Petite, wide-eyed with a mass of curls, Andrea Martin created several memorable characters as part of the troupe writing and performing on "Second City TV/SCTV/SCTV Network" (syndicated 1977-81; NBC 1981-83). Two of her more memorable creations were the gibberish-spouting cleaning woman Prini Schlerosi and the leopard-skin clad, tightly-wound TV station manager Edith Prickly. During the course of the series run, Martin was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards for her writing (winning back to back awards in 1981/82 and 1982/83) and one for her characterizations.
Of Armenian descent, Martin was born and raised in Portland, ME. Her mother has claimed she started performing at age four, entertaining fellow patients in a pediatric ward and she became involved with local children's theater. As a teenager, Martin made her professional debut as a singer at Portland's annual Armenian Dance and Picnic. After earning her degree from Emerson College, she moved to NYC and almost immediately landed the role of Lucy in a stage production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown".
A romance led her to relocate to Toronto, where Martin appeared with Martin Short, Gilda Radner and Victor Garber in a now legendary production of "Godspell". Other stage roles followed and this "honorary Canadian" was invited to join the Second City troupe as they were developing a TV variety series. Her success on "SCTV" led to other offers; Martin made a number of busted pilots. She also appeared in numerous comedy specials, including "Martin Short Concert for North America" (Showtime, 1985), HBO's "Comic Relief" (1986) and headlined her own Canadian Broadcasting Corporation special, "Andrea Martin: Together Again" (1989). Martin had landed a recurring role on the CBS sitcom "Kate and Allie" and was spun-off into her own short-lived effort "Roxie" (CBS, 1987), but the result barely tapped her zany abilities. Martin has seemed more at home in the looser structure of sketch comedy where her innate humor and oddball characters can flourish. She co-starred on longtime friend Martin Short's eponymous NBC sitcom, but again was hampered by the format.
Martin's big screen outings began with Ivan Reitman's improvisational "Cannibal Girls" (1973), but she never really found a breakthrough role to propel her to movie stardom. Martin was mostly relegated to small character roles as in "Wholly Moses!" (1980), "Club Paradise" (1986) and "Too Much Sun" (1991). She was appropriately mousy as a librarian with a yen to dance in "Stepping Out" (1991) and had a few good moments as Whoopi Goldberg's long-suffering, but faithful secretary in the appropriately titled "Bogus" (1996).
In 1992, Martin returned to stage work, scoring a Tony Award as Featured Actress in a Musical for her delightful turn as the only female staff writer on a 50s TV show not unlike "Your Show of Shows" in "My Favorite Year", an uneven musicalization of the charming 1982 film. In the 1993 L.A. production of Terrence McNally's "Lips Together, Teeth Apart", she had the role of a pretentious suburban housewife alongside Nathan Lane, John Glover and Roxanne Hart. Martin tackled the Bard in the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1994 production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor". The play was reconceived and set in an American frontier town with Martin's Mistress Quickly now a saloon owner. The results were uneven, but most critics singled the actress out for praise. "Nude, Nude, Totally Nude" (1996) was Martin's one-woman show which allowed her free rein to create a galaxy of characters while also exploring her heritage, her marriage and her affairs with younger men. The actress returned to Broadway in the 1997 revival of "Candide", winning praise for her portrayal of the garrulous Old Lady.