Marianne Curan (born May 12, 1961)
is an American
actress
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
,
television personality
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...
and
comedian
A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...
. She most recently hosted ''
GSN Radio
''Game Show Network Radio'' is an American interactive internet radio game show that originally aired live on GSN.com from August 18, 2008, to November 13, 2009, hosted by husband and wife team Bob Goen and Marianne Curan. Other co-hosts fille ...
'' with husband
Bob Goen
Robert Kuehl Goen (born December 1, 1954) is an American game show emcee and television personality, best known for his work on ''Entertainment Tonight'' between 1993 and 2004 and as the fourth and final host of the daytime ''Wheel of Fortune ( ...
.
Career
In the mid-1990s, she hosted some of the first live interactive game shows on
Game Show Network
Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by the television network division of Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along wit ...
, including ''Super Decades'', ''Trivia Track'', ''Prime Games'' and ''When Did That Happen?''. Curan was a guest host on ''
Live with Regis and Kathie Lee'' and, when
Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathryn Lee Gifford (Given name, née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress, and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live with Kelly and Mark, Live! wi ...
left the program in 2000 Curan was considered for the permanent co-host role that
Kelly Ripa
Kelly Maria Ripa (; born October 2, 1970) is an American actress and talk show host. Since 2001, she has been the co-host of the syndicated morning talk show '' Live! with Kelly and Mark'' in various formats. Her co-hosts have included Regis ...
ultimately claimed. Later in its run, she hosted
PAX TV
Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American terrestrial television, broadcast television network and Free ad-supported streaming television, FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scri ...
's live daytime talk show ''Great Day America'' with
Food Network
Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...
personality
Marc Summers
Marc Summers (born Marc Berkowitz; November 11, 1951) is an American television personality, comedian, game show host, producer, and talk show host. He is best known for hosting '' Double Dare'' on Nickelodeon and '' Unwrapped'' on Food Network. ...
. In 2002, Curan hosted ''
Landscapers' Challenge'' for
Home & Garden Television
HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. HGTV Dream Home is an a ...
. She hosted interstitial segments with Jordan Murphy for
USA Network
USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...
's ''Before & After'noon Movies'' in 2003.
Curan is also an accomplished
celebrity impersonator
An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone:
*Living history: After close study of some historical figure, a performer may dress and speak "as" that ...
. Her imitations of political figures
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
and
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...
gained her recurring roles in sketches on ''
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fourth and sixth installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Jay Leno, it aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009, replacing ''The Ton ...
'' in the late 2000s. Her most prominent imitation is that of
Martha Stewart
Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety ...
, garnering her roles on ''The Tonight Show'', as well as the 2006 film ''
National Lampoon's Totally Baked: A Potumentary'' and
Frank Caliendo
Frank Caliendo Jr. (born January 19, 1974) is an American comedian, actor, and impressionist best known for his impersonations on the Fox Network television series ''MADtv'' as well as being the in-house prognosticator for ''Fox NFL Sunday''. ...
's
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...
program ''
Frank TV
''Frank TV'' is an American sketch comedy show starring Frank Caliendo and created by Caliendo, John Bowman, and Matt Wickline. Caliendo hosted the show and performed in sketches in full makeup as characters he impersonated.
Overview
The first ...
''.
Curan has worked with
The Groundlings
The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improv techniques we ...
and was part in the
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
-area political comedy troupe Gross National Product for years. With friends Wendy Kamenoff and
Lori Alan
Lori Alan is an American actress. She has played a long-running role as Pearl Krabs on the animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. She also voiced Diane Simmons on ''Family Guy'', the Invisible Woman on ''Fantastic Four'', and T ...
, she created and starred in ''The Hungry and Horny Show'', which ran in Los Angeles in the spring and summer of 2007.
Curan has had bit parts in episodes of the television programs ''
Big Love
''Big Love'' is an American drama (film and television), drama television series created by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer that aired on HBO from 2006 to 2011. It stars Bill Paxton as the patriarch of a Mormon fundamentalism, fundamentalist Mor ...
'' and ''
Malcolm in the Middle
''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons consisting of 151 episodes.
The ...
''.
From August 2008 to November 2009, she co-hosted ''GSN Radio'' with Bob Goen, a live, four-hour
interactive
Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...
internet radio
Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...
game show
A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...
on GSN.com.
In December 2010, Curan starred in the one-woman show "A Kodachrome Christmas," written and directed by Seinfeld writing alum
Pat Hazell. "A Kodachrome Christmas" played for three weeks in Austin, Texas at the Long Center for the Performing Arts and at Notre Dame University's DeBartolo Center.
Her writing has been published in "More" magazine online.
Personal life
Curan married fellow television personality Bob Goen on March 20, 2004.
References
External links
Official website *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curan, Marriane
1961 births
Living people
American game show hosts
People from Bowie, Maryland
American women comedians
Actresses from Maryland
American film actresses
American impressionists (entertainers)
American television actresses
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American actresses
Comedians from Maryland