Fran Drescher
Francine Joy Drescher is an American actress, writer, comedian, producer, and former trade union leader. She played Fran Fine in the television sitcom The Nanny, which she created and produced with her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson.
Drescher made her screen debut with a small role in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever and later appeared in American Hot Wax and Wes Craven's horror film Stranger in Our House. In the 1980s, she worked as a comedic actress in the films Gorp, The Hollywood Knights, Doctor Detroit, This Is Spinal Tap, and UHF, and made guest appearances on several television series.
In 1993, she achieved wider fame as Fran Fine in her own sitcom vehicle The Nanny, for which she was nominated for two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Television Series during the show's run. In the 2000s, Drescher starred in the sitcoms Living with Fran and Happily Divorced. From 2012 to 2022, she starred in the animated Hotel Transylvania film series. In 2014, Drescher made her Broadway debut in Cinderella as stepmother Madame. In 2020, she starred in the NBC sitcom Indebted.
The national members of trade union SAG-AFTRA, representing actors and other media professionals, elected Drescher as president, and she took office on October 15, 2021. Drescher led the union during the five-month actors' strike that began on July 14, 2023, partially overlapping with the writers' strike that had begun in May of that year. In July 2024, Drescher led another strike against major video game publishers, which ended in 2025.
Early life and education
Francine Joy Drescher was born on September 30, 1957, in Queens, a borough of New York City, the younger daughter of Sylvia Drescher, a bridal consultant, and Morty Drescher, a naval systems analyst. Her family is Jewish, from Southeast and Central Europe. Her maternal great-grandmother Yetta was born in Focșani, Romania, and immigrated to the United States, while her father's family came from Poland. She has an older sister, Nadine. Drescher was a first runner-up for "Miss New York Teenager" in 1973.She attended Flushing's Parsons Junior High School, which later dissolved, and then Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens. There she met her future husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, whom she married in 1978, at age 21. They divorced in 1999. Drescher graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975; one of her classmates was comedian Ray Romano. Drescher's character Fran Fine from The Nanny and Romano's character Ray Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond met at a 20th high school reunion on an episode of The Nanny. Drescher and Jacobson attended Queens College, City University of New York, but dropped out in their first year because "all the acting classes were filled." They then enrolled in cosmetology school.
Career
Early career
Drescher's first break was a small role as dancer Connie in the movie Saturday Night Fever, in which she delivered the line "So, are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?" to John Travolta's character. A year later, she began to gain attention in films such as American Hot Wax and Summer of Fear. She also took on a rare dramatic role in the 1981 Miloš Forman film Ragtime. During the 1980s, Drescher found success as a character actress with roles in films such as Gorp, The Hollywood Knights, Doctor Detroit, The Big Picture, UHF, Cadillac Man, and memorably in This Is Spinal Tap as publicist Bobbi Flekman. She also made an appearance in a second-season episode of Who's the Boss? in 1985 as an interior decorator. She also had an appearance on Night Court as a woman with dissociative identity disorder who flips from a prude to a sexually minded woman and ends up in a hotel with Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding. In 1990, Drescher appeared on ALF as Roxanne, the wife of grown-up Brian, who had no clue she was a mob boss, in the episode "Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades". In 1991, Drescher co-starred on the short-lived CBS sitcom Princesses. In the early-to-mid 1990s, she voiced "Peggy" from The P Pals on PBS.''The Nanny'' and film roles
Drescher and Jacobson created their own television show, The Nanny, in 1993. The show aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999, and Drescher became an instant star. In this sitcom, she played a woman named Fran Fine who casually became the nanny of Margaret , Brighton , and Grace Sheffield ; with her wit and her charm, she endeared herself to their widower father: stuffy, composed, proper British gentleman and Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield. She reprised her This is Spinal Tap character of Bobbi Flekman, a look-alike for her Fran Fine character, in season 5, episode 3, of The Nanny. Drescher appeared in Jack, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Beautician and the Beast and Picking Up the Pieces co-starring Woody Allen. She was also the voice of "Pearl" in Shark Bait.In 2025, she reprised her Spinal Tap role of Bobbi Flekman in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues; prior to this, Flekman had also made an appearance on a 1997 episode of The Nanny.
She appears in Marty Supreme , directed by Josh Safdie as the mother of Timothée Chalamet's character, "Marty Mauser".
