Maya Rudolph
Rudolph at the "Up All Night" Cast at Paley Center 2012
Born	Maya Khabira Rudolph (1972-07-27) July 27, 1972 (age 39) Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Alma mater	Porter College, (UC Santa Cruz) B.A., 1993
Occupation	Actress, comedienne, singer
Years active	1996–present
Partner	Paul Thomas Anderson
Children	3
Parents	Minnie Riperton Richard Rudolph
Notes [1][2]

Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress, comedienne and singer who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007, and has appeared in films such as Away We Go, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups, A Prairie Home Companion and MacGruber. She is the daughter of R&B and soul singer Minnie Riperton and music producer/composer Richard Rudolph. Since 2011, she has co-starred in the NBC sitcom Up All Night.

Early life[link]

Rudolph was born in Gainesville, Florida. She is the daughter of soul singer Minnie Riperton and composer/songwriter/producer Richard Rudolph. Her father is Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother was African-American.^[3][4] Her paternal grandfather was Sidney Rudolph, a philanthropist who once owned all of the Wendy's and Rudy's restaurants in Dade County, FL.^[5] Her parents moved to Los Angeles when she and her brother Marc were very young, and they grew up primarily in the Westwood section.^[2]

Rudolph was in the studio with her mother on the day Riperton recorded "Lovin' You",^{[citation needed]} Near the end of the track, Riperton can be heard singing "Maya, Maya, Maya" to Rudolph. Riperton incorporated this into her performance of the song on The Midnight Special.^[6] Riperton died on July 12, 1979, at age 31, from breast cancer, just shy of Rudolph's seventh birthday.^[2] Rudolph's godmother was R&B singer Teena Marie.^[7]

Education[link]

Growing up, Rudolph attended high school at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, where she became friendly with fellow alumna Gwyneth Paltrow, and continued her education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she graduated in 1995 with a B.A. in photography from Porter College.^[8]

Career[link]

[edit] Saturday Night Live

In May 2000, Rudolph joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a featured player for the final three episodes of the 1999–2000 season, after a stint as a member of The Groundlings improv troupe, where she met future Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte.^[2]

Rudolph's characters on the show have included "Attorney Glenda Goodwin" and "Megan" from the "Wake Up, Wakefield!" sketches. Rudolph has performed impressions of Oprah Winfrey, Christina Aguilera, Condoleezza Rice, Paris Hilton, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Tyra Banks, Patti LaBelle, Beyoncé, Liza Minnelli, LaToya Jackson, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Rocsi and Marie "Free" Wright (of 106 & Park), and designer Donatella Versace.

Rudolph's musical talents were frequently employed on Saturday Night Live. She sang as Beyoncé Knowles in the Prince Show sketches, as the "Space Creature" in the Gays in Space sketches (except for the one on the Season 31 episode hosted by Peter Sarsgaard, because it aired around the time Rudolph was on maternity leave. (Friend Will Forte substituted for her during that episode.) Her ability to change her looks and her command of many accents also led to her playing an unusually wide range of ethnicities on the show, often with only a change of wigs. She has been white (Paris Hilton, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Lisa Kudrow), Asian (Lucy Liu, Lisa Ling), black (Diana Ross, Tina Turner), and Latina (Charo). As "Nooni Schoener," Rudolph, along with Fred Armisen (who, like Rudolph, is multiracial), created a couple from an unspecified Scandinavian country, who have unplaceable accents and bewilderingly foreign manners. Rudolph was also able to play male characters such as Scott Joplin, Justin Guarini, and Mario Vazquez.

Her final show was on November 3, 2007, with host Brian Williams and musical guest Feist, the last episode before the writers' strike. She returned on October 25, 2008, in a featured guest appearance as Michelle Obama and sang a duet with Kenan Thompson about Amy Poehler's newborn. She then also appeared in the 2008 Christmas episode, where she reprised her role in the sketch Bronx Beat, with Amy Poehler. She also appeared in two sketches in the 2008–2009 season finale with Will Ferrell. She appeared in a Weekend Update Thursday sketch during the fall 2009–10 season as Oprah Winfrey speaking on behalf of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. She also appeared on the show in May 2010 to perform in skits including "The Manuel Ortiz Show" with Betty White.

She returned to Saturday Night Live for the Season 36 premiere, hosted by Amy Poehler, performing the "Bronx Beat" sketch and that same season for episode 700, hosted by Tina Fey.^[9]

On February 18,2012 she returned to Saturday Night Live as a host for the first time and reprised her roles in sketches such as "Bronx Beat".

Television and film[link]

In addition to her work on Saturday Night Live, Rudolph has appeared on other television shows, including the CBS medical drama series City of Angels and Chicago Hope.

She had small parts in Chuck & Buck, Gattaca, As Good as It Gets, Duplex and Duets; she was also a music supervisor for Duets. Her first prominent film role came in 2006 with A Prairie Home Companion. Earlier, she had co-starred with Luke Wilson in the 2005 Mike Judge sci-fi comedy Idiocracy, although that film was shelved until September 2006 and then only given a limited release. She also guest starred as Rapunzel in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek the Third. She guest starred as Julia in the The Simpsons episode "The Homer of Seville". Rudolph guest starred as character Athena Scooberman in NBC's Kath & Kim, and starred in the film Away We Go with The Office star John Krasinski. In 2010, she appeared in Grown Ups starring Adam Sandler, where she played the wife of Chris Rock's character. In 2011 she appeared in Bridesmaids, together with Saturday Night Live colleague Kristen Wiig. Since 2011, she has co-starred in NBC's latest sitcom, Up All Night, with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett.

Music[link]

Prior to joining Saturday Night Live, Rudolph was backing singer (1995-1999)^[1] and briefly a keyboardist in the band The Rentals, with whom she toured for a short time.^[2] She also appears in the music videos of the songs "Waiting" and "Please Let That Be You" by the band. She sang backing vocals for "Barcelona" and "My Head Is in the Sun," both from the album Seven More Minutes. In 2004, she recorded a track with the Rentals frontman Matt Sharp, including a cover of Tegan and Sara's "Not Tonight." Rudolph also performed "Together In Pooping" and "Little Roundworm" with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (Robert Smigel) on his album Come Poop With Me.

Personal life[link]

Rudolph lives with director Paul Thomas Anderson and their three children — daughters Pearl Minnie (born October 15, 2005) and Lucille (born November 6, 2009),^[10] and son Jack (born July 3, 2011).^[11]

[edit] Recurring characters on Saturday Night Live

• Appreciante
• Megan, one of the co-hosts of "Wake Up, Wakefield!"
• Jackie
• Jodi Dietz, one of the co-hosts of "Bronx Beat"
• Beertje Van Beers
• Mrs. Denmont
• Britanica of Gemini's Twin
• Leilani Burke
• Rebecca
• Cocktail Waitress
• Space Creature
• Casey
• Charli Coffee
• Glenda Goodwin
• Patti Sylviac
• Nuni Schoener

[edit] Celebrity impressions on Saturday Night Live

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Maya Rudolph at the Internet Movie Database