Renée Taylor

Renée Taylor Headshot

Actress • Writer • Producer • Casting Director

Birth Date: March 19, 1933

Age: 92 years old

Birth Place: New York, New York

A comic performer and writer with an unabashed New York accent and sensibility who has portrayed a wide range of common-folk Jewish women, Renee Taylor began her career in New York in the 1950s as a revue comedienne and writer. She first gained national attention as a semi-regular on "The Jack Paar Show."

Taylor made her film debut for Jerry Lewis in "The Errand Boy" (1961), and in 1968 was Jack Klugman's wife in "The Detective" who tried to distract him from his concentration with the offer of food. In 1977, Taylor appeared on the syndicated "Fernwood Tonight," the offspring of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," as a character who proclaimed herself to be the missing Mary Hartman.

Since the roles she was offered often did not showcase her abilities, Taylor and husband Joseph Bologna began writing and starring in their own plays and independent feature films which they tirelessly promoted. They co-wrote and performed onstage in "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1968), which they later adapted (but did not star in) for the screen in 1970.

In 1971, the duo made the feature "Made for Each Other," in which Taylor was Pandora, a talentless performer pursuing the reluctant Bologna as her last chance at happiness. Taylor's self-written characters were often women with low self-esteem who are desperately seek love yet who also believe themselves to be unattractive. The pair revived "Made for Each Other" with frequent screenings at their own expense.

Taylor and Bologna also co-wrote "Acts of Love and Other Comedies," a 1972 special starring Marlo Thomas that earned them a writing Emmy. Taylor wrote and starred in the 1976 TV-movie "Woman of the Year." In 1995, Taylor co-wrote and co-directed "Love Is All There Is" which centers on two feuding families whose children fall in love. The film was shown out of competition at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

Taylor found herself on a hit series when she was cast in the recurring role of Fran Drescher's Flushing, Queens, mother in the CBS sitcom "The Nanny" (1994-99). Again, she played a blowzy, overbearing parent not dissimilar characters she created for herself. Riding on her increased popularity, Taylor co-wrote a stage play with Bologna called "Bermuda Avenue Triangle" (1995), that explored love and relationships in middle age. With Beatrice Arthur as the third star of the piece, the play played to enthusiastic crowds in Los Angeles.

Taylor continued working steadily in small roles in both film and television, including recurring roles on the sitcoms "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS 2005-2014) and "Happily Divorced" (TV Land 2011-13), in which she was reunited with Drescher, and the animated comedy "Bob's Burgers" (Fox 2011- ). She also appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy "The Do Over" (2016) and director Ken Marino's "How To Be A Latin Lover" (2017).

Credits

God Bless You Al Pacino

Actor
Oscar Hollywood Renee star
Movie
2023

Tango Shalom

Actor
Deborah Yehuda
Movie
2021

Tango Shalom

Executive Producer
Movie
2021

How to Be a Latin LoverStream

Actor
Peggy
Movie
2017
40%

The Do Over

Actor
Mrs. Kessler
Movie
2016

Zarra's Law

Actor
Gabriella Zarra
Movie
2014

Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage CounselorStream

Actor
Ms. Waco Chapman
Movie
2013
22%

Allen Gregory

Voice
Principal Gottlieb
Series
2011
12%

2 Broke GirlsStream

Guest Star
Hinda Fagel
Series
2011

Bob's BurgersStream

Guest Star
Gloria
Series
2011

Bob's BurgersStream

Guest Voice
Gloria
Series
2011

The Fran Drescher Tawk Show

Guest
Show
2010

Shake It UpStream

Guest Star
Mrs. Locassio
Series
2010

VictoriousStream

Guest Star
Mammaw
Series
2010

Boston Girls

Actor
Mrs. Palermo
Movie
2010

Sonny with a ChanceStream

Guest Star
Series
2009

Life During Wartime

Actor
Mona Jordan
Movie
2009

Opposite DayStream

Actor
Martha Benson
Movie
2009

The Rainbow Tribe

Actor
Ms. Crapple
Movie
2008

Pandemic

Actor
Kathryn Hadorn
Show
2007

The Wedding Bells

Guest Star
Show
2007

Pandemic

Actor
Kathryn Hadorn
Movie
2007

Kalamazoo?

Actor
Golda
Movie
2006

How I Met Your MotherStream

Guest Star
Mrs. Matsen
Series
2005
84%

Boynton Beach Club

Actor
Platinum Blond
Movie
2005

AlfieStream

Actor
Lu Schnitman
Movie
2004
48%

EveStream

Guest Star
Series
2003

Lady Killers

Actor
Betty Mundt
Movie
2003

Returning Mickey Stern

Actor
Jeannie
Movie
2003

EverwoodStream

Guest Star
Series
2002
93%

61*Stream

Actor
Claire Ruth
Movie
2001
86%

Law & Order: Special Victims UnitStream

Guest Star
Maude Monaghan
Series
1999
78%

The Simple Life

Guest Star
Series
1998

A Match Made in Heaven

Actor
Isobel Slotkin
Movie
1997

Smoke Alarm: The Unfiltered Truth About Cigarettes

Voice
Wheezy
Show
1996

Theater Talk

Guest
Show
1996

Love Is All There Is

Actor
Mona
Movie
1996

Love Is All There Is

Director
Movie
1996

Caroline in the City

Guest Star
Series
1995

The Single Guy

Guest Star
Series
1995
75%

The NannyStream

Actor
Sylvia Fine
Series
1993

The NannyStream

Guest Star
Sylvia Fine
Series
1993

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of SupermanStream

Guest Star
Series
1993
86%

Daddy Dearest

Actor
Helen Mitchell
Show
1993

Amor es Para Siempre

Actor
Movie
1992

Para Siempre

Actor
Movie
1992

Forever

Actor
Charlotte
Movie
1992

The Joke

Actor
Belle
Movie
1992

Por Siempre

Actor
Movie
1992

DeliriousStream

Actor
Arlene Sherwood
Movie
1991
29%

All I Want for ChristmasStream

Actor
Sylvia
Movie
1991
7%

White Palace

Actor
Edith Baron
Movie
1990
50%

The Joan Rivers Show

Guest
Talk
1989

It Had to Be You

Actor
Theda Blau
Movie
1989

It Had to Be You

Director
Movie
1989

thirtysomething

Guest Star
Electra Rosenbloom
Series
1987
83%

LovesickStream

Actor
Mrs. Mondragon
Movie
1983
40%

Woman of the Year

Actor
Tess Harding
Movie
1976

Paradise

Actor
Marilyn/Carmel/Madeline
Show
1974

Paradise

Writer
Show
1974

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

Actor
Jeanette
Movie
1972

Jennifer en Mi Mente

Actor
Movie
1971

A New LeafStream

Actor
Sally Hart
Movie
1971
94%

Made for Each Other

Actor
Pandora
Movie
1971

Jennifer on My Mind

Actor
Selma
Movie
1971

Lovers and Other Strangers

Writer
Movie
1970

That Show

Guest
Show
1968

The ProducersStream

Actor
Eva Braun
Movie
1968
91%

A Fine MadnessStream

Actor
Streetwalker
Movie
1966
33%

The Merv Griffin Show

Guest
Talk
1965

The Errand Boy

Actor
Miss Giles
Movie
1961