Alex Borstein

Alex Borstein
Borstein at the 2016 WonderCon
Born	Alexandrea Borstein (1971-02-15) February 15, 1971 Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	San Francisco State University
Occupation(s)	Actress, writer, producer, comedian
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Jackson Douglas ​ ​ (m. 1999; div. 2014)​
Children	2
Website	www.alexborstein.com

Alexandrea Borstein (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, writer, producer, and comedian. She is best known for voicing the role of Lois Griffin on the animated comedy series Family Guy (1999–present), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award from multiple nominations.

Borstein also had lead roles as various characters on the sketch comedy series MADtv (1997–2009), Dawn Forchette in the medical comedy series Getting On (2013–15), and Susie Myerson in the historical comedy-drama series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–present), the latter of which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award. She had supporting roles in numerous films, including The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), Catwoman (2004), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Dinner for Schmucks (2010), Ted (2012), ParaNorman (2012), and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).

A native of Deerfield, Illinois, she and her family moved to Northridge, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, as a child. She graduated from Chatsworth High School in 1989. Borstein is a graduate of San Francisco State University, where she studied rhetoric. She was trained in improvisational comedy at the ACME Comedy Theatre, near Hollywood, California, and was selected to join MADtv after being scouted by talent agents who noticed her work at the theatre. She was a writer and voice actor for several television shows, including Casper, Pinky and the Brain, and Power Rangers Zeo, before joining the cast of MADtv in 1997 as a featured player, becoming a repertory player mid-season.

Early life

Borstein was born in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb north of the city of Chicago, in 1973 (according to her own official website), though some sources still say 1971. She was raised in Deerfield, Illinois. Borstein has two elder brothers. Her parents, Irv and Judy Borstein, are both mental health professionals. Borstein is Jewish.

Her father is from Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother, a Holocaust survivor, was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, and moved to the United States after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Borstein attended San Francisco State University.

Career

1993–1998: Career beginnings and MADtv

Borstein trained in improv at the ACME Comedy Theater, where she met her writing partner and future husband Jackson Douglas. Shortly after they began working together on the animated series Casper and Pinky and the Brain, Borstein left her position at an ad agency – where she had written print ads for Barbie – to become a full-time writer. In 1996, while still writing for Casper, Borstein worked on the show Power Rangers Zeo as the voice of Queen Machina, the queen of the Machine Empire.

In 1997, Borstein became a cast member on the third season of the sketch comedy show MADtv. She originally joined the cast as a featured player, but was upgraded to the repertory mid-season.

Borstein was best known on MADtv for her character Ms. Swan; her other recurring characters included Eracist Anne, "Stick Chick" Echo, singer Jasmine Wayne-Wayne, child prodigy Karen Goddard, lounge singer Shaunda, News at Six outside-the-studio reporter Sue Napersville, and Cordo the GAP troll. When Seth Green made recurring appearances on the show as mean boss Mr. Brightling, Borstein would play his mother, Mama Brightling.

1999–2009: Further success and Family Guy

Borstein at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con

While working on MADtv, Borstein met Seth MacFarlane, who was then preparing to launch the animated sitcom Family Guy on FOX. MacFarlane was originally supposed to create animated shorts for MADtv, but declined in favor of creating an independent series. MacFarlane cast Borstein as the voice of character Lois Griffin. After the show's debut in January 1999, Family Guy was cancelled by the network in 2002, but returned in 2005. As well as her role as the voice performer for Lois and several other characters (including a brief appearance as Ms. Swan in a 2005 episode), she is also a producer and staff writer. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for the episode "Lois Comes Out of Her Shell" in 2013.

In 2000, Borstein was cast as Sookie St. James in the WB drama Gilmore Girls. She portrayed Sookie in the pilot, but her MADtv contract prevented her from continuing in the role, which was recast with Melissa McCarthy. Borstein made recurring appearances on Gilmore Girls throughout the show's run, first as the harpist Drella and later as the stylist Miss Celine.

As a film actress, she played the school principal in The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), the best friend of Halle Berry's character in Catwoman (2004), and an employee at CBS News in Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). She also had a small role in the movie Bad Santa (2003) and an uncredited cameo as an obnoxious coffee shop patron in the Will Ferrell movie Kicking & Screaming (2005). On some commercials, she sometimes voices Olive Oyl from Popeye and Betty Boop.

Borstein was a co-host of GSN's Celebrity Blackjack in 2004. She made at least three guest appearances, once as Lois Griffin, on the Comedy Central animated program Drawn Together.

Borstein was cast as a press secretary in the 2007 sitcom pilot The Thick of It, but the series was not picked up for broadcast. She was seen in the 2009 comedy For Christ's Sake, which was directed by her real-life husband Jackson Douglas.

Borstein's production company is called Crackerpants, Inc. In 2007, they released the DVD Drop Dead Gorgeous (in a Down-to-Earth Bombshell Sort of Way), a recording of a live performance at the Alex Theatre, with opening act Teddy Towne. The title comes from one of many actual female character breakdowns Borstein reads from to illustrate sexism in the industry.

2010–present: Getting On and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Borstein at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con

Borstein has made several supporting appearances in such comedic films as Killers (2010), Dinner for Schmucks (2010), Ted (2012), ParaNorman (2012), A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), and The Angry Birds Movie (2016).

