She incorporated this into her performance on The Midnight Special. Near the end of the song " Lovin' You", Riperton repeats "Maya". Rudolph's parents moved to Los Angeles, California, when she and her brother Marc were very young, and they grew up primarily in the Westwood neighborhood. Rudolph's godmother was R&B singer Teena Marie. Her great-grandfather was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, changed his surname from "Rudashevsky" to "Rudolph", and was one of the founding members of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her paternal grandfather was Sidney Rudolph, a philanthropist who once owned all of the Wendy's and Rudy's restaurants in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Her mother was African-American and her father is Ashkenazi Jewish. Rudolph was born in Gainesville, Florida, to singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton and composer Richard Rudolph. She continued to reprise the role throughout 2020 while Harris campaigned for and was elected vice president.
For her portrayal of United States senator and vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
She appeared in the NBC fantasy comedy series The Good Place (2018–2020), for which she received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She voiced various characters in the Netflix animated sitcom Big Mouth, which won her Primetime Emmy Awards in 20, and the Fox animated sitcom Bless the Harts. Rudolph starred as Ava Alexander in the NBC sitcom Up All Night, and co-hosted the variety series Maya & Marty with Martin Short. She also provided voice acting roles for the animated films Shrek the Third, Big Hero 6, The Angry Birds Movie, The Emoji Movie, The Willoughbys, The Mitchells vs. Īfter leaving SNL in 2007, Rudolph appeared in the films Grown Ups, Bridesmaids, Inherent Vice, Sisters, CHiPs, Life of the Party and Wine Country. In 2000, she became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live ( SNL) and later played supporting roles in the films 50 First Dates, A Prairie Home Companion, and Idiocracy. Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American comedian, actress, and singer.