Mindy Sterling

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BIRTHDAY

July 11, 1953

Paterson, New Jersey, USA

RECENT CREDITS

iCarly (TV) Oct. 24, 2009

Reno 911! (TV) Jun. 24, 2009

Worst Week (TV) Dec. 15, 2008

My Own Worst Enemy (TV) Dec. 8, 2008

Extreme Movie (FILM) Dec. 5, 2008

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BIOGRAPHY

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While Mindy Sterling has worked in the industry for over 25 years, she only began to truly garner attention and is perhaps best known for playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), in 1997's "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" and its blockbuster sequel "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (1999). Blonde, with an open smile and a relatively soft-spoken demeanor, the actress was quite unlike the screeching sour-faced Farbissina, allowing her to live everyday life virtually unnoticed despite the massive popularity of the "Austin Powers" films. The daughter of entertainers (her father was a singer and comedian and her mother a dancer), Sterling got her start in local theater in Miami, following Shakespearean acting training that began at age 13. After an early 1970s move to Los Angeles to launch her professional career (choosing the West Coast over New York because the weather was more like her Miami home), she landed a role on Stu Rosen's syndicated children's program "Dusty's Treehouse" (1973). Sterling would go on to do further work with Rosen, before joining the renowned L.A.-based comedy troupe The Groundlings. Here the actress honed her skills with the improv intensive group, playing alongside future notables like Jon Lovitz and Kathy Griffin. Soon Sterling would become a teacher at Groundlings, and among her students were would-be stars like Keanu Reeves, Lisa Kudrow and "Saturday Night Live" regulars Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan. It was at The Groundlings that she first met up with Myers, when the then "SNL" member did some guest work with the troupe. Impressed with her abilities, the writer-star invited Sterling to audition for the first "Austin Powers" film. Following the summer success of "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me", Sterling could be seen in "Drop Dead Gorgeous" (also 1999), Michael Patrick Jann's satirical look at small town beauty contests. She co-starred as the pageant-running sidekick of Kirstie Alley's former teen queen turned stage mom. Next she would don prosthetics to play one of the townspeople in Ron Howard's live action adaptation of the Dr. Seuss holiday classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000).

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