Rachel Bloom is our queen. The star and co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the Jewish celebrity we need right now.
For those who also can’t get enough, here are 18 things you may not have known about Rachel Bloom:
1. “My sense of humor has always tended toward either really, really dark [or] really, really happy,” Rachel said in an interview. Mainly because her family was “a bunch of neurotic Jews living a five-minute walk away from the beach. I think a lot of my neuroses… thinking about death and these existential anxieties that I have — are very much East Coast Jew, and they contrast with the Southern California lifestyle.”
2. Rachel was once roommates with other famed Jewish comedian Ilana Glazer. (Yes, really!!)
3. She interned for Seth Meyers, which he does not remember. Rachel attributes it to the fact that “nobody remembers when someone’s pleasant to them.”
4. She rose to fame with the song “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” in April 2010. Wikipedia says it gained a “cult following.”
(As of this writing, it has over 4 million views on YouTube.)
5. She married Dan Gregor in January 2015. They had two weddings — “the week before, we were officially married by my cousin, a rabbi, at a gorgeous restaurant in California called Inn of the Seventh Ray. That was an intimate ceremony with mostly family and a few close friends. Then, in Mexico, it was just friends, so it had more of a bachelor/bachelorette party vibe.” (Read their whole love story. Seriously.)
Okay, one more photo:
6. Rachel has been very open about her anxiety and depression. In an interview with Glamour, she said, “The thing that has most aided me through my anxiety and depression is realizing I’m not alone. I’m naturally bubbly, even when I’m sad. But here’s what people can’t see: During a spiral the world feels dark. I have anxiety about anxiety, then I worry the anxiety will ruin my life. It’s a snake-eats-tail loop. But in opening up to others, I found a lot of people have felt the same way.”
7. Her show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, was originally filmed for Showtime but was picked up by the CW. She won a Golden Globe award for best actress in 2016.
8. She wrote a Hanukkah humor album with Dan Gregor and Jack Dolgen, and it’s amazing. (Also on the note of Hanukkah: she has a labia menorah that she uses for the Festival of Lights. We’re in love with her!!)
9. Her drunk history episode — on the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann — ended with the iconic line, “Fuck the Nazis, man. I’m alive. I’m 97.4% Ashkenazi.”
10. She said she could never make a show like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend again. “It’s a very hard show. I couldn’t do a show like this ever again, on a network TV schedule, because we’re writing and editing and filming at the same time — unlike cable shows, which do all three separately. Plus, I’m in it.”
11. The song from the show people talk to her the most about? “Heavy Boobs,” because, “Nine times out of 10, they say, ‘I’m a Jewish girl with big boobs and I really feel that song.'”
12. During the Tony Awards this year, Neil Patrick Harris was very rude to Rachel. She responded with class:
13. On her artistic influences, Rachel told Elle, “I think I have a specific fondness for the music and movies of the mid- to late ’90s, because it was the one thing that made me feel like I fit in,” she says. “I really latched on to things, anything from A Goofy Movie to She’s All That… Also the Spice Girls. Otherwise, I was all about Guys and Dolls, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Mel Brooks, ‘Weird Al,’ and Ethel Merman. I also loved Disneyland. We had a year-long pass to Disneyland, so I loved that kind of escapism and fantasy.”
14. She auditioned for SNL in 2012, as Katherine Hepburn auditioning for Space Jam. It is worth your time:
https://twitter.com/Racheldoesstuff/status/771561342184464384
Why Space Jam? “I like random specifics of stuff that you kind of remember. It was very, very primal,” she told Vulture.
15. She has lots of feelings about how women’s sexuality is portrayed on television:
https://twitter.com/Racheldoesstuff/status/1066768386921652224
(Click to read the whole thread!!)
16. She’s also really good at breaking down hard-to-understand topics, like rape culture.
17. She starred in her husband’s film Most Likely to Murder alongside Jewish actor Adam Pally. (You can watch it on Hulu!)
18. Lastly, Rachel follows Alma on Instagram, which feels very, very important to us and worth including.
We love you!!
