Alex Borstein

Alexandrea Borstein is an American performer, comedy writer, and producer. She gained widespread recognition for voicing Lois Griffin on the animated sitcom Family Guy, a role that earned her a Primetime Emmy Award. She achieved further major acclaim portraying talent manager Susie Myerson in the period comedy-drama series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, winning two additional Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance.

Born on February 15, 1971, in Highland Park, Illinois, Borstein was raised in a Jewish family by parents who worked in the mental health field. Her maternal lineage includes Holocaust survivors from Hungary who migrated to the United States following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Borstein spent part of her youth in Deerfield, Illinois, before her family relocated to Northridge, California. She completed her high school education at Chatsworth High School in 1989 and later studied rhetoric at San Francisco State University.

Borstein began her comedy career performing improvisational theater at the ACME Comedy Theater near Hollywood. While working at an advertising agency writing print copy, she transitioned to full-time television writing on animated programs such as Pinky and the Brain. After voicing Queen Machina on Power Rangers Zeo, she was hired as a cast member on the sketch comedy show MADtv in 1997. During her five seasons on the show, she originated several distinct recurring characters, most notably the nail salon owner Ms. Swan.

While working on MADtv, Borstein joined the cast of Family Guy in 1999 as the voice of matriarch Lois Griffin, while also serving as a staff writer and producer. Around the same time, she was originally cast as Sookie St. James in the Gilmore Girls pilot, but contractual obligations to MADtv restricted her to recurring guest roles as other characters. Throughout the 2000s, Borstein appeared in various feature films, including The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Catwoman, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Bad Santa, and co-hosted the television program Celebrity Blackjack.

In the 2010s, Borstein served as a writer, consulting producer, and guest actress on the drama series Shameless. From 2013 to 2015, she co-starred as Dawn Forchette in the HBO medical comedy series Getting On. Her film work during this era included supporting performances in comedies such as Killers, Dinner for Schmucks, Ted, ParaNorman, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and the animated feature The Bad Guys.

From 2017 to 2023, Borstein portrayed Susie Myerson on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, earning critical praise and two Emmy Awards. Outside of acting, she established the production company Crackerpants, Inc. Borstein was previously married to fellow actor and writer Jackson Douglas, with whom she has two children, and she actively supports advocacy efforts for hemophilia awareness.