Vanessa Bayer

Early life and education

Bayer was born on November 14, 1981, in Orange, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and raised in nearby Moreland Hills. She is the daughter of Carolyn and Todd Bayer. Bayer's family is Jewish, and she has stated that her Jewish upbringing "influenced her life and comedy". She has an older brother, Jonah, who is a music journalist and the guitarist of the punk supergroup United Nations.

At age 15, Bayer was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). She stated that while battling the disease, she discovered the meaning of comic relief. "I don't know if it made me funnier, but it was so amazing, how it made everything be O.K.", she said.

Bayer is a 2000 graduate of Orange High School. In 2004, she graduated from the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in communications and French.

While attending college, she interned on the television shows Sesame Street and Late Night with Conan O'Brien and participated in the cast of Bloomers, an all-female musical and sketch comedy troupe.

Career

, Bayer was collaborating with her brother Jonah on the web series Sound Advice for Above Average, where she stars as Janessa Slater, a media coach who helps famous musicians change their images. She was part of the all-Jewish cast of The Second City's stage show Jewsical: The Musical, a musical that presented a comedic take on Jewish life and culture. She played Kate Clark in the Chicago-based feature comedy Off the Cuff. She performed improvisational comedy at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, where she trained with SNL castmate Paul Brittain,

''Saturday Night Live''

Bayer joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a featured player on September 25, 2010. She was promoted to repertory status for the 2012–2013 seasons. In 2014, she was nominated for an American Comedy Award for her work on the show, and in 2017, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She departed SNL on May 20, 2017, after seven years there.

Her recurring characters included:

• Laura Parsons, a child actress always performing roles originally played by adults, including from Forrest Gump, The Wolf of Wall Street, Brokeback Mountain and Dallas Buyers Club
• Brecky, a former porn star who creates homemade commercials to obtain free luxury items (with Cecily Strong)
• Rebecca Stern-Markowicz, a co-host of J-Pop America Fun Time Now, which celebrates Japanese culture, (with Taran Killam and Jason Sudeikis)
• Rosa, a housemaid, in "The Californians"
• Miss Meadows, an unrealistically perky poetry teacher trying to connect with her delinquent students
• An unnamed director of talk show Mornin' Miami
• Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy, who appears on Weekend Update to perform a rehearsed speech with forced jokes about a given subject
• One of three workshop elves who perform their jobs poorly in the hope that their master will "punish" them (with Kenan Thompson)
• Dawn Lazarus, an inept meteorologist who appears on Weekend Update and struggles to discuss the weather
• A housewife who cooks for her husband and his friends in a series of increasingly absurd Totino's commercials
• One of two Weekend Update guests who claim to be "best friends" with various world dictators, and gossip about petty drama in their social circle (with Fred Armisen)

Celebrity impressions

• Amelia Earhart
• Dianna Agron
• Diane Keaton
• Elisabeth Hasselbeck
• Hillary Clinton
• Ivanka Trump
• Jennifer Aniston
• Jacqueline Bisset
• Keri Russell
• Kourtney Kardashian
• Lady Gaga
• Margaret Thatcher
• Mary-Louise Parker
• Michelle Friedland
• Miley Cyrus
• Molly Ringwald
• Rachel Dolezal
• Sara Gilbert
• Susan Lucci
• Zosia Mamet

Post-''SNL'' career

Bayer appeared on ABC's Single Parents in 2019 in a recurring role as Mia Cooper, the ex-wife of Taran Killam's character.

Starting in 2018, she had a recurring role on NBC's Will & Grace as Amy, a former baker who loses her job because of Karen and subsequently works for Karen's baseball team.

Bayer is the co-creator, co-executive producer and star of the Showtime comedy I Love That for You, which premiered on May 1, 2022, and is loosely based on her life as a survivor of childhood leukemia.

Bayer appeared in two episodes of What We Do in the Shadows as Evie Russell, a vampire who drains energy from humans by resorting to passive aggressive and wholly fabricated stories of various horrible things that supposedly happened to her. She has a rivalry with energy Vampire Colin Robinson, played by Mark Proksch, who uses boring long-winded explanations to get the same result. Bayer played Madame Jen in the 2025 fantasy comedy Freakier Friday.

Philanthropy

After Bayer was diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager, the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her wish to send her family on vacation to Hawaii. In gratitude and recognition, Bayer is involved with the foundation. In 2015, she hosted its Evening of Wishes Dinner to help raise funds for wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses.

