She grew up in Palo Alto, California and attended three colleges honing her skills. They were San Jose State College, Stanford University (where she earned a master's degree in drama and literature) and the American Conservatory Theatre. She credits the teachings of John Lehne, Jered Barclay, Ken McMillan, Gerry Hiken, Negal Jacson and Alan Fletcher as her acting influences. She battled dyslexia throughout her school years. After college she spent a year in Hawaii, then to Oregon where she met Future Fridays cast member Mark Blankfield at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She then moved to New York for five years. Her first job in New York was teaching speech to policemen and firemen at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In 1979 she moved to Los Angeles just before Fridays broke.

Producers of the TV show caught her performances as part of the Low Moan Spectacular comedy troupe in the plays "Bullshot Crummond" and "El Grande de Coca Cola" and selected her as a member of their new ensemble cast. In 1980 she developed strong comedic recurring characters such as the "Creative Palm Reader" as well as adding her talents to comedy sketches on many different levels. She became the "go to" female cast member because of her flexibility and strong delivery. She co-starred with Mark Blankfield, Jack Burns, Maryedith Burrell, Melanie Chartoff, Larry David, Rich Hall, Darrow Igus, Bruce Mahler, Michael Richards and John Roarke. The show completed in 1982.

Starting in 1985, she applied her same flexible talents with strong characterizations in a wide variety of films and TV shows until 2003.