iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app

Ricki Lake
GET UPDATES FROM Ricki Lake
Born in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, Ricki Pamela Lake developed an early interest in performing. After studying at New York’s Professional Children’s School in her teens, and a year spent at Ithaca College in New York, she decided to pursue acting fulltime. Soon after leaving college, Lake received a call to audition for writer-director John Waters’ musical comedy Hairspray.

Lake’s performance as the film’s zaftig heroine, Tracy Turnblad, won over audiences and critics, earning her a 1988 Independent Spirit Award nomination for best actress and roles in films such as John Waters’ Cry-Baby and Cookie, the top-grossing comedy Working Girl, the acclaimed drama Last Exit to Brooklyn, Where the Day Takes You and Inside Monkey Zetterland, as well as a season on TV’s China Beach.

In 1992 Ricki appeared in a pilot for a new daytime talk show and by the following year she had moved to New York and begun taping The Ricki Lake Show for Sony Pictures Television.

Even as her talk show became a phenomenon, Lake continued to pursue acting roles, appearing in the romantic comedy Mrs. Winterbourne, John Waters’ Serial Mom and Cecil B. Demented and in a recurring role as Stephanie Heffernan on the hit sitcom King of Queens. 2002 saw her onstage at Madison Square Garden in a celebrity-studded performance of The Vagina Monologues.

Since the wrap of The Ricki Lake Show in August 2004, Lake has continued to act in various film and TV projects. This year she shared her love for games with millions as the host of the CBS hit, Gameshow Marathon and she recently completed Kurt Voelker’s independent film, Park, opposite William Baldwin and Cheri Oteri.

Blog Entries by Ricki Lake

Join Team Ricki for Our LIVE Interactive Production Meeting

(2) Comments | Posted May 31, 2012 | 9:10 AM

One of the key goals for my new talk show has been to create a conversation that is entirely inclusive. With social media, my team and I have been able to start this dialogue with all of you even before our September premiere.

We are hosting some of our production...

Read Post

Birth in Brazil

(65) Comments | Posted May 7, 2012 | 10:56 AM

When we were filming our 2008 documentary, The Business of Being Born, my director Abby Epstein made several trips to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We both became very interested in Rio because it sounded like a place where normal childbirth was being phased out. The statistics we heard were mind...

Read Post

Special Deliveries: Celebrity Moms Share Birth Stories

(36) Comments | Posted March 5, 2012 | 7:26 AM

Making our new documentary series More Business of Being Born, director Abby Epstein and I interviewed a group of high-profile women about their birth experiences. The moms that we filmed included Alanis Morissette, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington Burns, Gisele Bündchen, Laila Ali, Alyson Hannigan, Melissa Joan Hart, Kimberly Williams Paisley...

Read Post

The Business of Being Born

(85) Comments | Posted January 19, 2012 | 10:00 AM

I produced the 2008 documentary The Business of Being Born to educate women about their choices in childbirth, and raise questions about maternity care in the U.S. So many aspects of our system did not make sense to me and did not seem to function in the best interest...

Read Post

Mothers Deserve Options

(177) Comments | Posted June 26, 2011 | 10:42 PM

I made my 2008 documentary The Business of Being Born to educate women about choices in childbirth, and raise questions about maternity care in the U.S. For example, why were C-section rates skyrocketing? Why were options such as birth centers and home birth disappearing? And why does a country supposedly...

Read Post

Ricki Lake On The Business Of Being Born

(10) Comments | Posted April 17, 2007 | 11:00 AM

Actress and former talk show host Ricki Lake has turned executive producer for the documentary The Business of Being Born, which will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. Huffington Post asked her some questions.

What's it like to premiere your film at the Tribeca Film Festival?

...

Read Post