Rhonda Coullet

Rhonda Lee Oglesby Coullet, born September 23, 1945, in Magnolia, Arkansas, is an American actress, comedian, singer-songwriter, theatre composer, and playwright. The daughter of Horace and Cecil Oglesby, she was raised in Springhill, Louisiana before her family relocated to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where she attended Sam Taylor Elementary School and Pine Bluff High School. A music scholarship brought her to the University of Arkansas, where she also competed in the 1965 Miss Arkansas pageant and won the title. After three months, she relinquished the crown to pursue a show business career in Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Coullet joined the original cast of the Aquarius Theatre's production of Hair, eventually being promoted to the lead female role of Jeanie. She went on to restage the musical in Seattle, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Copenhagen, and in touring productions across Europe. Returning to the United States, she settled in New York City and joined the cast of the 1973 Off-Broadway production National Lampoon Lemmings, performing alongside John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Christopher Guest. She subsequently participated in The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which also featured Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis, and appeared on the albums National Lampoon Missing White House Tapes and National Lampoon That's Not Funny, That's Sick.

Coullet maintained a close friendship with John Belushi, and following his death she composed and performed a tribute, "West Heaven," for a taped segment on Saturday Night Live produced by Belushi's widow, Judith Jacklin. Her Broadway career ran from 1976 to 1982. During the 1976–77 season she starred in The Robber Bridegroom, playing the role of Rosamund opposite Barry Bostwick, and her performance is preserved on the original Broadway cast album. She later appeared on Broadway in Pump Boys and Dinettes, and also took part in the Off-Broadway production of Cowgirls.

Beyond the stage, Coullet wrote "Bigger Than the Both of Us" for Jimmy Buffett, which appeared on his Riddles in the Sand album and received a Grammy Award nomination in 1985. She worked as a backup singer for Buffett, Spinal Tap, and Meat Loaf on his Dead Ringer album. In 1992 she recorded The American Secret, an album of her own compositions. Several semiautobiographical songs from that record were incorporated into her theatrical musical Runaway Beauty Queen, which was produced at Florida Studio Theatre in 2005 and at The Vineyard Playhouse in 2010. Coullet was married to musician Armand Coullet from 1970 to 1980. Her brother, Scott Oglesby, is a published essayist and novelist.