Return to television
In the 2000s, Drescher made a return to television both with leading and guest roles. In 2003, Drescher appeared in episodes of the short-lived sitcom Good Morning, Miami as Roberta Diaz. In 2005, she returned with the sitcom Living with Fran, in which she played Fran Reeves, a middle-aged mother of two living with Riley Martin, a man half her age and not much older than her son. Former Nanny costar Charles Shaughnessy appeared as her philandering ex-husband, Ted. Living with Fran was cancelled on May 17, 2006, after two seasons.In 2006, Drescher guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent; the episode, "The War at Home", aired on US television on November 14, 2006. She also appeared in an episode of Entourage and, in the same year, gave her voice to the role of a female golem in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XVII". In 2007, Drescher appeared in the US version of the Australian improvisational comedy series Thank God You're Here. In 2008, Drescher announced that she was developing a new sitcom entitled The New Thirty, also starring Rosie O'Donnell. A series about two old high school friends coping with midlife crises, Drescher described the premature plot of the show as "kind of Sex and the City but we ain't getting any! It'll probably be more like The Odd Couple." It was never produced.
In 2010, Drescher returned to television with her own daytime talk show, The Fran Drescher Tawk Show. While the program debuted to strong ratings, it ended its three-week test run to moderate success, resulting in its shelving. The following year, the sitcom Happily Divorced, created by Drescher and her ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, was picked up by TV Land for a ten-episode order. It premiered there June 15, 2011. The show was renewed in July 2011 for a second season of 12 episodes, which aired in spring 2012. On May 1, 2012, TV Land extended the second season and picked up 12 additional episodes, taking the second season total to 24. The back-order of season two debuted later in 2012. Happily Divorced was cancelled in August 2013.
To promote Happily Divorced, Drescher performed the weddings of three gay couples in New York City using the minister's license she received from the Universal Life Church. Drescher hand-picked the three couples, all of whom were entrants into "Fran Drescher's 'Love Is Love' Gay Marriage Contest" on Facebook, based on the stories the couples submitted about how they met, why their relationship illustrated that "love is love" and why they wanted to be married by her.
Broadway
Drescher made her Broadway debut on February 4, 2014, in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. She replaced Harriet Harris as stepmother Madame for a 10-week engagement. She reprised the role during the North American tour's engagement in Los Angeles, lasting from March through April 2015. Drescher's previous stage performances include an off-Broadway production of Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore, and Camelot at the Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic. On January 8, 2020, it was announced that Drescher and Jacobson were writing the book for a musical adaptation of The Nanny. Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend were brought on to compose the songs prior to Schlesinger's death in April 2020, while Marc Bruni was slated to direct. Drescher will not portray the title role, as she joked that if she did "We'd have to change the title to The Granny."Trade union leader
In 2021, Drescher began her campaign to become president of theScreen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union, citing both her entertainment and [|political background]. Her candidacy came from the "Unite for Strength" faction, and she ran against actor Matthew Modine. On September 2, 2021, SAG-AFTRA announced that Drescher had won the election. On July 13, 2023, after SAG-AFTRA members overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike action a week prior, Drescher announced the SAG-AFTRA strike was to begin at midnight the following day, running alongside the concurrent Writers Guild of America strike that began just over two months prior. The strike ended with a tentative deal between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which was approved by the SAG-AFTRA board. Drescher was elected to a second two-year term as SAG-AFTRA president in August 2023.
On July 25, 2024, ten months after SAG-AFTRA members voted overwhelmingly to authorize another strike against the video game industry, Drescher stated that SAG-AFTRA would begin a strike against major video game publishers, with the strike then going into effect the following day at 12:01 am. On July 9, 2025, the strike ended after SAG-AFTRA members voted to ratify a tentative agreement which more performer safety measures, which was a specific concern for motion capture video game performers, motion capture actors having medics available during high-risk jobs, compounded increases in performer pay at a rate of 15.17% upon ratification and additional 3% increases in November 2025, November 2026 and November 2027 with 95.04% approval.
On August 8, 2025, it was revealed that Drescher, after leading two successful strikes, would not seek re-election to another term as SAG-AFTRA president, with Sean Astin, a member of Drescher's 2023 political slate and negotiating committee, and Chuck Slavin, a SAG-AFTRA New England Local board member, each vying to replace her. During this race, Drescher would endorse Astin to succeed her. Both Astin and his secretary-treasurer running mate Michelle Hurd would be elected to their respective positions.
On August 13, 2025, a month before the election to determine Drescher's successor as SAG-AFTRA president concluded, it was announced that SAG-AFTRA members were able to settle a lawsuit against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan for negligence which was related to a cyberattack that resulted in a data breach.