Rachael Harris

I told my agent which women I aspire to have a career like: Frances McDormand, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney and Emma Thompson - character actresses who have something to say. I also said that I loved Madeline Kahn and Jessica Lange.

When I moved to New York out of college, that was my goal. To be a stage actress. And to do dramatic works. Like 'Madea', and 'Night, Mother', and 'Sam Shepard', and all that kind of stuff. That's what I really wanted to do.

I love doing sitcoms. I love doing comedy. I love the whole shooting match.

I wanted to go to New York and be a stage actress, doing things like Chekhov. None of that happened, and then I went to L.A. and an agent said, 'I think you belong in commercials and TV.' So I did that and got some opportunities that I absolutely love.

I grew up in a suburb of Ohio, in a small town, and I resonated with that small-town feeling where everybody knows your business.

I love Frances McDormand so much. I love her career. And I think it's fun because she gets to do comedy as well as drama.

I told my agents that I love Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand and all of these women that are good at doing comedies as well as dramas.

I don't have this weird, natural funny bone that constantly comes out. It's not like my every instinct is to be funny, and I'm always having to dampen that down.

I feel like I work on scripts for comedy as well as dramatic stuff the same.

It's funny, because when I was in college, all my professors said, 'You should do comedy.' And I was like, 'No! No!' But I was able to get my foot in the door through comedy. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to do it.

I come from the place of thinking, 'Whatever works for people' - and if you haven't been exposed to anything else, you really don't know better.

I really wanted to do things that weren't comic. It felt like finding people who can see this other side to me.