I did a commercial for a phone company when I was five. But my first big thing was when I was eight. I was on the first season of 'E.R.'
Comedy came early. I knew when I was a kid that I was silly, and I knew that I liked people who were funny, but I don't think I knew I was funny. I didn't really think about it.
You can't say that we need to give women more roles, and then when we do, say that they're only there because men want to look at them.
I think working with kids and seeing how kids are universally children - no matter what you do, they love playing on a bongo and they love drawing and they love playing - that is a great uniter.
When I direct - everything I've directed has had improv in it, because I think there's something special in a performance the first time it's said out loud that's hard to recreate.
I would love to keep directing commercials. I love it so much. I love working with brands and ad agencies and old white men who have been doing this for 60 years.
In the late '80s, the U.S.S.R. loosened its restrictions on immigration. When the government was like, 'Y'all wanna bounce?' my family, along with tens of thousands of other Jews ran for the door in an attempt to make a better life in America.
In the '80s, we were living in the U.S.S.R., where anti-Semitism was a deeply ingrained part of the culture. Being a Jewish person in the Soviet Union was not easy. Not that I remember any of that - I was barely old enough to chew back then - but for my parents, both Uzbekistan-born Jews, life was a struggle.
My family had to live in Vienna for three months, then in Italy for another nine, while we waited for refugee status.
