Fran Drescher

After years of small roles in film and television, comic actress Fran Drescher finally gained fame as a “Mary Poppins from Queens” in what has become her signature role, "Fran Fine" in The Nanny. With her husband Peter Marc Jacobson, Dresher co-created and executive produced the sitcom-- a humorous study of contrasts arising from the juxtaposition of a middle-class Jewish nanny in the refined world of a British-born, upper-class theater producer. Her performance in The Nanny earned two Emmy nominations as Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 2000, Drescher was diagnosed her with uterine cancer and has been given a clean bill of health. She has written about her experiences in Cancer Schmancer, where she straight-talks about the disease and her journey back to heath. She has also penned her memoirs Enter Whining.

A brazenly sexy, stylish comic performer with a distinctively honking "Noo Yawk" accent, Drescher is a former Miss New York Teenager who began her film career with a bit part in Saturday Night Fever, uttering the memorable line "Are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?" to John Travolta. She attracted attention as a snappy secretary in American Hot Wax and as a plastic public relations director in Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap, but generally appeared in supporting roles. She appeared as in Cadillac Man and in Francis Ford Coppola's Jack and in her first big screen lead in The Beautician and the Beast. She followed up with Picking Up the Piece and Santa’s Slay.

The small screen has always welcomed Drescher's overwhelming personality. She made her mark on sitcoms such as ALF, Who's the Boss? and Night Court and appeared in a handful of television movies, including I'd Rather Be Calm, Hurricane Sam and atypically in dramatic works such as the spooky thriller Stranger in Our House and Without Warning: Terror in the Towers. In 2005, she returned to television in Living with Fran and appearing in episodes of Good Morning, Miami and in 2006 appeared on stage in “Some Girls.”