Nora Dunn Biography

Fast Facts

• Studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Academy of Fine Arts, and San Francisco City College
• Made her feature film debut in the 1988 romantic comedy "Working Girl․"
• Was hired on "Saturday Night Live" after her successful run as a performer at the Roxy cabaret theater in Chicago
• Started out as a stand-up comedian on the west coast comedy circuit
• Quote: "(On her one-woman show "Mythical Proportions"): "I think at the end of a show, you have to walk out with a message․ That's my hardest struggle right now; that's what I'm working towards․ Some of these stories I'm telling become mythical․""
• Best known as a performer on "Saturday Night Live" and for her role as Ally Loman in "Bruce Almighty" and as Adriana Cruz in "Three Kings․"
• In regards to her time on "Saturday Night Live," she has been simultaneously criticized for her cutthroat behavior backstage and praised for her feminist principles and insistence that women should have their own place in comedy
• Some of her most memorable "Saturday Night Live" characters were talk show host Pat Stevens, film critic Ashley Ashley, and Babette the Marseilles prostitute, and she did impersonations of celebrities like Liza Minnelli and Peggy Lee