In 2010, Borstein joined the first season staff of the Showtime comedy-drama series Shameless, as a writer and supervising producer. In its second season, she held the position of writer and consulting producer. She also guest starred as Lou Deckner in numerous episodes of the series, beginning in the first season episode "But at Last Came a Knock".

She also appeared as a comedian contestant on IFC's short-lived comedy-driven game show Bunk in 2012.

Borstein later starred as Dawn Forchette on the HBO comedy series Getting On, which is a remake of a UK series of the same name. The series has gained positive reviews and earned multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations. It aired from 2013 to 2015.

Beginning in 2017, Borstein starred as Susie Myerson in the historical comedy-drama series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for which she received significant critical acclaim and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Personal life

Borstein is divorced from actor and writer Jackson Douglas, whom she met while studying improv at the ACME Comedy Theatre. Douglas proposed to her during the taping of a MADtv skit; the couple married in 1999. Douglas filed for divorce in October 2014.

In the DVD commentary for the Family Guy episode "Stewie Kills Lois" – at the time she was pregnant – she joked about the possibility of naming her baby Stewie. They have a son named Barnaby Borstein Douglas (born September 8, 2008) and a daughter named Henrietta Borstein Douglas (born October 1, 2012).

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Coyote Ugly	Bidding Auction Woman	Uncredited
2003	The Lizzie McGuire Movie	Miss Ungermeyer
	Bad Santa	Milwaukee Mom
2004	Seeing Other People	Tracy
	Catwoman	Sally
	Billy's Dad Is a Fudge-Packer!	Betty Henderson	Short film
2005	Kicking & Screaming	Obnoxious Hummer Lady	Uncredited
	Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story	Lois Griffin / Various voices	Also writer
	Good Night, and Good Luck	Natalie
2006	Little Man	Janet
2007	The Lookout	Mrs. Lange
2009	For Christ's Sake	Mrs. Marcus
2010	Killers	Lily Bailey
	Dinner for Schmucks	Martha
2012	Ted	Helen Bennett
	ParaNorman	Mrs. Henscher (voice)
2014	A Million Ways to Die in the West	Millie
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Sophie Bird / Peggy Bird (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993–1994	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers	Various voices	4 episodes
1996	Power Rangers Zeo	Queen Machina / Robocupid (voice)	42 episodes
	Big Bad Beetleborgs	Cataclaws (voice)	Episode: "Yo Ho Borgs"
1997–2009	MADtv	Herself / Various characters	Main cast; 124 episodes Also writer
1999–2003, 2005–present	Family Guy	Lois Griffin / Barbara Pewterschmidt / Various voices	Main cast; 309 episodes Also writer, producer
2000–2005	Gilmore Girls	Drella / Miss Celine	8 episodes
2002	Titus	Nicky	Episode: "Bachelor Party"
2002–2003	3 South	Becky (voice)	3 episodes
2003	Friends	Bitter Woman on Stage	Episode: "The One with the Soap Opera Party"
	Frasier	Evelyn	Episode: "Farewell, Nervosa"
2005–2012	Robot Chicken	Various voices	8 episodes
2006	American Dad!	Doctor Gupta / Museum Curator (voice)	Episodes: "Roger 'n' Me" and "Garfield and Friends"
	Drawn Together	Lois Griffin / Various voices	Episodes: "A Tale of Two Cows" and "The Lemon AIDS Walk"
2007–2009	Slacker Cats	Latoyah (voice)	3 episodes
2008–2009	Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy	Various voices	3 episodes
2009–2013	The Cleveland Show	Lois Griffin / Various voices	16 episodes
2009	Glenn Martin, DDS	Clerk (voice)	Episode: "Deck the Malls"
2011–2015	Shameless	Lou Deckner	5 episodes; also writer, consulting producer
2012	Hot in Cleveland	Preshi	Episode: "Rubber Ball"
2012–2016	Workaholics	Colleen Walker	3 episodes
2012	Robot Chicken DC Comics Special	Wonder Woman / Various voices	TV special
2012–2013	Bunheads	Sweetie Cramer / Hooker	Episodes: "Pilot" and "Channing Tatum Is a Fine Actor"
2013–2015	Getting On	Dawn Forchette	Main cast; 18 episodes
2015	Life in Pieces	Lynette	Episode: "Ponzi Sex Paris Bounce"
2016	Bordertown	Janice Buckwald / Becky (voice)	12 episodes
	MADtv	Ms. Swan	Episode: "Episode 7"
	Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life	Drella / Miss Celine	Episodes: "Winter" and "Fall"
	Son of Zorn	Elizabeth	Episode: "Return of the Drinking Buddy"
2017–present	The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel	Susie Myerson	Main cast; 8 episodes
2017	animals.	Lois Griffin (voice)	Episode: "Pigeons."

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Family Guy Video Game!	Lois Griffin / Various voices
2012	Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
2014	Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Special Relativity	Nox / Lucinda

Awards and nominations

Year	Organization	Category	Work(s)	Result	Ref.
2006	DVD Exclusive Awards	Best Screenplay (for a DVD Premiere Movie)	Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story	Won
	Spike Video Game Awards	Best Cast	Family Guy Video Game!	Won
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Good Night, and Good Luck	Nominated
2008	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program	Family Guy	Nominated
2013		Outstanding Voice-Over Performance		Nominated
2018	Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel	Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series		Won
		Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance	Family Guy	Won

External links

• Official website
• Alex Borstein at IMDb
• Alex Borstein at AllMovie
• SuicideGirls interview with Alex Borstein