Rebecca Creskoff

Rebecca Creskoff grew up in Philly, the younger daughter of Betty Jane, queen of the carpool, and Howard, a lawyer with Russian Jewish roots. Her mom’s side is a wild mix of English and German, so you’ve got a solid Midwestern Protestant vibe in the family tree too. She’s got an older sis, but let’s be real, Rebecca’s the one who ended up in the spotlight. The New Yorker once called her “immensely gifted” and all that jazz, which is a heck of a compliment. She started out studying English at UPenn, but after a nudge from her pal Debra Messing, she went all in at NYU’s fancy MFA acting program. Her classmates? Kind of a who’s who—David Costible, Aunjanue Ellis, the whole gang. She kicked off her career in Steve Martin’s “Picasso At The Lapin Agile” in NYC, hustling with commercials on the side (yes, she’s hawked everything from Budweiser to Pampers). Her first TV gig was a blink-and-you-miss-it waitress on SVU, then she kept popping up on Law & Order in various roles. Theater nerds know her from Broadway and Williamstown—she’s played everyone from Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to starring opposite Christopher Evan Welch and Mark Feuerstein. TV fans caught her on basically every show that mattered: The West Wing, Mad Men, Desperate Housewives, Curb, Justified—you name it. Her regular gigs? She’s played fiery moms, a wild pimp on “Hung,” and, on a softer note, a non-fiery mom in a couple pilots. Off-screen, she met her husband Michael on a blind date, got married in Tulum, and now juggles three daughters, four stepkids, a pile of pets, and three homes spread across PA, Jersey, and NYC.