Whether it was with spot-on impressions or a wealth of original characters like her most famous creation, Debbie Downer, comic performer Rachel Dratch proved to be an invaluable addition to the cast of NBC’s sketch comedy classic, “Saturday Night Live” (1975- ), after joining the show in 1999.
Born Feb. 22, 1966 in Lexington, MA, the future cutup watched “SNL” as a child, idolizing in particular, the show’s groundbreaking female cast member Gilda Radner. While in high school, the creative teen split her time between learning to play the cello and auditioning for school plays. Her good grades eased the way to Dartmouth College, where she studied psychology, but continued to try her hand at acting. It was during her involvement with an improv comedy team that she began to take seriously the idea of pursing comedy as a career.
After graduating college in 1988, she took the plunge and moved to Chicago with hopes of joining the Second City comedy troupe – stomping ground for many a SNL alumni. First she joined another comedy group, the Improv Olympic, before auditioning for classes at Second City. In the meantime, she worked a variety of sometimes odd jobs to pay the bills – everything from a run-of-the-mill clerical temp to dressing as Tweety Bird for a Warner Bros. store stint.
After a few years of classes, Dratch finally joined Second City’s touring group to earn her stripes before becoming part of the company’s mainstage revue – Piñata Full of Bees. After Dratch earned acting accolades for this work, she made a brief appearance at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, before moving on to her next Second City revue in 1996. It was during this particular show, that she became fast friends with future “SNL” cast mate, Tina Fey. Eventually, the performers created the two-woman show, “Dratch & Fey,” which they would restage years later to great success. When Fey was recruited to become head writer of “SNL” in 1997, Dratch auditioned for the show, but was not initially hired. She continued to perform in Second City, until another "SNL" audition in 1999 cinched the deal, reuniting her with Fey and giving her featured player status on her dream gig.
After her first performance as Calista Flockhart, Dratch quickly carved out a cadre of memorably quirky characters, including Denise of the heavily-accented “Boston teens” sketch with Jimmy Fallon; Sheldon, an awkward high school boy and star of the high school morning show, “Wake Up, Wakefield, with Maya Rudolph; and Virginia, the oversexed wife of “luvah” Will Ferrell and one half of the swinging couple, the Klarvins. Another recurring Dratch favorite was “The Girl with no Gaydar.” Based on an experience at a party she attended in college, Dratch played a single girl, clueless that the plethora of men around her are gay, and therefore, not interested in her. Her best known character was the relentlessly dour, buzz-killing Debbie Downer. Dratch’s first performance of the character was so inspired that her seasoned cast mates, as well as guest host, Lindsay Lohan, repeatedly broke character, laughing every time she uttered a typical downer observation. Dratch proved so reliable, she earned her official cast member wings at the beginning of the 2001-02 season.
Outside of “SNL,” Dratch’s biggest role was that of recurring character, Denise, on several episodes of “King of Queens,” starting in 2003. Before the sitcom, she played a mentally challenged patient on the NBC drama, “Third Watch” (1999-2005) in 2000, and voiced a character on the popular animated Disney show, “Kim Possible” (2002- ) in 2002. She also wrote and directed the short comedy film, “The Vagina Monologues Monologues,” which premiered at the New York Comedy Film Festival in 2001. Her big screen efforts include a brief role in the David Spade feature film, “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star” and in the romantic comedy “Down with Love,” as well as the Adam Goldberg independent feature, “The Hebrew Hammer, ” all in 2003. Dratch also appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy “Click” (2006), and signed on for the untitled post-“Mean Girls” Tina Fey-penned film project.