Maya Rudolph is a four-time Emmy Award-winning actress, who has established herself as a captivating, versatile performer across comedy, drama, and music.
Rudolph is most widely known for her turn on NBC's Saturday Night Live, where she was one of the show's regular players for over seven years, as well as her various television projects and film appearances. Since her debut on SNL in 2000, Rudolph's memorable portrayals included Oprah Winfrey, Kamala Harris, Whitney Houston, Donatella Versace, and Beyoncé as well as such recurring sketches as "Wake Up Wakefield" and "Bronx Beat." In 2020, Rudolph won two Emmy Awards in the categories of Outstanding Guest Actress in A Comedy Series for her portrayal of Kamala Harris on SNL and Outstanding Voiceover for Big Mouth. In 2021, she repeated her 2020 Emmy wins in both categories again.
Rudolph was recently seen starring as the villain ‘Malvina’ opposite Amy Adams in DISENCHANTED, the long-awaited sequel to the hit film, ENCHANTED, for Disney+. It was released worldwide on the platform on November 18th. Additionally in 2022, Rudolph was seen cohosting Season 2 of the holiday competition series, BAKING IT, alongside Amy Poehler. Peacock released the second season on December 12, 2022.
Earlier in 2022, she was seen starring in Apple TV+ comedy series, LOOT, in which she starred as the lead and executive produced the series through her production company, Animal Pictures. LOOT premiered in June 2022 and was renewed for Season 2 shortly thereafter.
In 2021, Rudolph lent her voice to two Oscar-nominated animated features – MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES for Netflix and LUCA for Disney+. She also co-hosted the competition series, BAKING IT, a holiday spin-off of MAKING IT, alongside Andy Samberg for Season 1, and will be returning as host and executive producer alongside Amy Poehler for Season 2 in December 2022.
On the television front, Rudolph continues to recur on multiple animated series. She can currently be seen voicing the fan favorite, “Hormone Monstress” on Netflix’s Big Mouth as well as the Big Mouth spin-off, Human Resources alongside Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jordan Peele, Fred Armisen and Jenny Slate.
In 2020, Rudolph was seen in the film, Hubie Halloween, a Halloween comedy from director, Steve Brill. She starred alongside Adam Sander. Netflix released the film in October 2020. Additionally, Rudolph voiced the character, Nanny, in Netflix animated film, The Willoughbys, alongside Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski and Sean Cullen. The animated film is based on Lois Lowry’s popular book of the same name and was released in April 2020.She also voiced characters on the Fox animated series, Bless the Harts, created by Emily Spivey. She was seen on NBC’s The Good Place as “Judge” and her performance earned her 2018, 2019 and 2020 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Lastly in 2020, Rudolph narrated the Hulu series, Eater’s Guide To The World which premiered on November 11.
In 2018 Rudolph announced the formation of her production company, Animal Pictures, alongside her longtime friend, Natasha Lyonne. The duo has signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios to create and develop a series projects for the Prime Video service. They are currently developing The Hospital, a darkly comic animated series and Desert People, a comedy series about Iraqi immigrants. In 2020, Animal Pictures produced the Netflix comedy special, Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine. Rudolph guest starred, wrote and produced the special that premiered in October 2020.
In 2019, Rudolph was seen in Amy Poehler’s directorial film debut for Netflix, Wine Country, alongside Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey and Tina Fey. Wine Country was released in May 2019. Rudolph also lent her voice to a character in The Lego Movie: 2. Warner Brothers released the movie in February 2019. In 2018, Rudolph was seen in the Amazon series, Forever, which she also produced.Amazon released the series on September 14, 2018. She also starred in Ben Falcone’s Life of the Partyalongside Melissa McCarthy. Warner Bros. released the film on May 11, 2018. Additionally, Rudolph starred in STXfilms’ The Happytime Murders, directed by Brian Henson, opposite Melissa McCarthy and Elizabeth Banks. STXfilms released the animated feature on August 24, 2018. In 2017, Rudolph lent her voice to two animated films, The Emoji Movie and The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature. She voiced the emoji “Smiler” in the former, which was released by Sony Pictures July 28, 2017. Rudolph returned to voice “Precious” in the latter, which was released by Open Road on August 11, 2017.
In Summer 2016, Rudolph starred in her variety show Maya and Marty alongside Martin Short. Executive producer, Lorne Michaels and NBC produced alongside Maya and Martin. She also lent her voice to Sony Picture’s animated film, The Angry Birds Movie, released on May 20, 2016. Additionally, she appeared as “Deborah” in Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Universal released the film June 3, 2016. Also, in 2016, Rudolph starred alongside Danny Glover in Diego Luna’s Mr. Pig. The film tells the story of an elderly pig farmer and his estranged daughter who go on a road trip from Southern California to the Jalisco region of West-Central Mexico. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. For her role in the film, Rudolph was nominated for a 2017 Ariel Award for “Best Actress.”
In 2015, Rudolph appeared in the hit comedy movie Sisters opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Released on December 18, 2015 by Universal Pictures and written by Paula Pell, Rudolph played “Brinda” the frenemy of Tina’s character.
She created and stared in her well received comic-variety show special, The Maya Rudolph Show, which aired on NBC on May 19, 2014. The special was executive produced by Lorne Michaels and debuted with 7.23 million viewers.
Additional film credits include: The Spoils Before Dying opposite Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell; Disney’s animated feature Big Hero 6 alongside Jamie Chung and T.J Miller; Paul Thomas Anderson’s crime-drama Inherent Vice alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin and Owen Wilson; Jim Rash and Nat Faxon’s directorial debut The Way, Way Back; family comedy Grown Ups 2 alongside Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, and David Spade; animated comedies The Nut Job and her Black Reel Award® nominated vocal performance as “Burn” in DreamWorks’ film, Turbo.
As a master in the art of comedy, Rudolph starred in Paul Feig's comedy Bridesmaids alongside Kristen Wiig, which has grossed nearly $300 million worldwide and garnered numerous accolades since it opened on May 13, 2011. In addition to being nominated for two Academy Awards®, Bridesmaids was nominated for a Golden Globe® for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and won the following awards: the 2011 AFI Film Award for AFI Movie of the Year, the 2012 Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Comedy Movie, the 2012 People's Choice Award for Favorite Comedy Movie, and Comedy Central's 2012 Comedy Award for Best Film.
Rudolph has teamed up with musician Gretchen Liberum to form the female-fronted Prince cover band, "Princess." In tribute to His Purple Majesty, the duo became an immediate Internet success last year when they performed "Darling Nikki" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Since then, the band has continued performing hit-after-hit as Prince fans everywhere have tuned in praising their pristine mimicry of the artist.