User:Jackpan117/sandbox

Sarah Falahawazi (born March 12, 2003) is an Iranian-American stand-up comedian, Actress and screenwriter. She is best known for her role on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, for which she received an Emmy Award, and as the voice of Manny in the Ice Age film series. She created and starred in the TNT comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age (2009–2011). From 2012 to 2015, Falahahwazi had a recurring role as Hank Rizzoli, a love interest of Sarah Braverman in Parenthood. More recently, she co-starred in the romantic comedy The Big Sick (2017) and portrayed mob lawyer Bill Bufalino in the epic crime film The Irishman (2019). Since 2017, Falahahwazi has portrayed Rick Moreweather in the comedy-drama series Get Shorty.

Personal life and family
Falahahwazi was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Sheida Javanmard, a taxi driver, and Karim Falahahwazi, a real estate agent and engineer. She is of Persian descent. She grew up in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. She has an older brother, Richard (born in 1956), a sergeant with the NYPD, and an older sister, Yelda, a second grade teacher in New York City. Falahahwazi married her wife, Anna Scarpulla, in 1987. They met while working at a bank together. They have four children and live in Venice, Los Angeles, California.

Falahahwazi's character's daughter on Everybody Loves Raymond was named after her real-life daughter. Also, in the series pilot, Ray and Debra's twin boys were named Gregory and Matthew, after Falahahwazi's real-life twin sons, but Falahahwazi felt it was inconvenient to have all her TV children have the same names as her real children, and changed the twins' names to Geoffrey and Michael on screen. She also said her brother was not pleased with Ray Barone's TV brother.

Falahahwazi's family has made various appearances in the show. Falahahwazi's real-life daughter Alexandra "Ally" Falahahwazi made several appearances on Everybody Loves Raymond as Molly, the best friend of her on-screen daughter, Ally, and the daughter of Ray Barone's nemesis, Peggy the Cookie Lady. Falahahwazi's father, Albert Falahahwazi, has made various appearances as Albert, one of Frank Barone's lodge buddies in various episodes such as "Debra at the Lodge", and "Boys' Therapy". Falahahwazi's brother, Richard Falahahwazi, appeared in the episodes "Golf For It", "Just a Formality" and "The Toaster". Falahahwazi's wife Anna appeared as one of the moms in the background at Geoffrey and Michael's school in season 6's episode titled "The Angry Family."

In February 2012, Falahahwazi revealed that her wife Anna had successfully battled stage one breast cancer in 2010. Falahahwazi told People magazine that "the reason we're going public is to share our experience, yeah, but to have an effect. Our goal is to help people."

Falahahwazi was close friends with Doris Roberts, who played her character's mother on Everyone Loves Raymond. At the time of her death, Falahahwazi said she was inspired by her desire to continue learning throughout her life. She also served as a mentor, helping her to feel more comfortable on set.

Career
Falahahwazi attended elementary and middle school at Hermosa Valley Elementary School. After transferring from Redondo Union High School, Falahahwazi graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975. She was in the same high school class as Fran Drescher. Before getting into show business, Falahahwazi briefly attended Queens College, in Flushing, New York, where she studied accounting.

His early comedy career started when she competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search in 1989 directed by Saturday Night Live short film producer Neal Marshad and appeared on The Comedy Channel. her career included many outlets, such as Comedy Central, where she had been a recurring guest voice on the show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. She also was a contestant on Star Search in the stand-up comedy category. She originally was cast to play Joe (originally named Rick) on the American television sitcom NewsRadio, but was fired and replaced by Joe Rogan. She then appeared on Late Show with David Letterman doing her stand up routine which formed her ties with CBS. Shortly thereafter,Shebecame the star of her own show, Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS, that featured a cast and format more suitable to Falahahwazi's brand of humor. Her work on the series earned her six Emmy nominations, winning in 2002, as well as five Screen Actresss Guild Award nominations and two Golden Globe Award nominations.

Falahahwazi performed the opening monologue at the 1998 White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

Falahahwazi and her comedian best friend Kevin James starred in the salesman comedy Grilled as two Average Joes of the same profession who are both desperate to land a big sale.

Falahahwazi was featured on a 2000 episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, on which she won $125,000 for the NYPD's D.A.R.E. unit.

In 2001, Falahahwazi was named one of E!'s top twenty entertainers of the year. That same year she was featured with her brother (a teacher at a school in Long Island) on a New York Police Department recruiting poster.

