Melanie Chartoff

Melanie Barbara Chartoff, born December 15, 1948, in New Haven, Connecticut, is an American actress, comedian, and voice artist whose career has spanned stage, television, animation, and writing. She attended West Haven High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts from Adelphi University.

Chartoff's Broadway career began in 1972 with Via Galactica, Galt MacDermot's space opera directed by Peter Hall, and continued in 1974 with Scapino, a production by The Young Vic starring Jim Dale. Her first television credit came in 1976 with a nurse role on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, followed by an appearance in the 1978 film American Hot Wax.

National recognition came through ABC's Fridays, a sketch comedy series that ran from 1980 to 1982, on which Chartoff served as a regular cast member. Among her recurring contributions was the role of anchor on the program's mock newscasts, and she developed a notable impression of Nancy Reagan. During one live broadcast, co-star Maryedith Burrell accidentally struck Chartoff during a sketch, chipping her tooth. Following the end of Fridays, Chartoff maintained a steady television presence throughout the 1980s, with appearances on Wonder Woman, St. Elsewhere, Mr. Belvedere, and Wiseguy, along with a recurring role as Dr. Kaiser on Newhart. From 1990 to 1993, she co-starred for three seasons on the Fox sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose, playing the high-strung Principal Grace Musso. She made two appearances on Seinfeld, including the 1998 series finale, which also featured four of her former Fridays castmates, among them Michael Richards. She appeared in the 2006 season finale of Desperate Housewives.

Chartoff's stage work beyond Broadway includes several significant regional theater credits. In 1982, she played Trina in the Los Angeles premiere of William Finn and James Lapine's March of the Falsettos, earning a Drama-Logue Award for the performance. In 1984, she originated the role of Mary Jane Wilkes in the La Jolla Playhouse premiere of Big River. She appeared in the world premiere of On the Jump at South Coast Repertory and played Dot in the West Coast premiere of Sunday in the Park with George at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater in 1986.

From 1991 to 2008, Chartoff voiced Didi Pickles and Didi's mother Grandma Minka on the Nickelodeon animated series Rugrats, a role for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award. She continued voicing Didi on the spin-off series All Grown Up!, though for the 2021 revival of Rugrats she was replaced by actress Ashley Spillers. Her first voice-over work had been a guest appearance on Challenge of the Superfriends.

In 1991, Chartoff and fellow voice actor Michael Bell conceived the Grayway Rotating Drain, a device designed to recycle household greywater from showers and sinks for use in toilet flushing. Collaborating with Ronald K. Ford, they pursued a patent, which was granted in 1994. Chartoff has also been recognized by the City of Hope for creating and producing Halloween for Hope, an annual event benefiting children's cancer research, and received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Mayor of Los Angeles for concerts she organized for the homeless. She is listed in both Who's Who in California and Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.

In addition to her performance work, Chartoff coaches actors and non-actors in public presentation, writes for publications including The Huffington Post, The Jewish Journal, Defenestration Magazine, and The Funny Times, and performs original material at Los Angeles venues. In 2005, she interviewed Laraine Newman for Autograph Collector magazine. On July 5, 2013, she married psychologist Stan Friedman.