Rudolph was born July 27, 1972, the only daughter of music writer and producer, Richard Rudolph, and Chicago soul singer, Minnie Ripperton, who, after having gone into semi-retirement to start a family, hit the top of the pop charts in 1974 with her five-octave AM radio staple, "Lovin' You." At age one, Rudolph moved with her family from her Florida birthplace to Southern California, where her parents furthered their music careers. Unfortunately, when Rudolph was just shy of seven years old, her mother lost a battle with breast cancer. Her daughter seemed likely to carry on the family legacy, however, by singing and appearing in local theater throughout her childhood. She pursued another of her creative passions – photography – at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she also formed the funk band, Super Sauce.
Returning to L.A., Rudolph played keyboards and sang with The Rentals, an indie pop group that fused a college rock sensibility (founder Matt Sharp was the original bassist of Weezer) with a sparse, synth-heavy sound. Meanwhile the striking multi-talent began to hone her acting and improve instincts at the Groundlings Theater. She hit the audition circuit and landed her first screen roles in the 1997 features "Gattaca" and "As Good As It Gets" before scoring a regular role on the short-lived gritty medical drama, "City of Angels" (CBS, 2000).
After a producer from “Saturday Night Live” caught Rudolph performing at the Groundlings, she auditioned for the show in New York and was brought on as a Featured Performer in the spring of 2000. Rudolph offered a string of performances that showcased her musicality and her ability to morph into a versatile range of extreme characters. Because of her range, she was promoted to full cast member in the fall of 2001. She spent the next several years establishing herself as one of the stronger female players in the show’s history, with characters like Britannica – from the fictitious R&B trio Gemini's Twin (a parody of real-life member-swapping girl group, Destiny's Child), Donatella Versace, and Megan, the love-struck host of her middle school's morning program.
Meanwhile she branched out to the big screen with a supporting role in the acclaimed independents "Chuck and Buck” (2000) and "Duets" (2000), in which she also served as the karaoke-themed feature's music supervisor and had her first professional opportunity to work with childhood friend, Gwyneth Paltrow. Her follow-ups were a pair of Drew Barrymore projects: the poorly received comedy "Duplex" (2003) directed by Danny DeVito, and the popular romantic comedy "50 First Dates" (2004) with Adam Sandler.
In the fall of 2005 Rudolph went on maternity leave (she and film director Paul Thomas Anderson had been in a relationship since 2001), but her pregnancy was forever captured on film via her performance in the ensemble of “A Prairie Home Companion” (2006), Robert Altman’s fictional take on Garrison Keillor’s long-running radio program featuring an unusual array of singers and monolithic ramblings about the make-believe town of Lake Wobegon. The fall of 2006 saw the long-delayed release of Mike Judge’s sci-fi feature “Idiocracy” (2006), in which Rudolph and Luke Wilson starred as unwitting subjects of an experiment that deposits them 500 years into the disappointingly stupid future. Rudolph was heard as the voice of Rapunzel in "Shrek the Third" (2007) and wrapped up her “S.N.L.” contract the same year, earning a NAACP Image Award nomination for “Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series” for her work on the show.
In her first recurring sitcom role, Rudolph appeared on the short-lived NBC version of the offbeat Australian hit “Kath & Kim” (NBC, 2008-09). Following that show’s cancellation, she co-starred with John Krasinski as a married couple about to start a family and looking for the perfect locale to do so in the Sam Mendes comedy, "Away We Go" (2009). Rudolph reprised her voice role in the sequel “Shrek Forever After” (2010) and rejoined Adam Sandler on screen, along with Salma Hayek and Maria Bello, in Sandler’s “Grown-ups” (2010), about a group of friends reuniting for their 30th high school reunion.