#012 - Fran Drescher

Fran Drescher is an American actress, producer, writer and comedian, best known for her brilliant New York accent and starring role in the TV sitcom The Nanny. Since appearing in Saturday Night Fever, she has starred in several Hollywood films, penned two books and founded the Cancer Awareness Group, Cancer Schmancer. Born Francine Joy Drescher in Flushing, Queens, Fran Drescher has had an affinity for acting since joining the drama club at her High School. As well as meeting her future husband at the Drama club, she built her confidence to enter the 1973 Miss Teen New York pageant. Despite coming second place, Fran used the opportunity to reach out to talent agents in the City, telling them she’d won first place to pitch herself as a client. After a brief stint in hairdressing after graduation, Fran landed her first major role as Connie in 1977′s smash film Saturday Night Fever. Multiple roles followed in films such as The Hollywood Knights, The Big Picture, UHF, and This Is Spinal Tap, but she is best known as the " 'Mary Poppins' from Queens" in her starring role "Fran Fine" in The Nanny, which earned her two Emmy nominations as Best Actress in a Comedy Series. More recently, she has developed and starred in the sitcoms Living with Fran and Happily Divorced, both created with her ex-husband and offering a comic take on their divorce. As well as starring on the screen, Fran has appeared on Broadway in Cinderella and on stage for Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She is also the author of two memoirs, Enter Whining and Cancer Schmancer, the latter about her experience of being diagnosed with and beating uterine cancer. Since publication, Fran has founded the Cancer Awareness Group ‘Cancer Schmancer’ and uses her social media to advocate for healthcare and LGBT rights. Fran recently celebrated 20 years free of cancer by organising a free virtual cabaret concert on Cancer Schmancer. The music for the podcast is Twiggy's version of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks and can be found on Apple Music at this link https://music.apple.com/gb/album/romantically-yours/693460953 If you’ve enjoyed listening to “Tea With Twiggy” please give take a moment to give us a lovely 5 STAR rating on Apple Podcasts. It really helps other people to find the show.If you haven’t done so already please subscribe to this podcast so you auto-magically get the next episodes for free and do tell all your friends and family about it too. If you want to connect with me I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on Twitter @Twiggy Or you can find me on Instagram @Twiggy Lawson My thanks go to all the people that have helped this podcast happen: ● Many thanks to James Carrol and all the team at Northbank Talent Management ● Thanks to all the team at Stripped Media including Ben Williams, who edits the show, my producer Kobi Omenaka and Executive Producers Tom Whalley and Dave Corkery If you want to know more about this podcast and other produced by Stripped Media please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices