Emmy® Award-winning actress Rhea Perlman has been a star of television, stage and film for more than 30 years. A four-time Emmy® winner for her role as Carla on the NBC hit “Cheers,” Perlman was nominated an unprecedented ten times over the eleven year series and appeared in all 273 episodes. She reprised the character in four other series: “St. Elsewhere,” “The Tortellis,” “The Simpsons” and “Frasier.”
In 2010 Perlman appeared onstage with her daughter, Lucy, in Norah and Delia Ephron’s Broadway hit Love, Loss and What I Wore at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. The pair previously performed together in the Broadway edition of the same play.
Perlman starred in the Broadway production of The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, the off-Broadway play The Exonerated and the London West End revival of Boeing-Boeing. Her performance as the forbearing housekeeper, Bertha, earned rave reviews from critics and fans alike.
Perlman recently completed a role in “The Surrogate,” an independent movie starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt. She starred in “Love Comes Lately,” earning praise for her role as Reisel, a long-suffering lover, and in the family film “Beethoven: The Reel Story” for Universal Home Entertainment. Other feature film credits include “Sunset Park,” “Canadian Bacon,” “Carpool” and “Matilda,” which was directed by and also starred her husband, Danny DeVito.
On television, Perlman currently has a recurring role as Tanya on HBO’s series “Hung.” Perlman has starred in more than 15 television movies, including Hallmark Channel Original Movie, “The Christmas Choir,” as well as “Houdini,” “Secret Cutting” and “How to Marry a Billionaire.” Her other television credits include the role of Zena in “Taxi,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Kate Brasher” and “Pearl,” which she both starred in and executive produced.
Perlman began writing children’s books in 2005, producing a six-book series entitled Otto Undercover, about a precocious kid who’s a racecar driver and secret agent who loves wordplay and palindromes.
Born in Brooklyn, Perlman graduated from Hunter College in New York with a Theatre degree and was later awarded an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts. She is a mother of three and a well-known children’s advocate recognized for her involvement in a variety of charities, including LA’s Best, Children’s Action Network, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Diabetes Center. Perlman regularly blogs on Huffington Post, introducing kids in L.A. County foster care, who are eligible for adoption. In 2010 she received the National Angel Award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s Angels in Adoption. She also successfully campaigned for the passage of California Fostering Connections to Success Act (AB 12), which allows children who turn 18 the option to remain in the foster care system until the age of 21. A champion of children’s literacy, Perlman supports public libraries.
Perlman lives with her family in Los Angeles.
