Maya Rudolph was born in Gainesville, Florida on July 27th, 1972 to Dick Rudolph, a music producer, and soul singer Minnie Riperton. In 1973 Maya, her parents, and her older brother Marc later moved to California to further Minnie's music career. Here Minnie recorded "Lovin' You", her most famous single in which you can hear her sing "Maya Maya Maya" at the end of the song, claiming that this song was used as a lullabye for Maya. During adolescence Maya attended St. Augustine By the Sea School where she met childhood friend Gwyneth Paltrow. The Paltrows and the Rudolphs became family friends and in 2000, Dick Rudolph and Maya filled the role of Music Supervisors on the Bruce Paltrow directed film Duets (2000), which starred Gwyneth. In 1990, Maya enrolled at the University of California at Santa Cruz, majoring in Photography. It was here that Maya formed the band Supersauce with fellow students. After graduation in 1994, Maya left the band and soon joined The Rentals, fronted by Weezer Basist Matt Sharp. Maya was featured on the 1999 release "Seven More Minutes" where she sang backup vocals on "Barcelona" and "My Head is in the Sun". Maya began touring with the group singing backup and playing the Moog, a variation of the Sythnesizer. When the Rentals disbanded, Maya decided to persue her dream of a career in Comedy, joining the famed Comedy troupe, The Groundlings. On May 6 2000, Maya joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) and has since become one of the most popular performers. Favorite sketches include a dead on impression of Fashion Diva Donatella Versace, as well as high school flake Megan, the host of her own morning talkshow on Wake-up WakeField.
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