Elaine Carroll is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as a fictionalized Mary-Kate Olsen on the web series Very Mary-Kate, which she created.
Elaine Carroll | |
|---|---|
| Born | New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, writer |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Spouse | Sam Reich |
| Website | elainecarroll |
Life and career
editCarroll was born in New York City, and she and her family moved to Richmond, Virginia at the age of five.[1] She grew up loving all forms of the arts, and began doing plays in first grade when her class put on a production of The King and I.[citation needed]
"I decided I wanted to be an actor when I was 7 and I never changed my mind," Carroll has stated.[1] At age 10, Carroll attended the School of Performing Arts in the Richmond Community.[citation needed]
In 2001 she graduated from Mills Godwin High School, and spent time in London while working at an Express.[1] She has a BFA in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College, and she studied improv and sketch at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre where she performs regularly.[2]
In 2008 Carroll used an impression of the Olsen twins during an audition for Saturday Night Live. Carroll indicated that, "It went over really well," but "obviously I didn't get on the show." She continued to do the impression, and had been doing it for about two years before making a short video called "The Olsen Twin Minute" that "featured Mary-Kate and Ashley in a talk show." The experience led Carroll to realize she wanted to do more with the twin impression and "started trying to visualize what life is like for them. They're rich and famous, but also kind of mysterious and private, which leaves a ton of room for the imagination." Taking facts she already knew, such as Olsen's use of a bodyguard and taking classes at NYU, Carroll crafted a web series that "started filling in the blanks."[3][4] In 2010, she began to star on Very Mary-Kate, a web series she also created and wrote. Very Mary-Kate is the "unofficial biography of everyone's favorite Olsen twin," Mary-Kate Olsen.[citation needed] The series follows Mary-Kate's daily adventures as Carroll portrays Olsen as a "character who's a weak-yet-demanding kitten obsessed with calories, abusing her bodyguard and getting her hands on the good drugs."[5]
The series was originally produced out-of-pocket, but was picked up for its second season by CollegeHumor.[3] The show's fourth and final season premiered on CollegeHumor on January 17, 2013. Very Mary-Kate received positive reviews. The Wall Street Journal called the web series "a viral sensation".[2] The @rcade stated that,
Elaine has brought one of the funniest and best web-series to the internet. Her performance as the rich teen princess and her rich teen princess twin sister is flawless, (flawless in the sense that we've never met the Olsen twins but we've always assumed that they acted just as Elaine portrays them). Less than two minutes in length, each episode is guaranteed to have you laughing within the first 12 seconds (how exact!) and you will no doubt be hooked as we were and will certainly need to check out more of her stuff.[4]
In 2010, she appeared in an episode of the AMC drama series Mad Men, and the next year had a small role as a nurse in the thriller film The Good Doctor.
In 2013, Carroll began to co-star in the web series Precious Plum, a parody of the reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.[6] The show was about Plum (Carroll), a child beauty pageant contestant whose mother takes her to shows and it deals with the misfortunes they faced on the way.
The same year Carroll was listed as one of Vulture's "50 Comedians You Should and Will Know" and one of Complex's "25 Funny People Who Should Get Their Own TV Show."[citation needed]
In 2015, she was cast as Harriet Eisele on The Astronaut Wives Club, an American period drama television series[7] which premiered on June 18, 2015.[8] ABC canceled the series after one season.[9]
Filmography
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | The CollegeHumor Show | Samantha | Season 1, episode 5: "Hot Girl" |
| 2010 | Mad Men | Janine | Season 4, episode 3: "The Good News" |
| 2010–13 | Very Mary-Kate | Mary-Kate Olsen | 77 episodes; also creator and writer |
| 2011 | The Good Doctor | New Nurse | |
| 2013 | Husbands | Parker | Season 3, episode 4: "I Dream of Cleaning" |
| 2013 | The League | Credit Card Lady | Season 5, episode 11: "The Credit Card Alert" |
| 2013 | Precious Plum | Plum | 13 episodes; also co-creator and co-writer |
| 2014 | Modern Family | Female Magician | Season 5, episode 18: "Las Vegas" |
| 2015 | The Astronaut Wives Club | Harriet Eisele | Season 1, episodes 7–9 |
| 2015 | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Hayley | Season 1, episode 9: "I'm Going to the Beach with Josh and His Friends!" |
| 2018 | Arrested Development | Jen | Season 5, episode 4: "An Old Start" |
| 2018 | See Plum Run | Plum Miller | Also co-creator and co-writer |
| 2022 | Out of Office | Tennessee | |
| 2022 | Make Some Noise | Writer | |
| 2022 | Breaking News | Herself | Season 3, episode 6; season 5, episode 2; season 6, episode 17[10] |
| 2023 | Dirty Laundry | Herself | Season 2, episode 10: "Who Called in a Favor From a Sitting Governor?" |
| 2024 | Game Changer | Herself | Season 6, episode 2: "The Newlyweb Game" |
| 2024 | Gastronauts | Herself | Season 1, episode 3: "I Find That Very A-Peeling" |
References
edit- ^ a b c "Elaine Carroll finds stardom on YouTube playing tabloid fixture Mary-Kate Olsen". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
- ^ a b "Elaine Carroll". UcbComedy. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
- ^ a b Sussman, Dara (2011-02-11). "How Very Mary-Kate of You, Elaine Carroll!". Women in Comedy Festival. Archived from the original on 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
- ^ a b "Interview with Elaine Carroll, of comedy web series "Very Mary Kate"". The @rccade. 4 June 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
- ^ "Very Mary Kate Provides A Scathingly Funny Satire". GigaOM. 2010-01-19. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
- ^ Catcher, Jessica (2013-10-15). "CollegeHumor's 'Honey Boo Boo' Parody Is Preciously Vulgar". Mashable. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
- ^ "Scoop: THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB on ABC - Thursday, July 30, 2015". broadwayworld.com. 2015-06-13. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
- ^ "ABC's 'Astronaut Wives Club' Gets Summer Premiere Date". Deadline Hollywood. April 20, 2015. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
- ^ "'The Astronaut Wives Club' Cancelled by ABC; No Season Two". TV Series Finale. August 23, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
- ^ Dropout. “Sam Reich Launches Dropout America | Breaking News [Full Episode].” YouTube