This article is about the American comedian/actress. For the French stage actress, see Sarah Bernhardt. For the episode of an adventure series, see Sarah Bernhardt (Lucky Luke).
Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. Bernhard is also well known as the ex-best friend of Madonna.
She played Nancy Bartlett Thomas on the ABC sitcom Roseanne from the fourth season (1991) to the end of the show in 1997. She played Masha in Martin Scorsese’s film The King of Comedy, Nurse Judy Kubrak in the FX drama series Pose, and Nurse Cecily on the Apple TV+ series Severance. She is number 96 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time.
In 1973, she traveled to Israel and stayed for 7 months at Kibbutz Kfar Menahem with her friend Daniel Chick. She later returned to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.[7]
She began performing her first one-woman show, I'm Your Woman, in 1985, and an album version was released.[15] She appeared in a variety of small television roles throughout the 1980s while crafting her stand-up routine into a more performance art-oriented show.[16] She launched an off-Broadway one-woman show called Without You, I'm Nothing, With You, I'm Not Much Better in 1988, which played at the Orpheum Theatre. By 1990, it had become a film and a double album of the same title.[17][18] The album was recorded in 1988 at the Orpheum and released in 1989 and the film was mostly shot on location in 1989 in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel.[citation needed] Bernhard was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1990.[19]
During the run of Without You, I'm Nothing, With You, I'm Not Much Better Bernhard appeared with her then good friend (and rumored lover) Madonna on a 1988 episode of Late Night with David Letterman. The two alluded to their romantic relationship and staged a sexy confrontation; the appearance received much publicity. They continued to be friends for several years, with Bernhard making an appearance in Madonna's film Truth or Dare.[20][21][22] The friendship ended in 1992.[23][24]
In 1991, Bernhard began playing Nancy Bartlett on the hit sitcom Roseanne. She appeared in 33episodes between 1991 and 1997, and was one of the first actresses to portray an openly bisexual recurring character on American television.[25][26][27] In September 1992, Bernhard appeared in a nude pictorial for Playboy.[28] She hosted the USA Network's Reel Wild Cinema for two seasons beginning in 1995.[29][30] She continued acting in mostly independent films, TV guest roles, and forays into mainstream films such as Hudson Hawk and Dallas Doll. In 1991, she released her first studio album, Excuses for Bad Behavior (Part One). In 1995, she briefly appeared as a guest in the "Jerk" episode of the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast. In 1996, she guest-starred on an episode of Highlander: The Series called "Dramatic License", where she played a romance novelist writing about the life of the main character.
She appeared as herself on Will & Grace, in an episode where the title characters spuriously bid on Bernhard's Manhattan apartment in an attempt to become friendly with her. When their ruse is exposed, Bernhard rants at them, with the sounds of a blender (she was having a smoothie made) blotting out supposed obscenities. She briefly returned as herself two years later.[citation needed]
Bernhard returned to Broadway in 1998 with the show I'm Still Here... Damn It!, recorded for a live comedy album. She was pregnant at the time, and gave birth to a daughter, Cicely, on July 4, 1998.[31][32] She returned to New York in 2006 with the off-Broadway show Everything Bad & Beautiful. The CD of the show, released by indie label Breaking Records, was lauded as one of her best.[33] That year she also hosted the first season of the reality competition show The Search for the Funniest Mother in America on Nick at Nite. 2007 saw the debut of her one-woman show Plan B from Outer Space, and the inclusion of her Hanukkah-themed song "Miracle of Lights", which she co-wrote with Mitchell Kaplan, in the Breaking Records compilation album Breaking For the Holidays. She toured Plan B through 2008 and performed "Miracle of Lights" on some morning shows in New York.[34][35]
Bernhard was a featured guest singer with children's artist Dan Zanes on the Family Dance album's "Thrift Shop".[36] In an interview with Howard Stern, she revealed that she was originally offered the role of Miranda Hobbes on the TV show Sex and the City, but opted out owing to the "terrible" original script and small paycheck.[37] In 2013, it was announced that she would join the cast of ABC Family's Switched at Birth with Glee's Max Adler, where she would play an art professor on the season 3 opener in January 2014.[38] In 2015, she began hosting a radio show, Sandyland, on Sirius XM's Radio Andy.[39]
In 2015, she made her first appearance as the recurring character of Joedth ("Joe") in season 4 of 2 Broke Girls. From 2018 until 2021, she played Nurse Judy on FX's Pose, a show based on queer and transball culture in Manhattan inspired by the documentary Paris Is Burning.[40] In 2025, she appeared in Severance as Cecily, a nurse.[41]
Public controversies
In 1995, while serving as a guest panelist on the Comedy Central talk show Politically Incorrect, Bernhard became engaged in an argument with fellow panelist, conservative political commentator John Lofton. Bernhard then stood up and spat at Lofton and exclaimed, "If I had you, you’d be an abortion."[42]
In August 2006, Bernhard served as the spokesperson in a commercial for Make-up Art Cosmetics (MAC). In the commercial, promoting PlushGlass lipgloss, she referred to someone who might not approve of her outspokenness as a "little freaked out, intimidated, frightened, right-wing Republican thin-lipped bitch." MAC edited the line from the commercial to avoid offending some of its customers.[43]
In September 2008, she warned vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin that she would be gang-raped by her "big black brothers" if she visited Manhattan. Palin had a campaign stop planned in New York City at the time.[44][45][46]
In November 2020, during an interview with Mariah Carey, Naomi Campbell called out Bernhard for her comments about Carey and Black men in her 1998 comedy show I'm Still Here… Damn It! In the show, Bernhard disparaged Carey's Black ancestry, saying "She's trying to backtrack on our asses by acting real nigger-ish there at the Royalton Hotel suite with Puff Daddy and all the greasy, chain-wearing Black men."[47]
Personal life
Bernhard identifies herself as bisexual and is a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights.[48][49] On July 4, 1998, she gave birth to a daughter, Cicely,[50] whom she raised with Sara Switzer, her partner of over 20 years.[51][52][53] Bernhard was also in a relationship with Venezuelan actress Patricia Velasquez.[54]
Music
Bernhard performs classic pop music, jazz, and blues tunes. She has released several albums (combinations of music and comedy).[citation needed]
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