Rachel Dratch

Rachel Susan Dratch (born February 22, 1966) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. After she graduated from Dartmouth College, she moved to Chicago to study improvisational theatre at The Second City and ImprovOlympic. Dratch is widely known for her tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006, portraying a variety of roles, including Debbie Downer. She intermittently returned to SNL to portray Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Her other television credits include The King of Queens (2002–2004), Frasier (2004), 30 Rock (2006–2012), and Broad City (2014–2016). She has also played the recurring role of Wanda Jo Oliver on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and acted in films such as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), Spring Breakdown (2009), That's My Boy (2012), and Plan B (2021).

In 2022, Dratch made her Broadway stage debut in POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play at the 75th Tony Awards. She was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 79th Tony Awards for her performance in Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show.

Early life Rachel Dratch was born on February 22, 1966, in Lexington, Massachusetts, Both of Dratch's parents were Reform Jews. Dratch attended Hebrew school and had a bat mitzvah. She is religiously nonobservant as an adult, and characterizes the faith she was born into as part of her cultural heritage.

Her younger brother, Daniel, is a television producer and writer; his credits include the TV series Anger Management and Monk. Dratch says she grew up as the "class-clown type"

Dratch attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in the fall of 1985 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988. She majored in drama and psychology, and was a member of the improvisational comedy group, Said and Done.

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 two revues in which she performed: Paradigm Lost and Promisekeepers, Losers Weepers. At The Second City, she performed alongside future Saturday Night Live 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 The 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 City, 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 films, including Martin & Orloff, The Hebrew Hammer, Down with Love, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Click, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Spring Breakdown, My Life in Ruins, Hurricane Bianca, and Hurricane Bianca: From Russia With Hate. 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 also made television appearances on NBC's Third Watch and in a recurring role on The King of Queens (playing Denise, the on-off girlfriend of Patton Oswalt's character Spence Olchin, who worked in a bowling alley). Her other television appearances include Portlandia, Monk, Frasier, Wizards of Waverly Place, 30 Rock, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Inside Amy Schumer, Ugly Betty, and The Middle in season five.

She also appeared online with comedian Billy Eichner in a spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys's "Empire State of Mind", titled "Forest Hills State of Mind."

Dratch was originally cast in the role of Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock as Jenna DeCarlo, and the original pilot episode features her in the role. After feedback from test audiences, the role was ultimately recast with Jane Krakowski. She went on to play a variety of small guest roles in several episodes of the first season, including Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Taylor, cat trainer Greta Johansen, custodian Jadwiga, a blue monster, and Dr. Beauvoir.

Dratch's memoir, Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle, was published on March 19, 2012. In it, Dratch recounts her experiences after being recast in the 30 Rock pilot, including the birth of her child.

Dratch hosted the program Rachel Dratch's Late Night Snack on truTV in 2016. The sketch comedy program featured Dratch playing a waitress who does not talk in wraparound segments. Dratch also appeared in sketches and the show ran for two seasons.

Saturday Night Live Dratch's tenure at SNL spanned 1999 to 2006. Dratch's recurring characters included Denise McDenna, a Boston teen; Sheldon, the junior-high-school boy from Wake up, Wakefield; Virginia Clarvin, a pretentious professor known as one of "The Love-ahs"; Abe Scheinwald, a Hollywood producer with a terrible acquisition record; and (perhaps most memorably) Debbie Downer, a depressed woman who brought others' moods down with her grim non sequiturs.

She made a guest appearance on SNLs season 37 Christmas show, hosted by former cast member Jimmy Fallon, in December 2011. She made another guest appearance with host Jimmy Fallon on April 15, 2017. On a February 3, 2018, season-43 episode hosted by Natalie Portman, she made a guest appearance as a "Patriot of New England" in a Revolutionary War-themed sketch parodying the fans of the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles in advance of Super Bowl LII.

On a September 29, 2018, season-44 episode hosted by Adam Driver, she appeared as Senator Amy Klobuchar in the opening sketch, about the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. She continued to reprise the role of Klobuchar during sketches on the 2020 Democratic Party Presidential primary debates, specifically the fifth and sixth debates in November and December 2019.

Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch Podcast Dratch launched her podcast Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch by QCODE alongside her longtime friend Irene Bremis on October 10, 2023. The show explores paranormal, metaphysical, and “woo-woo” topics such as spirits, psychic readings and crystals. Guests include well-known figures like Tina Fey, Will Forte, and Gloria Steinem, who share personal experiences of the supernatural.

Personal life In her book Girl Walks Into a Bar..., Dratch discusses hooking up with John Wahl, a consultant in the natural foods industry, after meeting in a bar in 2009. Six months later, Dratch was pregnant with their child, and on August 24, 2010, Dratch gave birth to Eli Benjamin, her son with Wahl. In an October 2010 interview, Dratch told People that her pregnancy at age 44 shocked her because she "had bought into all this stuff about, 'Once you're over 40 [pregnancy becomes difficult]'" and had "gone through the whole process of letting go of [the idea of having kids]." As of 2019, Dratch and Wahl were not a couple, but were on good terms and live near each other to parent their son.

Books Dratch also narrates the audiobook.

Acting credits Film Year Title Role Notes 1999 Serious Business Jude Rusell 2002 Martin & Orloff Southern Woman 2003 The Hebrew Hammer Tikva Down with Love Gladys National Lampoon's Barely Legal Mrs. Greitzer Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star Reiner's Secretary 2004 Freshman Orientation Very Drunk Chick Looking for Kitty Julie 2005 Her Minor Thing Caroline Winter Passing Female MC 2006 Click Alice/Alan The Pleasure Drivers Counter Monkey 2007 I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Sara Powers 2008 Bill Dr. Robardo Short film Harold Ms. Vicky Norris 2009 Spring Breakdown Judi Joskow Also writer and producer Love N' Dancing Kalle I Hate Valentine's Day Kathy Jeemy My Life in Ruins Kim Sawchuck 2011 Just Go with It Kirsten Brant 2012 Teacher of The Year Assistant Principal Short film That's My Boy Phil's Wife 2013 Syrup Clerk 2014 A Little Game Aunt Diane 2015 The Grief of Others Madeleine Berkowitz Sisters Kelly 2016 Hurricane Bianca Deborah Ward Tracktown Gail Marigold 2018 The Week Of Debbie Lustig Hurricane Bianca 2: From Russia with Hate Deborah Ward 2019 Little Agent Bea Wine Country Rebecca 2021 Plan B Ms. Flaucher A Clüsterfünke Christmas MargaAlso writer and producer 2022 I Love My Dad Erica 2023 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Ms. C. Weber Voice 2024The 4:30 MovieMrs. David

Television

Theater

Web Year Title Role Notes 2015 The Dratchelor Herself Funny Or Die web series

Awards and nominations YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.2022 Tony Awards Best Featured Actress in a PlayPOTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive Drama League AwardDistinguished Performance 2026 Tony Awards Best Featured Actress in a MusicalRichard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show Dorian AwardOutstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Musical