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Mariann Aalda
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- What is your profession?
- Single
- About Me:
- The evolution of Mariann Aalda’s “Little Woman Gone Wild” stand-up character – a recently divorced, happy-but-horny ex-homemaker attempting to map out a new path to love, romance and great (hopefully) sex, through the hazardous terrain of midlife dating – began in 2003 with the creation of her one-woman show and comedy CD, Black Don’t Crack…But Don’t Try and Spread It Too Thin! She then perfected the character as a founding member of the LA-based trio, 3 Blacque Chix, in the comedy cabaret, Herotique-Aahh; and later, in the “sexistential” musical-comedy, MOIST! with Iona Morris. The Los Angeles Times hailed Aalda’s portrayal as “…a perkily libidinous Mary Tyler Moore,” while LA Weekly proclaimed her “…a hammily hilarious Donna Reed.”
Having trained in legitimate theater at Southern Illinois University, the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company, Joe Papp’s Public Theatre and Woody King’s New Federal Theatre where she made her stage debut with the legendary Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee in Take It from the Top, Aalda honed her comedic skills as a writer and performer with the NYC sketch troupe, Off-Center Theatre, which also launched the comedy career of John Leguizamo, and touring with the improv group, The Proposition, where Jane Curtin got her pre-Saturday Night Live start.
The bulk of Aalda’s career, however, is on television: four years as “DiDi Bannister” on the ABC soap opera, Edge of Night; three seasons as “Ellen Parker” on the HBO, series First & 10, opposite O.J. Simpson; co-starring with Redd Foxx and Della Reese as “Elizabeth Royal-Winston” in the CBS sitcom, The Royal Family; two years as “the tragically disfigured ‘Lena Hart’” on the NBC soap opera Sunset Beach; co-hosting Designs for Living on USA, and guest-starring on shows too numerous to mention. Most notoriously, though, she is recognized, for her recurring roles as “Lita Ford,” opposite Meshach Taylor (with whom she also teamed as the clueless “Julie Pinderhughes” in the urban-comedy cult-film, Class Act [“Meshach Taylor and Mariann Aalda provide the film’s funnier episodes” - Janet Maslin, NY Times] ) as his buppie-from-hell girlfriend on CBS’ Designing Women – and for going toe-to-toe with Mo’Nique as her nemesis, “Hannah Foster,” on The Parkers.
On the radio, she was a frequent guest on the LA drive-time morning show with Adai Lamar for the Stevie Wonder-owned station, KJLH. Online, she was a columnist for the urban e-zine, BlackberrySpeak.com for two years, writing a humor-infused “ethnic etiquette” advice column with writer-producer, Karen Greyson. The collection of columns is currently being retooled into a book, When Not to Call a Spade a Spade: The New Rules of Ethnic Etiquette. Additionally, Aalda’s comedy clips as “Lady M” are all over the internet, including websites in many non-English-speaking countries.
When she turned “The Big Five-Oh, no!” Aalda was hit with the big “midlife tri-fecta” – divorce and an empty nest; the death of her dad and ailing health of her mother, and the downsizing of her “aging” television career. Subsequently, after twenty years in Los Angeles, she decided in the summer of 2007, to move back to New York, “where it all began” for her as a young actress just starting out…and to begin, again – this time as a seasoned performer just hitting her stride.
- Website:
- http://www.mariannaalda.com
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Events
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Mel Brown Quartet
March 25, 2009 at 8pm to March 27, 2013 at 11pm – Jimmy Mak's
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Saturday JAZZ Nights at Chelsea Wine Bar
November 14, 2009 at 8:30pm to November 15, 2009 at 12:30am – Chelsea Wine Bar
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Jazz & Art Extravaganza!
November 15, 2009 from 3pm to 8pm – Emmy Lu Gallery
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Lee Summer's "Just Piano Series" presents...
November 19, 2009 from 7pm to 8pm – Triad Theatre
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Workout
December 3, 2009 from 9pm to 11pm – Casale Monferrato
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“Grazie”
December 17, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm – Ivrea
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Tish Oney - The Peggy Lee Project
January 10, 2010 from 7pm to 8:15pm – The Triad
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Jazz On Edge Volume 2
February 6, 2010 from 6pm to 10pm – Garden Theatre
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