Rachel Dratch - Career

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 latter two revues in which she performed: Paradigm Lost and Promisekeepers, Losers Weepers. At Second City, she performed alongside future SNL 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 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, 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 movies, including Martin & Orloff, The Hebrew Hammer, Down with Love, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Click, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Spring Breakdown, and My Life in Ruins. 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 King of Queens (playing Denise, the on-off girlfriend of Spence, who worked in a bowling alley). Other television appearances include Monk, Frasier, Wizards of Waverly Place, 30 Rock, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and, more recently, the season three finale of Ugly Betty. She recently appeared online with comedian Billy Eichner in a spoof of Jay-Z's and Alicia Keys's "Empire State of Mind," titled "Forest Hills State of Mind."

Dratch was originally cast in the role of Jenna on 30 Rock, and the original pilot episode features her in the role. It did not test well, and the role was recast. She went on to play a variety of small guest roles in several episodes of the first season, including Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Taylor, a cat trainer, a maid and a blue monster.

She has also appeared on the children's show Yo Gabba Gabba!.

She voices Koi and Esmargot from the show Fish Hooks.

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