Mary Lynn Rajskub

Early life

Rajskub was born in Detroit and grew up in Trenton, Michigan south of Detroit. She has two older sisters and is the daughter of Betty and Tony Rajskub, a pharmacist's assistant and a pipefitter, respectively.

One of her childhood inspirations was the television series Moonlighting. Rajskub attended the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit and later the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco. During the early nineties, she often performed at various open mics in the city. She later moved to Los Angeles working as a waitress in a Hard Rock Cafe.

Career

Rajskub's first part was as an Oompa-Loompa in a community theater production of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and her first starring role was Raggedy Ann. In 1996 she appeared in music videos for the songs "The Good Life" by Weezer and "The New Pollution" by Beck. She was one of the original cast members of Mr. Show with Bob and David. From 1996–1998, she had a recurring role on the HBO series The Larry Sanders Show as booking assistant Mary Lou Collins, appearing in 18 episodes. She later had a recurring role on the 1990s sitcom Veronica's Closet on NBC, playing Chloe for 15 episodes.

Her most notable role is CTU systems analyst Chloe O'Brian on 24, which she joined in 2003 at the start of the show's third season. Her character was a hit with viewers and critics and was one of the few cast members to return in the show's fourth season. After being a regular guest star for two seasons, Rajskub became a main cast member in the show's fifth season. By the end of the series, she was the lead female, with top billing second only to Kiefer Sutherland. Her character also had the honor of saying the final words of the series in the season 8 series finale. Rajskub and Sutherland appeared briefly as their 24 characters in a 2007 episode, "24 Minutes", of The Simpsons, an animated Fox series. In August 2013, it was announced that she would reprise her Chloe O'Brian role in the 2014 limited series 24: Live Another Day.

Rajskub appeared in Kelsey Grammer's The Sketch Show on Fox Television, The King of Queens as a character named Priscilla, and in numerous films including Mysterious Skin, Legally Blonde 2, Sweet Home Alabama, Dude, Where's My Car?, Man on the Moon, Punch-Drunk Love, The Anniversary Party, Firewall, Little Miss Sunshine, music videos for Beck, Weezer and Sheryl Crow, as well as portraying a blind woman in the film Road Trip.

Rajskub was part of a comic duo with Karen Kilgariff called Girls Guitar Club. In 2006, she made a cameo appearance in "Partings", the 6th season finale of Gilmore Girls, playing a trobairitz looking for her big break. (Rajskub had previously appeared on Gilmore Girls as the female lead in A Film by Kirk, a short film made by the character Kirk Gleason.) She has volunteered as an actress with the Young Storytellers Program. She has an educational background as a painter, having attended the San Francisco Art Institute.

Rajskub has been nominated twice for a Screen Actors Guild Award; once in 2005, and again in 2007 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She guest-starred on Flight of the Conchords episode "Prime Minister" as Karen, an Art Garfunkel fanatic. She guest-starred as "Gail the Snail" in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia titled "The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention", and reprised the role in the ninth-season finale, "The Gang Squashes Their Beefs," and season thirteen's "The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot." In 2009, she also appeared in the film Julie & Julia as Sarah, one of Julie Powell's close friends. In 2010, Rajskub performed stand-up on John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show. In June 2010, she appeared in the "Lovesick" episode during the second season of the USA series Royal Pains.

From July through October 2010, she performed in her solo show, Mary Lynn Spreads Her Legs, at the Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles. F. Kathleen Foley in a Los Angeles Times review wrote "that cheerfully vulgar title sums up the overall tone, which is often breezily obscene". The show, written by Rajskub with help from director/developer Amit Itelman, was inspired by Rajskub's experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood.

In January 2011, Rajskub guest-starred in the episode "Our Children, Ourselves" on the second season of ABC's Modern Family. In the fall of 2011, she appeared in the short-lived sitcom How to Be a Gentleman. Also in 2011, her web series, Dicki, began airing on My Damn Channel. Dicki is based on a number of people that Rajskub grew up with in and around Michigan. The title character is a 40-year-old woman who lives at home with her parents, makes crafts, and takes her art seriously. Dicki has been one of My Damn Channel's most successful web series to date. The first season concluded in November 2011, but a second season is currently in development. Rajskub performed in the June 2012 edition of Don't Tell My Mother! (Live Storytelling), a monthly showcase in which celebrities share true stories they would never want their mothers to know. In 2012 she began hosting a podcast on the Nerdist Network called Kickin' it Mary Lynn Style. In 2013, Rajskub appeared in the fourth season of Arrested Development in a silent yet well-received role as Heartfire, a character Rajskub has said "speak[s] from the heart, but do[es]n't use any words." In the same year Rajskub also appeared in the web series All Growz Up with Melinda Hill.

Rajskub was featured in a music video for the Self song "Looks and Money" in 2015, directed by Dave Foley and starring himself with Rajskub. She appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor podcast on March 27, 2015. In August 2016, Rajskub appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland in 24 Hours With Mary Lynn Rajskub. A comedy special which dealt with issues of domestic life as well as her stardom and work in various independent ventures, the performance was well-received by both critics and fans.

In 2017, Rajskub appeared in the first season of the Adult Swim series Dream Corp LLC, playing Patient 46 in the episode "Are You Down With OCD?". Her appearance involved two leading characters, T.E.R.R.Y. (Stephen Merchant) and Patient 88 (Nicholas Rutherford), competing for her attention. Rajskub appeared in the 2018 comedy Night School, starring Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish. The movie received middling reviews, with Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune noting that "the actors aren't the problem with Night School; the material is."

In 2021, Rajskub released a 49-minute comedy special called Mary Lynn Rajskub: Live from the Pandemic. The same year, she appeared in Amazon's science fiction movie The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski and J. K. Simmons. Rajskub also had a four-episode role in the Hulu series The Dropout, a dramatization of the Theranos scandal starring Amanda Seyfried; Rajskub played Lorraine Fuisz, wife of William H. Macy's Richard Fuisz. In 2022, Rajskub released her first book, Fame-ish: My Life at the Edge of Stardom. In 2023, she was a contestant on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, where she was a fan favorite. An official clip of her and fellow actor Paul Scheer accrued over two million views on TikTok.

Personal life

Rajskub dated David Cross, who introduced her to Mr. Show, and left the program when they broke up after the end of the second season. She and music producer Jon Brion dated for five years until they broke up in the fall of 2002. Rajskub later had a relationship with comedian Duncan Trussell.

Rajskub met personal trainer Matthew Rolph when he approached her after one of her comedy set performances. They began dating, and she became pregnant three months later. Their son was born in 2008. Rajskub and Rolph married on August 1, 2009, in an impromptu wedding in Las Vegas. She filed for divorce in August 2019. Rajskub is bisexual.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

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