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Janeane Garofalo

ACTOR · BORN 1964

Janeane Garofalo

Born
28 September 1964, Newton, New Jersey, USA
Known for
Ratatouille (2007), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), Reality Bites (1994)

29 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

Janeane Garofalo (born 28 September 1964) is an actor best known for Ratatouille, Wet Hot American Summer and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

Janeane Garofalo over the years

Janeane Garofalo in 2012 (age 48)
2012 · age 48Edwin Torres from USA, CC BY 2.0
Janeane Garofalo in 2026 (age 62)
2026 · age 62Taylor Dahlin, CC BY 4.0

29 Interesting Facts About Janeane Garofalo

Interesting Facts (13)

  1. #001

    She has described Saturday Night Live (1975) as the worst experience of her professional life.

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  2. #002

    A self-described neo-Luddite, she is reported to have no smartphone, computer or email address.

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  3. #003

    The original pitch for Just Shoot Me! (1997) was Garofalo stuck in a waiting room with a model she had nothing in common with. Garofalo later became the template for Laura San Giacomo's role as Maya Gallo.

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  4. #004

    She is a very good friend of Ben Stiller. Both had brief stints on Saturday Night Live (1975), both appeared on The Ben Stiller Show (1992), they have worked together in films and have written and created other comedy shows together. Garofalo has said she works well with Stiller because they are complete opposites: she is caustic and political, while Stiller is more go-with-the-flow and silly, and they can fill in the gaps the other misses.

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  5. #005

    Her production company is I Hate Myself Productions.

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  6. #006

    In his DVD commentary for Dogma (1999), director Kevin Smith said that, in hindsight, he wished he had offered the role of Bethany to Garofalo instead of Linda Fiorentino, with whom he found working very difficult; at times the two were not even speaking. Garofalo appears in the film as "Liz" at the abortion clinic.

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  7. #007

    She traveled the comedy club circuit extensively with Margaret Cho. The two blamed each other for their bad smoking habits.

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  8. #008

    At one point she worked with every member of The Kids in the Hall (1988).

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  9. #009

    Some sources report that Garofalo has fifteen tattoos. One of them reads "think" on her arm.

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  10. #010

    She co-hosted the 1996 MTV Movie Awards (1996) with Ben Stiller.

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  11. #011

    Garofalo was a former host of Air America Radio's The Majority Report (2004), which she co-hosted with Sam Seder; she reportedly left in 2006 due to conflicts with Seder.

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  12. #012

    In March 2003, Garofalo appeared on CNN's Crossfire (1982) to discuss the international situation regarding Iraq.

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  13. #013

    Garofalo returned to her roots as a stand-up comedian, performing at the Gilded Balloon Theatre in August for the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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Behind the Scenes (9)

  1. #014

    At just 5'1", Garofalo sometimes had to stand on a box to share the frame with her 5'1" co-star Uma Thurman in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996).

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  2. #015

    She toured the comedy club circuit extensively with Margaret Cho. They blamed each other for their bad smoking habits.

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  3. #016

    In 1984, at the age of 20, Garofalo had breast reduction surgery that took her from a 36D cup to a B cup. She did it for professional reasons when she decided to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. In a 2000 interview, Garofalo recalled, "At five-one, I knew that being a small person with big boobs standing in front of an audience was not going to be easy." She said the surgery gave her "a new lease on life" and that she has never regretted it.

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  4. #017

    In 2003 interviews she admitted to being a recovering alcoholic.

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  5. #018

    She guest-starred in two episodes of Law & Order (1990), the first titled "D-Girl" and the second also titled "D-Girl" on The Sopranos (1999). The "D" stands for "development". In the film industry, a D-girl is a low-level executive who considers scripts for further development.

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  6. #019

    Some sources report that Garofalo has fifteen tattoos. One of them says "think" on her arm.

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  7. #020

    In a 2008 interview with New York Magazine, Janeane said her time on SNL was "the most miserable experience of [her] life." She hated the job so much that she left the show mid-season.

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  8. #021

    In March 2003, she appeared on CNN's Crossfire (1982) to discuss the international situation regarding Iraq.

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  9. #022

    She is returning to her roots as a stand-up comedian and is set to perform at the Gilded Balloon Theatre in August for the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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Characters & Cast (4)

  1. #023

    She was the original choice to play Monica on Friends (1994), but she turned the role down.

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  2. #024

    She was offered the role of Gale Weathers in Scream (1996), but turned it down to appear in Sweethearts (1997). Courteney Cox then took the role, and Scream (1996) went on to gross more than $100 million, while Sweethearts (1997) went straight to video.

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  3. #025

    Cameron Crowe offered her the role of Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire (1996) if she could lose weight, but after she lost the weight she learned that Renée Zellweger had won the part, which became a breakthrough hit in her career.

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  4. #026

    She auditioned for the role of Marla Singer in Fight Club (1999).

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Career & Awards (1)

  1. #027

    Janeane Garofalo lived briefly in Minnesota at the start of her stand-up career.

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Life & Family (2)

  1. #028

    She married her boyfriend Robert Cohen as a joke at a drive-through chapel in Las Vegas in 1992. They had gone to Vegas with the other cast members of The Ben Stiller Show (1990), and she and some of the other crew members decided to get married. After their relationship ended, they never formally divorced. The marriage finally ended in November 2012, when Cohen became engaged to Jill Leiderman. She is the former sister-in-law of Joel H. Cohen.

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  2. #029

    In 2003 interviews, she admitted to being a recovering alcoholic.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb name page (biography and trivia)

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