Melanie Chartoff, a talented actress, began her career on Broadway in "Scapino" and "Via Galactica," and Off-Broadway in "the Proposition," an entirely improvised musical revue with Jane Curtin, Fred Grande, and Josh Mostel.
She played Jennifer in a revival of "Do I Hear a Waltz," and performed a stand-up and comedy song act at the Improv Clubs in New York, later in Los Angeles.
Chartoff gained prominence as a cast member and contributor on "Fridays" with Larry David and Michael Richards. She co-starred with George Segal on "Take Five" and recurred opposite Jonathan Banks on "Wiseguy."
She also recurred as Peter Scolari, Tom Poston, and Bob Newhart's shrink on "Newhart," and as the mom on "Weird Science." Chartoff played the principal from hell, Grace Musso, on "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" and recurred as Jason Alexander's girlfriend on "Seinfeld," appearing in the show's final episode.
In addition to her television work, Chartoff played Didi Pickles and Minka on Nickelodeon's long-running Emmy-winning "Rugrats" and "All Grown Up," its films, video games, and action figures. She also played Aunt Nora in the animated "Jumanji" and Sunshine on "OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes" on the Cartoon Network.
Melanie Chartoff's stage work includes playing the mature Mary Pickford at the time when she was president of United Artists in the new play "The Counsel, the Tramp and American's Sweetheart" at Theatre 40, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Rupert Holmes' play "All Things Equal." She appears in several roles in "The Pack Plays" on the Actors Fund website.
Chartoff has also written her first book, "Odd Woman Out: Exposure in Essays and Stories," about the risks of becoming an actor before becoming a real human, which is rated five stars on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and many other sites. Her narration of the audio book is also rated five stars.
She has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including McSweeney's, Medium, Entropy, Crows Feet, The Jewish Journal, Funny Times, Five on the Fifth, Purple Clover, Glint, Entropy, Verdad, Bluestem, Evening Street Press, Mused, Jewlarious, Defenestration, Better after 50, Living the Second Act, Avenue, Goats Milk Magazine, Borrowed Solace, Avalon Literary Review, Eat Darling Eat, The Literate Ape, Lowestoft Chronicle, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Wry Times, and five editions of Chicken Soup for the Soul (Simon and Schuster).
Melanie Chartoff lives with her husband in Los Angeles and coaches performers and non-performers, introverts and extroverts, in being more charismatic in their public and private encounters, directing voice-over reels, speeches, and recording first date videos.
