A reed-thin, wild-haired member of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players during the first five seasons of NBC's "Saturday Night Live", Laraine Newman did not achieve the fame of Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd, but carved out a niche as a comic performer of TV and film roles, albeit often in sporadic succession. Raised in the Los Angeles area, Newman studied mime in Paris with Marcel Marceau in the early 1970s. Returning to L.A. in 1972, she joined with several other performers to found the noted improvisational troupe The Groundlings. Spotted by Lily Tomlin while performing with the troupe, Newman was hired to appear in one of Tomlin's TV specials. In 1975, she was tapped to be a regular sketch performer in the CBS summer variety series "The Manhattan Transfer", featuring the singing quartet. Soon after, Lorne Michael was gathering performers for "Saturday Night Live" and chose Newman as one of the original members of the cast. During her stint on the show, she essayed a number of characters ranging from Connie Conehead, the alien daughter trying to pass as human, to such real-life figures as First Lady Rosalyn Carter, Barbra Streisand and Indira Gandhi.
Like her fellow "SNL"-ers, Newman tried to parlay her small screen success into a film career, but along with Jane Curtain and Gilda Radner, found the transition difficult. She made her film debut in the satirical "Tunnelvision" (1976) and delivered a fine performance as a Carole King-like local singer in the ensemble drama "American Hot Wax" (1978). She went on to essay a love-starved spa patron in "Perfect" (1984) and a daffy mother in "Invaders from Mars" (1986). In 1991, Newman was the man-hungry owner of the local bank in "Problem Child 2" before rejoining her "SNL" co-stars Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd in "Coneheads" (1993). More recently, she had small roles in "The Flintstones" (1994) and "Jingle All the Way" (1996).