Alex Borstein Biography

Alexandrea Borstein (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, voice actress, writer and comedian.

Borstein was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Jewish American family. Her family moved to Southern California during the early 1980s. She later moved to San Francisco, where she attended San Francisco State University. She took a job at an ad agency where she wrote print ads for Barbie.

She started improv classes with the ACME Comedy Theater where she met both her writing partner and her future husband. Alex and her writing partner began to work on the animated series Casper. Shortly after, she left her ad job to become a full time writer. In 1996, while still writing for Casper, Alex worked on the popular TV show Power Rangers Zeo, where she provided the voice of Queen Machina, the queen of the Machine Empire. In 1997 Alex became a cast member on the sketch comedy show MADtv. She is best known for playing Miss Swan, which was based on a combination of the singer Björk and her real life grandmother who was Hungarian-Mongolian.

During her time on MADtv she met Seth MacFarlane who was starting a FOX animated sit-com, Family Guy. Alex started providing the voice of Lois and various others. Alex became engaged to be married when her boyfriend Jackson Douglas proposed to her during the taping of a MADtv skit. She was married in 1999.

In 2000 Alex won the role of "Sookie St. James" in the WB show Gilmore Girls. In the original pilot she played Sookie’s role but was unable to continue once the show was picked up because she was still under contract for MADtv. She was replaced by Melissa McCarthy. Alex instead guest starred in several episodes as the harpist, Drella, in season one. She returned in seasons three and five to play Miss Celine, a middle-aged celebrity fashion advisor. Alex’s husband, Jackson Douglas appears on Gilmore Girls as Jackson Belville, Sookie's husband.

Alex left MADtv in 2002, the same year Family Guy was cancelled from the FOX lineup. Family Guy however returned in 2005 and Alex now remains on as a producer and primary staff writer for the show where she also provides the voices of Lois and various others.

Since Alex left MADtv she has appeared playing roles such the principal in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, the best friend of Halle Berry in Catwoman, and an employee at CBS News in Good Night, and Good Luck.

Borstein joined the cast of MADtv during season 3 as a featured player, but would then be uprgraded to repetory in the mid-season. If Borstein had any memorable character on the show, it would be Ms. Swan, a dim-bulb Asian woman based on Björk (whom Borstein would also lampoon) and her real-life grandmother. Her character would star in a parody of X-Files, as well as a special 5 part sketch in season 5, which featured celebrity appearances from the likes of Dennis Hopper, Gary Marshall, Mark Hamill, Susan Sarandon, and Tony Shalhoub. Ms. Swan is widely considered to be the most popular and well known character in the series. Outside of Ms. Swan, Borstein also played Eracist Anne, Stick Chick Echo, singer Jasmine Wayne-Wayne, child prodigy Karen Goddard, lounge singer Shaunda, News at Six's outside-the-studio reporter Sue Napersville, and Cordo the GAP troll. If Seth Green would ever appear on the show and play mean boss Mr. Brightling, Borstein would play his mother Mama Brightling.

Borstein also impressed audiences with her hilarious, and dead-on impersonation of Rosie O'Donnell. She also frequently appeared as Björk, Jane Pauley, Janeane Garafalo, Monica Lewinski, Patsy Ramsey, Regis Philbin, and Vivian Vance (as Ethel Mertz in parodies of I Love Lucy)