Mary Lynn Rajskub

Born: June 22 1971
Where: Detroit, Michegan, USA

The former performance artist has impressed in a series of high-profile roles including Punch-Drunk Love, Sweet Home Alabama and Legally Blonde 2.

While working as a performance artist in San Francisco she decided to give comedy a try and ended up parodying her own act.

She was soon approached by the makers of American TV's Mr Show (she later fell out with the show's creators and wound up working in a coffee shop).

Gary Shandling subsequently cast her as the awkward talent booker on the Larry Sanders Show and she also began to branch out into feature roles.

She played support in 1998's Bury Me in Kern County and the mockumentary The Thin Pink Line and had small parts in Man on the Moon and Road Trip.

She impressed as a bubble-wrapped cult member in Dude, Where's My Car and had a fleeting role in Todd Solondz's Storytelling.

After appearing with Girls Guitar Club bandmate Karen Kilgariff in the independent drama The Anniversary Party, she made a move back to TV with the ill-fated sketch show The Downer Channel.

In 2002, she landed her first significant feature role in Punch-Drunk Love and the comedy Sweet Home Alabama.

The following year she starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde 2 and she went on to star in the child abuse drama Mysterious Skin.

Recent work has also included the global smash 24.