Sandra Bernhard

An acerbic, self-deprecating renaissance woman, Sandra Bernhard has offered cutting-edge social commentary since beginning humbly at an open-mike night at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills in 1975. At the time she was a manicurist to the stars, a vocation she practiced for six years before her comedy stylings enabled her to give up her day job for good. She had made her feature debut in "Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams" (19981), but it was her over-the-top turn as the obsessively neurotic groupie who attempts to kidnap Jerry Lewis in Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" (1983) that brought her to public prominence. Managing to upstage not only Lewis but also the film's lead Robert De Niro, Bernhard set a standard she has yet to equal on the large screen, though she has garnered much subsequent acclaim for her outrageous live performances and television appearances (like dropping her pants on E! Entertainment's "Howard Stern") not to mention her 1991 PLAYBOY spread and a run as a Ford model.