Maya Khabira Rudolph is an American actress and comedienne best known for her comedic roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000–2007 and for appearing in films such as Away We Go, Grown Ups and MacGruber. She is the daughter of the late R&B and soul singer Minnie Riperton.

Known for her hilarious spoofs of celebrities such as Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace, Saturday Night Live cast member Maya Rudolph is a versatile performer. Her strong musical skills have contributed to the success of her SNL skits, which frequently feature her portrayals of pop singers, including Nelly Furtado, Beyonce Knowles, and members of the hip-hop group Destiny's Child. Though she feels most at home with comedy, she has also appeared in various dramatic roles and has worked professionally as a musician.

"The Comedy Was Always There"

Born on July 27, 1972, in Gainesville, Florida, Rudolph grew up in a racially-mixed musical family. Her father, songwriter Richard Rudolph, is Jewish; her mother, Minnie Riperton, was a soul singer who died of breast cancer just before Maya turned seven. Maya Rudolph remembers standing backstage as a little girl, watching her mother perform. "She was such a diva in the most exquisite sense," she told Interview magazine. "Those are very vivid memories for me. I always had the idea of wanting to be on a stage, in these beautiful gowns, with a microphone in my hand, and that comes from my mom."

Rudolph and her older brother, Marc, grew up in Santa Monica, California, where the family had moved when the children were young. Struggling with the loss of her mother, Rudolph found some solace in comedy. As she told People Weekly reporter Galina Espinoza, she inherited her mother's off-beat sense of humor and "learned quickly to laugh so I wouldn't have to deal with pain." Rudolph would stage skits about odd characters, and often starred in school plays with her friend and classmate at St. Augustine by the Sea School, Gwyneth Paltrow. "The comedy was always there," Rudolph commented in Interview. "There's this moment I remember from when I was seven or eight: I was with a friend and she hurt herself and started to cry, and I just started talking in a funny voice. I thought, This is much better than feeling bad; I want to make her feel good. And she started to laugh."

After graduating in 1994 from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she studied fashion design and majored in photography, Rudolph joined the Rentals, a pop band that was successful enough to open for Alanis Morissette and for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rudolph played synthesizer and sang back-up in the band, which Boston Globe music critic Jim Sullivan described as a quirky mix of "killer pop sensibility and hard-rock guitar edge" similar to that of such 1970's-era bands as the Cars and Ultravox.

http://www.browsebiography.com/bio-maya_rudolph.html

Yes, but why?

Had me afraid she'd died or something.

Lammastide said:

Yes, but why?

Had me afraid she'd died or something.

Maybe because today's her birthday.

ThreadBare said:

Lammastide said:

Yes, but why?

Had me afraid she'd died or something.

Maybe because today's her birthday.

AHHH!!!!!

I'm getting soft in my old age.

The bio failed to mention that her Godmother was the late Teena Marie, and Maya can be heard on "Too Many Colors (Tee's interlude)" from her 1980 album "Lady Tee"

Loved her as Donna Versace

Love this woman, but don't waste your time seeing the film Zookeeper, where she voices a giraffe. She's actually funny, but not much else (save looking at Rosario Dawson for 90 minutes ) is worth the money.

kewlschool said:

Loved her as Donna Versace

Damn she is so hot!

I got the wrong idea from this; I thought you meant she was writing a book. I was sitting here like, "I'd read that".