Biography
Ana Gasteyer gained initial recognition through her six-year run as a cast member on Saturday Night Live beginning in 1996, later adding to her profile with the role of Sheila Shay on the ABC comedy Suburgatory across its full 2011–2014 run. A formally trained singer drawn to jazz standards, she has also maintained an active presence in musical theater, making her Broadway bow in 2000 as part of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and contributing to several cast recordings, among them the televised productions of Reefer Madness and Grease. Her first solo album, the standards collection I'm Hip, appeared in 2014.
Born in Washington, D.C., Gasteyer took up violin during childhood and later concentrated on voice and theater at Northwestern University, completing her studies in 1989. She then joined the Groundlings improv troupe in Los Angeles, an affiliation that led to guest roles on Seinfeld, Frasier, and NYPD Blue. From 1996 to 2002 she appeared regularly on Saturday Night Live, where audiences came to know her through characters such as music teacher Bobbie Mohan-Culp, co-host Margaret Jo McCullen on the NPR Delicious Dish sketches, and her impressions of Martha Stewart and Celine Dion. While still with the show, she performed for three months in mid-2001 as Columbia and the Usherette in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
After exiting SNL, Gasteyer divided her schedule among stage, film, and television work, taking supporting parts in the 2004 feature Mean Girls and the 2005 Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical special. She returned to Broadway in mid-2006 for Alan Cumming’s staging of The Threepenny Opera and again later that year for a limited engagement as Elphaba in Wicked. The decade closed with multiple television guest appearances, additional film roles in The Women and Finn on the Fly, and a late-2009 Broadway appearance in The Royal Family.
A recurring role as a judge on CBS’ The Good Wife began in 2010, after which she joined Suburgatory in 2011. In 2014 she issued her solo debut, I'm Hip. An off-Broadway revival of A New Brain followed in 2015, and she appeared as Principal McGee in the 2016 live television presentation of Grease Live!. That same year brought roles in the short-lived series People of Earth and Lady Dynamite. In 2017 she portrayed Mrs. Schwartz in A Christmas Story Live! while also supplying voices for Harvey Breaks and The Lion Guard and maintaining a schedule of television guest spots; her second solo album, the holiday set Sugar & Booze, arrived in 2019.
Born in Washington, D.C., Gasteyer took up violin during childhood and later concentrated on voice and theater at Northwestern University, completing her studies in 1989. She then joined the Groundlings improv troupe in Los Angeles, an affiliation that led to guest roles on Seinfeld, Frasier, and NYPD Blue. From 1996 to 2002 she appeared regularly on Saturday Night Live, where audiences came to know her through characters such as music teacher Bobbie Mohan-Culp, co-host Margaret Jo McCullen on the NPR Delicious Dish sketches, and her impressions of Martha Stewart and Celine Dion. While still with the show, she performed for three months in mid-2001 as Columbia and the Usherette in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
After exiting SNL, Gasteyer divided her schedule among stage, film, and television work, taking supporting parts in the 2004 feature Mean Girls and the 2005 Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical special. She returned to Broadway in mid-2006 for Alan Cumming’s staging of The Threepenny Opera and again later that year for a limited engagement as Elphaba in Wicked. The decade closed with multiple television guest appearances, additional film roles in The Women and Finn on the Fly, and a late-2009 Broadway appearance in The Royal Family.
A recurring role as a judge on CBS’ The Good Wife began in 2010, after which she joined Suburgatory in 2011. In 2014 she issued her solo debut, I'm Hip. An off-Broadway revival of A New Brain followed in 2015, and she appeared as Principal McGee in the 2016 live television presentation of Grease Live!. That same year brought roles in the short-lived series People of Earth and Lady Dynamite. In 2017 she portrayed Mrs. Schwartz in A Christmas Story Live! while also supplying voices for Harvey Breaks and The Lion Guard and maintaining a schedule of television guest spots; her second solo album, the holiday set Sugar & Booze, arrived in 2019.
Albums
Singles
