Who knew gluing a plastic arm to your head, wearing false teeth, and drooling on yourself to act as the love child of Angelina Jolie and her brother could be so damn funny? That character (even given a name: Kerplixik), along with several others, has led comedian Rachel Dratch through her uproarious tenure on Saturday Night Live. Born February 22, 1966, Dratch grew up in Lexington, MA; her mother was the director of a nonprofit agency and her father, a radiologist. Dratch majored in Drama at Dartmouth College and graduated in 1989. She spent six months doing a children's theater tour and then moved to Chicago, where she signed up for classes at ImprovOlympic and spent years working on her skills. After four years on the main stage of Chicago's Second City troupe -- the fertile comedic ground that sprouted Horatio Sanz, Tina Fey, and several other well-known names in the SNL family tree -- she was ready for prime time.
Since her start on Saturday Night Live in 1999, Dratch's versatility has helped her build quite a list of memorable characters. From her Denise to Jimmy Fallon's horny Bostonian boyfriend, Sully, to her wispy little Calista Flockhart impression, Dratch easily goes from nerd (à la Sheldon on "Wake Up Wakefield") to sensuous "luv-uh" Virginia to Will Ferrell's Professor Klarvin. In 2000, she and Fey put on their two-woman show, Dratch & Fey, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. And in 2001, a short film that Dratch wrote, directed, and performed (The Vagina Monologues Monologues, also featuring Fey and SNL performer Amy Poehler) premiered at the New York Comedy Film Festival. She has appeared in the movie Down With Love (with Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger) and the independent film The Hebrew Hammer (with Adam Goldberg). Her television appearances include Late Night with Conan O'Brien, CBS' King of Queens, and Third Watch. Dratch and Fey left SNL after the 2005-2006 season to try their luck on a primetime slot with 30 Rock, a sitcom about a television writer (played by Fey) and her supporting cast. In August 2010, Dratch gave birth to a son, Eli. She continued to show up here and there, including reprising her role of Debbie Downer on SNL for the infamous Betty White episode, appearing on 30 Rock's live episode in October 2010, and inFunny or Die Presents skits on HBO. She went on to take small supporting roles in the comedies Just Go With It (2011) and That's My Boy (2012).
