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Cheri Oteri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cheri Oteri (born Cheryl O'Teari on September 19, 1965 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is an American actress and comedian best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
Oteri grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (also the hometown of Tina Fey, another SNL alum). She went to Archbishop Prendergast High School (on the same campus as Monsignor Bonner High School). Moving to Los Angeles at age 25, she worked at A&M Records for four years and eventually joined the famed comedy troupe The Groundlings. It was there that she was noticed by SNL and was hired in 1995 as part of a nearly all-new cast brought in to save the show after its disastrous 1994 season.
Oteri would eventually form a third of the so-called "SNL female power trio" that also included Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer and which was responsible, along with Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and others, for bringing SNL out of its slump.
On SNL, she was known for playing perky, upbeat, and hyper characters, including cheerleader-wannabe Arianna (one half of The Spartan Cheerleaders), grouchy Queens resident Rita DelVecchio, prescription pill-addicted Collette Reardon, butch cable access television host "Mickey The Dyke" (appearing alongside Mark McKinney's Chicken Lady of Kids In The Hall fame), the absurdly hyper child bus passenger "Althea McMahonaman" overly perky "Morning Latte" talk show host Cass Van Rye (re-teaming her with "Spartan Cheerleaders" partner Will Ferrell), and Nadine, a testy employee who constantly orders everyone to "Simmer down now!" Her dead-on impressions of Barbara Walters, Mariah Carey, Robin Byrd and Judge Judy also bolstered her fame.
Oteri left SNL in 2000. She has appeared in several movies including Scary Movie, Inspector Gadget, Liar Liar, and Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. She starred in two TV pilots that did not make it to air, Loomis and With You in Spirit.
Her non-SNL television credits include guest spots on Just Shoot Me!, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Strangers With Candy. She has also been working with Lost creator J.J. Abrams on a sitcom idea.