Vanessa Bayer
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| Vanessa Bayer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Vanessa Polster Bayer[1] November 14, 1981 [2] Orange, Ohio, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, comedian |
| Years active | 2009–present |
Vanessa Polster Bayer (born November 14, 1981)[2] is an American actress and comedian best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live since 2010.
Contents
Life and career
Bayer was born and raised in Orange, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.[3] She is the daughter of Carolyn (née Polster) and Todd Bayer.[4] Her family is Jewish. Bayer graduated from Orange High School in 2000[5] and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in communications and French,[6] graduating in 2004. Her older brother Jonah is a music journalist and musician who has written for various music and guitar magazines and has appeared as a music correspondent on Fuse TV, as well as being the guitarist for punk band United Nations. She currently collaborates with her brother on the web-series "Sound Advice" for Above Average. Bayer stars as Janessa Slater, a media coach who helps famous musicians change their image.[7][8] Bayer fought leukemia as a teenager, after being diagnosed with the disease when she was 15. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her wish to send her family on vacation to Hawaii. As a former Make-A-Wish kid, Bayer continues to do work with the foundation. In 2015 she hosted their "Evening of Wishes Dinner" to help raise funds for wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses.[9][4]
While attending college, Bayer 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.[10] Bayer was part of the all-Jewish cast of Second City's stage show Jewsical: The Musical, a musical that presented a comedic take on Jewish life and culture.[11]
Bayer played the role of Kate Clark in the Chicago-based feature comedy Off the Cuff.
Bayer performed improvisational comedy at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, where she trained with SNL castmate Paul Brittain[3] as well as the Annoyance Theatre and Second City.[12]
Saturday Night Live
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Bayer joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a featured player on September 25, 2010. Beginning with the 2012–2013 season, Bayer was promoted to repertory status. She has been praised for her performance on the show, with HitFix calling her "one of the strongest members of the ensemble" and Rolling Stone calling her "Saturday Night Live's secret weapon". In 2014, she was nominated for an American Comedy Award for her work on the show.
Her recurring characters include:
- 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 Buyer's Club
- Breckie, a former porn star who creates homemade commercials to obtain free luxury items alongside Cecily Strong
- Rebecca Stern-Markowicz, a co-host of J-Pop America Fun Time Now which celebrates Japanese culture alongside Taran Killam and Jason Sudeikis
- 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 (complete with forced jokes) about a certain subject
Filmography
Films
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Off the Cuff | Kate Clark | |
| 2010 | Stages of Emily | Jocelyn | Short film |
| 2012 | Adventures in the Sin Bin | Superdawg Waitress | |
| 2013 | Despicable Me 2 | Flight Attendant | Voice role |
| 2015 | Trainwreck | Nikki | |
| 2016 | Carrie Pilby | Tara | Filming |
| 2016 | Office Christmas Party | Allison | Filming |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–present | Saturday Night Live | Various | Series regular |
| 2011 | I Wanna Have Your Baby | Connie | 1 episode |
| 2013 | The Mindy Project | Mary | 1 episode |
| 2014 | Comedy Bang! Bang! | Susan Armhold | 1 episode |
| 2014-15 | Portlandia | Various | 3 episodes |
| 2015 | Man Seeking Woman | Laura | 2 episodes |
References
- ↑ http://birth-records.mooseroots.com/l/11529507/Vanessa-Polster-Bayer
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Moynihan, Rob. "SNL's Fab Four", TV Guide, March 7, 2011, Pages 44-45
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Vanessa Bayer from the Orange High School website
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- ↑ http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/22/vanessa-bayer-reveals-childhood-struggle-leukemia
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External links
- Vanessa Bayer at the Internet Movie Database
- Vanessa Bayer on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Bayer, Vanessa. "Commencement Speech" Annenberg School; 15 May 2011; YouTube
- Pages using infobox person with unknown parameters
- Articles with hCards
- 1981 births
- Living people
- American women comedians
- American television actresses
- Actresses from Cleveland, Ohio
- Cancer survivors
- Jewish American actresses
- Jewish comedians
- University of Pennsylvania alumni
- People from Cuyahoga County, Ohio
- 21st-century American actresses
- Ashkenazi Jews
- American impressionists (entertainers)
- American voice actresses
- American sketch comedians
- Friars Senior Society of the University of Pennsylvania
