Rita Rudner

September 17, 1953 — Miami, Florida, USA

Rita Rudner is an American comedian, actress and writer. She began her career as a dancer, appearing in several Broadway musicals, but switched to stand up comedy at the age of 25 when she saw a gap in the market for female comedians in New York City. She became one of the premier American female comedians to come to success in the 1980s and '90s and at one point Rudner was working successfully both in her native America (with HBO specials and acclaimed appearances on The Tonight Show) and in the UK (with her own six part TV series for BBC2). In 1989 Rudner married her long term partner, the English producer Martin Bergman and together they have collaborated on numerous films, writing and producing Peter's Friends in 1992 which starred Kenneth Branagh, Fry and Laurie, Emma Thompson, Imelda Staunton and Rudner herself, and in Bergman's 1995 directorial debut A Month In The Country which she starred in alongside Jack Lemmon, Dudley Moore and Richard Lewis. Presently she has the longest running solo comedy show in Las Vegas history a twelve year run with over 2,000 shows and one and a half million tickets sold to date.