Julie Brown

Actress/writer/producer/director/comedienne Julie Ann Brown (not to be confused with Downtown Julie Brown) was born on 31 August 1958 (11:12am PST) in Van Nuys, California, USA.

Straight out of the San Fernando Valley, this redheaded vegetarian vixen has done her time in the doldrums of bit parts and stand-up routines, and has rewarded her audiences in a broad range of comedic expressions as her career has blossomed.

Julie trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where she met collaborators Charlie Coffey and Terence E. McNally (with whom she was also married from 1983 to 1989). Her nationwide television debut was a bit part, Gloria, in episode #157 of Happy Days (Ah, Wilderness), aired 08 January 1980. Her first known movie role is of Candy in the Clint Eastwood comedy Any Which Way You Can (1980).

Lily Tomlin, after seeing a stand-up act, got Julie a SAG card and cast her as a commercial lady in The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981).

Her main activity in the early 1980s, otherwise, was writing for Alan Thicke and doing stand-up comedy bits.

Julie is best described as an erratic, comedic ball of feminine fire, best seen in her MTV show Just Say Julie (1989-1992). Her main objective in this show was entertaining musical guests such as Kip Winger and Gene Simmons and popping full-bodied into music videos to offer her own special brand of critique. Also on this show were unapologetic skits written by her and Coffey, also her co-star.

A fan of parody and satire, Julie's best comes through in her musical releases as well as television and movies. Her album, Trapped in the Body of a White Girl (1989), contains such gems (treasured personally by me, one of the first owners of a copy) as The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun. Singles from this album 'Cause I'm A Blonde and I Like 'Em Big And Stupid also surface in Earth Girls Are Easy (1989), co-wrote with Charlie Coffey and Terrence E. McNally. She also co-starred as kooky friend and hairstylist Candy Pink with Geena Davis. (She originally had the leading role before twelve rewrites.) In Attack of the 5'2" Women (1994), she vivaciously spoofs the infamous Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding debacle and, even better, Lorena Bobbitt.

Julie is a coffee-shop regular on and off the screen in the Los Angeles entertainment arena. She has directed and produced a number of television and movie projects which she has also appeared in. Among other voice-acting roles, as well, she played Minerva Mink on Animaniacs from 1993 to 1996. She played gym teacher Miss Stoeger in the movie Clueless (1995), and returned to a recurring role in the subsequent television series (which she also produced and directed) as Coach Deemer.

Julie struggled to return to sketch comedy after the demise of Just Say Julie, releasing two pilots: Julie Brown: The Show (1989, CBS) and The Julie Show (1991, ABC). She did host a short-lived comedy show entitled The Edge (1992-1993, Fox) that met its demise despite good reviews.

The best recent Julie Brown work is the starring role of washed-up child star/opportunist/psychopath Tammi Tyler on Comedy Central's Strip Mall, in which she was also an executive producer (2000-2001). While Julie isn't a writing credit in this show, it does well to blend her persona with the character's, so one wouldn't be able to tell.

• Laverne and Shirley, bit parts (26 January 1982 and 19 October 1982)


• The Jeffersons (04 December 1983)


• Just Say Julie (1989-1992), host and writer


• Quantum Leap (04 April 1990)


• Clueless (1996) as Coach Deemer, Director/Producer


• Murphy Brown (17 December 1997)


• Strip Mall (2000-2001) as Tammi Tyler, Executive Producer


• The Weakest Link (19 November 2001)

• The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), bit part


• Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) as Chloe


• Earth Girls Are Easy (1989) as hairstylist Candy Pink, Writer


• Shakes the Clown (1991) as Judy


• Medusa: Dare to be Truthful (1992), Showtime TV movie, as Medusa, a delicious parodic jab at Madonna. Writer/Director/Producer


• Attack of the 5'2" Women (1994), Showtime TV movie, as Lenora Babbitt and Tonya Hardly, Writer/Director


• Plump Fiction (1997) as Mimi Hungry


• The Trip (2002) as "Receptionist"


• Like Mike (2002) as "New Age Mother"

• Tiny Toon Adventures (11 February 1991) as Julie Bruin in episode Tiny Toon Music Television


• Batman: The Animated Series (23 September 1992 and 02 February 1993)


• Animaniacs as Minerva Mink (1993-1996)


• Aladdin (TV series, 1993), as Saleen


• A Goofy Movie (1995) as Lisa


• Wakko's Wish (1999) as Minerva Mink

• Goddess in Progress, 1984


• Trapped in the Body of a White Girl, 1989