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Cheri Oteri was born on this day in 1962

Word of the Day – Tuesday, September 19th

 


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OTERI (oh-TAYR-ee)

Cheri Oteri: American actress and comedian
Common clues: Cheri of “SNL”; Cheri of “Scary Movie”;
Ferrell's cheerleading partner on "Saturday Night Live"; Former "Saturday Night Live" regular Cheri
Crossword puzzle frequency: 3 times a year
Video:
Barbara Walters interviews Barbara Walters


Cheri Oteri (born Cheryl Ann O'Teari September 19, 1962) is an American actress and comedian known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live.




Oteri was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Upper Darby (also the hometown of Tina Fey, another SNL alum). She went to Archbishop Prendergast High School (on the same campus as Monsignor Bonner High School), until her junior year when she was involved with other students in an incident relating to the theft of the Principal's car and its subsequent destruction. She then transfered to Central High School also in Philadelphia.



Moving to Los Angeles at age 25, she worked at A&M Records for four years and eventually joined the famed comedy troupe The Groundlings. It was there that she was noticed by SNL and was hired in 1995 as part of a nearly all-new cast brought in to save the show after its disastrous 1994 season.


Oteri would eventually form a third of the so-called "SNL female power trio" that also included Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer and which was responsible, along with Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and others, for bringing SNL out of its slump. On SNL, she was known for playing perky, upbeat, and hyper characters, including cheerleader-wannabe Orianna (one half of The Spartan Cheerleaders), grouchy Queens resident Rita DelVecchio, prescription pill-addicted Collette Reardon who befriends Justin Brown at the Hard Rock Hotel, butch cable access television host "Mickey The Dyke" (appearing alongside Mark McKinney's Chicken Lady of Kids In The Hall fame), the absurdly hyper child bus passenger "Althea McMahonaman," overly perky "Morning Latte" talk show host Cass Van Rye (re-teaming her with "Spartan Cheerleaders" partner Will Ferrell), and Nadeen, a testy employee who constantly orders everyone to "Simmer down now!" Her dead-on impressions of Barbara Walters, Mariah Carey, Robin Byrd and Judge Judy also bolstered her fame.



Oteri left SNL in 2000. She has notably appeared in several Hollywood movies including Scary Movie, Inspector Gadget, Liar Liar, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, and Shrek the Third. She starred in two TV pilots that did not make it to air, Loomis and With You in Spirit. Her non-SNL television credits include guest spots on Just Shoot Me!, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Strangers With Candy. She has also been working with Lost creator J.J. Abrams on a sitcom idea.



This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cheri Oteri"