Ana Gasteyer

Ana Kristina Gasteyer (born May 4, 1967) is an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best known as a cast member on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2002 and for co-starring as Sheila Shay on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory.

Early life

Gasteyer was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Mariana Roumell-Gasteyer, an artist, and Phil Gasteyer, a lobbyist who later became the mayor of Corrales, New Mexico. Her maternal grandparents were Romanian and Greek. She graduated from Sidwell Friends School and Northwestern University School of Communication in 1989. While a teenager, she was a talking head on an uncommercial segment ("What is a friend?" Her answer: “Someone you can be weird with.”) of the short-lived PBS show Powerhouse. During her first year, she lived on the fourth floor of Willard Residential College on campus and majored in voice. She later became a theater major.

Career

Gasteyer developed comedy experience with the famed Los Angeles improv – sketch comedy group The Groundlings. She played small roles on Seinfeld (as a doomed customer of The Soup Nazi), as well as on the shows Party of Five, Frasier, Hope & Gloria and NYPD Blue. In 1996 Gasteyer joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. Among her most popular characters were high school music teacher Bobbie Mohan-Culp, National Public Radio Delicious Dish host Margaret Jo McCullen, Lilith Festival feminist singer Cinder Calhoun, and her impressions of Martha Stewart and Celine Dion. In 2000, she and Chris Parnell auditioned to succeed Colin Quinn as co-anchors of the news parody segment Weekend Update, but the positions ultimately went to Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon.