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Melanie Chartoff
Chartoff in 1980
Born	Melanie Barbara Chartoff (1948-12-15) December 15, 1948 (age 76) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Alma mater	Adelphi University
Occupations	Actress comedian
Years active	1976–present
Spouse	Stan Friedman ​(m. 2013)​

Melanie Barbara Chartoff (born December 15, 1948) is an American actress and comedian. Chartoff first became famous for her comedy work on the ABC series Fridays (1980–1982), and in the 1990s Fox sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose. She voiced both Didi Pickles and Grandma Minka, Didi's mother on the Nickelodeon animated series Rugrats and All Grown Up!.

Early life

Chartoff was born on December 15, 1948, in New Haven, Connecticut, and attended West Haven High School. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts from Adelphi University. Chartoff is Jewish.

Career

Her first Broadway appearances were in Galt MacDermot's space opera Via Galactica (1972), directed by Peter Hall, and The Young Vic's Scapino, starring Jim Dale (1974).

Chartoff's first TV role came in 1976 when she played a nurse on Search For Tomorrow, after which she appeared in the 1978 motion picture American Hot Wax. She first became a nationally known figure on ABC's Fridays, which was ABC's attempt to create its own version of Saturday Night Live. Chartoff immediately stood out on the series, partly thanks to her regular role as the anchor on the show's fake newscasts, but also due to her comedic skills (particularly an impression of Nancy Reagan). On one sketch, Melanie was cold-cocked on live TV when co-star Maryedith Burrell failed to pull her punch during a skit and chipped Chartoff's tooth.

Between the demise of Fridays in 1982 and her return to a regular series in 1990 with Parker Lewis Can't Lose (in which she co-starred for three seasons as the high-strung Principal Grace Musso), Chartoff continued to work steadily on television throughout the 1980s, including appearances on Mr. Belvedere, Wiseguy, and St. Elsewhere, as well as a recurring role on Newhart as Dr. Kaiser. She made two appearances on Seinfeld, including one in the 1998 series finale in which four of her former Fridays co-stars were also involved (including Michael Richards). She appeared in the 2006 season finale of Desperate Housewives.

In the Los Angeles premiere of Bill Finn and James Lapine's musical March of the Falsettos (1982), for which she won a Drama-Logue Award, she played Trina. She played Mary Jane Wilkes in the La Jolla Playhouse premiere of Big River (1984). At South Coast Repertory she appeared in the world Premiere of On the Jump. She played Dot in the West Coast premiere of Sunday in the Park with George at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater (1986).

Inventing

In 1991, Chartoff and fellow voice actor Michael Bell conceived the Grayway Rotating Drain, a device that recycles shower and sink greywater to flush toilets in the home. In 1992 they collaborated with Ronald K. Ford who applied for, and in 1994 received a patent on the product .

Voice acting and other projects

Chartoff's first voice-over work was a guest role on Challenge of the Superfriends. She has continued her work as an in-demand voice actress and also takes occasional TV and stage roles. Chartoff works as a coach to both actors and non-actors to make them more charismatic in public performances. In 2005, she interviewed Laraine Newman for Autograph Collector magazine. Chartoff writes for The Huffington Post, The Jewish Journal, Defenestration Magazine, and The Funny Times. She performs her original material at such Los Angeles venues as Comedy Central's "Sit n' Spin," "Tasty Words," and "I Love a Good Story."

Rugrats

From 1991 to 2008, Chartoff voiced Didi Pickles and her mother Grandma Minka on the Nickelodeon series Rugrats, for which she won a Daytime Emmy. She continued to voice Didi on the Rugrats spin-off series, All Grown Up!. For the 2021 revival series of the same name, Chartoff was replaced by actress Ashley Spillers.

Awards

Aside from Drama-Logue and Daytime Emmy Awards, she was awarded by the City of Hope for creating and producing the yearly event Halloween for Hope to benefit children's cancer research and received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Mayor of Los Angeles for her concerts for the homeless. Chartoff is listed in Who's Who in California, and Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Personal life

On July 5, 2013, Chartoff married psychologist Stan Friedman, her longtime boyfriend.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

1. Profile, Voicechasers.com. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
2. ^ Melanie Chartoff at IMDb
3. "Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff: December 15, 2017". Haaretz.
4. *U.S. patent 5,274,861, "Gray water recycling system" (Jan. 4, 1994)
5. "GRAYWAY ROTATING DRAIN - Graywater Recycling Device". graywayrotatingdrain.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2018 – via archive.org.
6. "Grayway FAQ". AOL. Archived from the original on November 18, 2003. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
7. "Melanie Chartoff is also an inventor". Record-Journal. September 28, 1992. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
8. "United States Patent: 5274861 - Gray water recycling system". uspto.gov. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
9. Chartoff, Melanie. "Charismatizing". Charismatizing.com. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
10. Hullender, Tatiana (May 26, 2021). "Ashley Spillers & Tommy Dewey Interview: Rugrats". Screen Rant. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
11. "melanie chartoff and stan friedman Wedding Registry". The Knot. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
12. "Actress Melanie Chartoff and husband Stan Friedman, married last year, alreading fighting like old married couple!!!". HitBerry. September 27, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
13. Chartoff, Melanie (June 16, 2017). "She was ready to play this role". Jewish Journal. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
14. ^ "Melanie Chartoff (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 30, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.

External links

• Melanie Chartoff at IMDb
• Patent 5274861 information
• "Actress Stars as Inventor", Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
• Profile, TheaterMania.com. Retrieved July 2, 2015.

• 1948 births
• Living people
• Actresses from New Haven, Connecticut
• Adelphi University alumni
• American sketch comedians
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• American voice actresses
• American women comedians
• Daytime Emmy Award winners
• Jewish American actresses
• American women inventors
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• 20th-century American comedians
• 21st-century American comedians
• 20th-century American inventors
• 21st-century American Jews
• Comedians from Connecticut
• Jewish American comedians
• Jewish female comedians