Melanie Chartoff
Chartoff in 1980
Born	Melanie Barbara Chartoff (1948-12-15)December 15, 1948 (age 76)[1] 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 theABC seriesFridays (1980–1982), and in the 1990sFoxsitcomParker Lewis Can't Lose. She voiced both Didi Pickles and Grandma Minka, Didi's mother on theNickelodeon animated seriesRugrats andAll Grown Up!.

Chartoff was born on December 15, 1948, inNew Haven, Connecticut, and attendedWest Haven High School. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts fromAdelphi University. Chartoff isJewish.^[2]

Her first Broadway appearances were inGalt MacDermot's space operaVia Galactica (1972), directed by Peter Hall, and The Young Vic'sScapino, starringJim Dale (1974).^{[citation needed]}

Chartoff's first TV role came in 1976 when she played a nurse onSearch for Tomorrow, after which she appeared in the 1978 motion pictureAmerican Hot Wax. She first became a nationally known figure onABC'sFridays, which was ABC's attempt to create its own version ofSaturday 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 ofNancy Reagan). In one sketch, Melanie was cold-cocked on live TV when co-starMaryedith Burrell failed to pull her punch during a skit and chipped Chartoff's tooth.

Between the demise ofFridays in 1982 and her return to a regular series in 1990 withParker 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 onMr. Belvedere,Wiseguy,Wonder Woman, andSt. Elsewhere, as well as a recurring role onNewhart as Dr. Kaiser. She made two appearances onSeinfeld, including one in the 1998 series finale in which four of her formerFridays co-stars were also involved (includingMichael Richards). She appeared in the 2006 season finale ofDesperate Housewives.

In the Los Angeles premiere of Bill Finn and James Lapine's musicalMarch of the Falsettos (1982), for which she won aDrama-Logue Award, she played Trina. She played Mary Jane Wilkes in theLa Jolla Playhouse premiere ofBig River (1984). AtSouth Coast Repertory she appeared in the world Premiere ofOn the Jump. She played Dot in the West Coast premiere ofSunday in the Park with George at San Francisco'sAmerican Conservatory Theater (1986).^{[citation needed]}

In 1991, Chartoff and fellow voice actorMichael Bell conceived the Grayway Rotating Drain, a device that recycles shower and sinkgreywater 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 .^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Chartoff's first voice-over work was a guest role onChallenge 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.^[8] In 2005, she interviewedLaraine Newman forAutograph Collector magazine. Chartoff writes forThe Huffington Post,The Jewish Journal,Defenestration Magazine, andThe 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."^{[citation needed]}

From 1991 to 2008, Chartoff voiced Didi Pickles and her mother Grandma Minka on the Nickelodeon seriesRugrats, for which she won aDaytime Emmy. She continued to voice Didi on theRugrats spin-off series,All Grown Up!. For the2021 revival series of the same name, Chartoff was replaced by actressAshley Spillers.^[9]

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.^{[citation needed]}

On July 5, 2013, Chartoff married psychologist Stan Friedman, her longtime boyfriend.^[10][11][12]

• Melanie Chartoff atIMDb
• 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 women comedians

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2020
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2023