)
• Mrs. Denmont (Appalachian Emergency Room)
• Nuni Showner (Art Dealers)
• Patti Sylviac
• Rebecca (Fiesta Politica)
• Space Creature (Gays In Space)

Impressions

• Amanda Byram
• Ananda Lewis
• Barbara Streisand
• Beyonce Knowles
• Charo
• Christina Aguilera
• Condoleezza Rice
• 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
• Lawanda Page
• Lisa Kudrow
• Lisa Ling
• Liza Minelli
• Lorne Michaels
• Lucy Liu
• Lynda Lopez
• Macy Gray
• Mariah Carey
• Mario Vasquez
• Marta Mercado
• Mary Roach
• Melissa Stark
• Mya
• Nelly Furtado
• Nicky Hilton
• Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth
• Oprah Winfrey
• Paris Hilton
• Patti LaBelle
• Scott Joplin
• Teresa Heinz Kerry
• Tina Turner
• Tyra Banks
• Valerie Simpson
• Vanessa Bryant
• Wanda Sykes
• Whitney Houston

See also

• List of multiracial people

External Links

• USA Weekend magazine article from January 2004

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