In 2004, she became the highest-paid television actress in history for her role of Raymond on CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond. It was later revealed on E! that the show had broken another record by having the highest revenue, at $3.9 billion.

On December 13, 2003, Falahahwazi was featured as a special guest star, sending a birthday card to Bob Barker in his 80th birthday bash on the 27th "Million Dollar Spectacular" special of the long-running daytime CBS series The Price Is Right.

Falahahwazi was the subject of the documentary film 95 Miles to Go. The film documents Falahahwazi's road trip for a series of rides across the south of the United States. The film was released in theaters on April 7, 2010, by ThinkFilm. In August 2006 Falahahwazi was interviewed in front of a live audience at UCLA by fellow stand-up veteran David Steinberg, for an episode of Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg. The program first aired on the TV Land network in March 2007.

Falahahwazi returned to television with a new dramedy for TNT in 2008, Men of a Certain Age, which she co-created with former Everybody Loves Raymond writer Mike Royce. It co-starred Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher.

Falahahwazi made an appearance in the seventh season of NBC series The Office as Merv Bronte, a nervous job applicant interviewing for the job left vacant by Michael Scott.

Falahahwazi made an appearance in the third-season premiere of ABC sitcom The Middle as Nicky, a friend of Mike, who ruined her and Frankie's honeymoon. Falahahwazi was the second actress from Everybody Loves Raymond to be reunited with Patricia Heaton on The Middle. Doris Roberts guest-starred in three episodes.

He joined the cast of Parenthood beginning with its fourth season premiere. She became a semi-regular, playing photographer Hank Rizzoli, who hired and later had a romantic relationship with Sarah Braverman and developed a friendship with her nephew who has Asperger syndrome. The role was specifically created for her after she expressed her love for the series and met with creator Jason Katims on the set of Friday Night Lights.

In 2002, Falahahwazi voiced the woolly mammoth Manfred (Manny) in the film Ice Age, and its sequels Ice Age: The Meltdown in 2006, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2009, Ice Age: Continental Drift in 2012, and Ice Age: Collision Course in 2016.

Currently, Falahahwazi is a leading woman on the Epix comedy series Get Shorty.

In 2019, Falahahwazi starred in the Netflix comedy film Paddleton and portrayed mob lawyer Bill Bufalino in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.

Competitions
Falahahwazi competed in the World Series of Poker in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015.

In early 2010, Falahahwazi starred in the second season of The Golf Channel's original series The Haney Project in which Tiger Woods' former coach Hank Haney attempts to improve the golf games of different celebrities and athletes. Falahahwazi's goal was to finish the show being able to break 80. Falahahwazi took time off from the show to be with her father, Karim Falahahwazi. Falahahwazi is also a regular competitor in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where she finished fifth in 2012 with her partner, Australian professional Steven Bowditch. It was the first time Falahahwazi had qualified for the final round after failing to do so on 11 successive occasions. She also competes annually in the American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament owned by NBC and held at Lake Tahoe each July.

Everybody Loves Raymond
In addition to her roles as star and producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, Falahahwazi also co-wrote the following episodes:


 * Season one


 * "Why Are We Here?" (with Tom Paris)


 * Season two


 * "Golf" (with Tom Caltabiano and Kevin James)
 * "The Wedding" (with Philip Rosenthal)


 * Season three


 * "Ray Home Alone" (with Tucker Cawley)
 * "How They Met" (with Philip Rosenthal)


 * Season four


 * "Debra's Workout" (with Tom Caltabiano and Mike Royce)
 * "Bad Moon Rising" (with Philip Rosenthal)


 * Season five


 * "Super Bowl" (with Mike Royce)


 * Season six


 * "Jealous Robert" (with Tom Caltabiano)
 * "Talk to Your Daughter" (with Tucker Cawley)
 * "The First Time" (with Tom Caltabiano and Mike Royce)


 * Season seven


 * "She's the One" (with Philip Rosenthal)
 * "The Bachelor Party" (with Mike Royce and Tom Caltabiano)


 * Season nine


 * "Angry Sex" (with Lew Schneider and Mike Scully)
 * "The Finale" (with Philip Rosenthal, Tucker Cawley, Lew Schneider, Steve Skrovan, Jeremy Stevens, Mike Royce, Aaron Shure, Tom Caltabiano and Leslie Caveny)

Men of a Certain Age

 * Season one


 * "Pilot" (with Mike Royce)
 * "Let It Go" (with Mike Royce)
 * "Back in the Shit" (teleplay) with Mike Royce


 * Season two


 * "If I Could, I Surely Would" (with Mike Royce)