In June 2019, Bayer published the children's book How Do You Care for a Very Sick Bear?, which teaches children how to support friends with long-term illnesses.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. (November 14, 2021). "Thank you to my bro and everyone for the birthday wishes!!".
2. "Remember VHS Tapes? (With Michelle Zauner)". Big Money Players Network and iHeartPodcasts.
3. Moynihan, Rob. "''SNL''{{'s Fab Four", ''[[TV Guide]]'', March 7, 2011, Pages 44-45
4. (November 20, 2012). "For Saturday Night Live's Bayer, humor a family affair".
5. Rosenberg, Madeline. (January 27, 2020). "Former 'SNL' Star Vanessa Bayer Talks Comedy, Jewish Identity".
6. (July 8, 2015). "Jonah and Vanessa Bayer on Sound Advice, sibling rivalries, and childhood bribery".
7. (August 6, 2014). "Watch Vanessa Bayer Roast United Nations".
8. Correal, Annie. (May 7, 2016). "The (Very Lazy) Sunday Routine of Vanessa Bayer of 'Saturday Night Live'". [[The New York Times]].
9. (November 22, 2012). "'Saturday Night Live' regular Vanessa Bayer, a Moreland Hills native, returns home to perform Sunday at the Improv". cleveland.com.
10. (May 16, 2018). "'SNL' alum Vanessa Bayer returns to Second City for charity event". Chicago Tribune.
11. (May 26, 2011). "Saturday Night Live's Vanessa Bayer talks to Penn Undergrads". Annenberg School for Communication.
12. "All-Female Musical and Sketch Comedy at the University of Pennsylvania". Bloomers Comedy.
13. "Penn Gazette | Alumni : Profiles". Upenn.edu.
14. (September 21, 2010). "Jonah Bayer". Jonahbayer.wordpress.com.
15. (October 16, 2017). "An Interview with a Guy Who Hung Out with Drake for Two Hours Once". Noisey.
16. "Jews in the News: Rachel Specter, Grammys & Barbra Streisand". Letmypeoplegrow.org.
17. (September 17, 2010). "NBC'S 'SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE' PREMIERES SEPTEMBER 25 WITH SNL ALUM AMY POEHLER & CHART-TOPPING MUSICAL GUEST KATY PERRY". NBC-Universal Press Release.
18. "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – 2017". [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]].
19. Hughes, William. (May 20, 2017). "Vanessa Bayer is leaving SNL".
20. (May 21, 2017). "Vanessa Bayer leaving 'SNL'". CNN.
21. (July 12, 2021). "Showtime Would Love to See Vanessa Bayer's I Love This for You as a Series".
22. (April 27, 2022). "How Vanessa Bayer's Childhood Battle With Leukemia Inspired 'I Love That for You' (Exclusive)".
23. (May 10, 2022). "Vanessa Bayer on Channeling Her Childhood Cancer Experience in Showtime's I Love That for You".
24. (July 25, 2022). "What We do in the Shadows: Every Guest Star Appearance, Ranked".
25. (August 10, 2025). "Meet the Cast and Characters of the 'Freaky Friday' Sequel, 'Freakier Friday'".
26. Daley, Megan. (June 22, 2015). "Vanessa Bayer talks to People about her childhood struggle with leukemia".
27. Bayer, Vanessa. (2019). "How Do You Care for a Very Sick Bear?". [[Feiwel & Friends]].
28. "Vanessa Bayer (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors.
29. Agard, Chancellor. (November 17, 2021). "Dwayne Johnson's Krypto assembles a team in ''DC League of Super-Pets'' first look".
30. Becker, Amy. (November 20, 2025). "Pixar's 'Hoppers' trailer: Meryl Streep, Dave Franco, Jon Hamm star in animated comedy".
31. Ferguson, LaToya. (February 6, 2020). "It's a 'Manhunt' (and ''Traveling Pants'' Situation) to Start ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine''{{'}}s Seventh Season". [[The A.V. Club]].
32. Ferguson, LaToya. (February 28, 2020). "A Coke-Fueled ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' Gets into the Mind of a Loose Cannon". [[The A.V. Club]].
33. Milligan, Mercedes. (2025-05-06). "'Marvel's Iron Man and His Awesome Friends' Assembles Villainous Voice Stars".