Alex Borstein Bio
Alexandrea Borstein (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer widely recognized for her voice work as Lois Griffin on the long-running animated sitcom Family Guy and for her on-screen role as Susie Myerson in the acclaimed streaming series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Across her multi-hyphenate career, she has worked as a performer, a staff writer, and a producer on both live-action and animated television. She is also known for her earlier sketch comedy work on MADtv and her leading role on the HBO medical comedy Getting On.
Early Life and Background
Borstein was born on February 15, 1971, in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburban city located just north of Chicago. She was raised in nearby Deerfield, Illinois, before her family later relocated to Northridge, California, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. She graduated from Chatsworth High School in 1989 and has two older brothers.
Her parents, Irv Borstein and Judy Borstein, are both mental health professionals. Her father is originally from Atlanta, and her maternal grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, before immigrating to the United States following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Borstein has stated that she is of Hungarian and Mongolian descent and identifies as Jewish, sharing that her family observes Shabbat every Friday night.
After high school, Borstein attended San Francisco State University, where she studied rhetoric and developed the writing foundation that would later support her transition into comedy writing. Her upbringing in a household shaped by her parents’ mental health careers and her grandmother’s experiences gave her an early appreciation for storytelling, character work, and the kind of observational humor that would later define her professional voice.
Path to Celebrity
Borstein’s path into entertainment began with training in improvisational comedy at the ACME Comedy Theatre, near Hollywood, where she also met her future writing partner and husband, actor and writer Jackson Douglas. Before pursuing comedy full-time, she worked at an advertising agency writing print ads for Barbie, an experience that sharpened her commercial writing voice. She soon left that position to become a full-time television writer.
Her earliest professional writing credits included work on the animated series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper and Pinky and the Brain, followed by voice work on Power Rangers Zeo in 1996, where she voiced Queen Machina of the Machine Empire. These early jobs gave her hands-on experience in both the writers’ room and the voice-over booth, setting the stage for her casting on the third season of the sketch comedy series MADtv in 1997.
Alex Borstein Career
Early Career (1993–1998)
After joining MADtv in 1997, Borstein was originally hired as a featured player before being promoted to the repertory cast mid-season. On the show, she became best known for her recurring character Ms. Swan, the owner of the Gorgeous Pretty Beauty Nail Salon, and developed other memorable impressions, including Eracist Anne, singer Jasmine Wayne-Wayne, child prodigy Karen Goddard, and outside-the-studio reporter Sue Napersville. Her work on MADtv established her as a versatile comedic performer capable of carrying both original characters and broad impressions.
During this same period, Borstein continued writing for animated projects and built relationships with other performers and writers who would shape her later opportunities. Her early career laid the groundwork for the dual performer-writer track that would define her professional life, giving her credibility in both the writers’ room and on set.
Breakthrough (1999–2009)
While working on MADtv, Borstein met writer and animator Seth MacFarlane, who was preparing to launch the animated sitcom Family Guy on the Fox network. MacFarlane cast her as the voice of Lois Griffin when the show debuted in January 1999, a role she has held throughout the series’ run. In addition to voicing Lois and several other characters, she also serves as a producer and staff writer on the show, contributing behind the camera as well as in front of the microphone.
Outside of Family Guy, Borstein built a steady on-screen presence in live-action television and film. In 2000, she was cast as Sookie St. James in the pilot of the WB drama Gilmore Girls, though her MADtv contract prevented her from continuing in the role; she later made recurring appearances as the harpist Drella and the stylist Miss Celine. Her film work during this period included performances in The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), Catwoman (2004), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), and Bad Santa (2003), along with an uncredited cameo in Kicking & Screaming (2005). She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2013 for the Family Guy episode “Lois Comes Out of Her Shell.”
Notable Works and Milestones
From 2010 onward, Borstein expanded her range with supporting film roles in Killers, Dinner for Schmucks, Ted, ParaNorman, A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Angry Birds Movie, and the animated feature The Bad Guys. She joined the first season staff of the Showtime comedy-drama Shameless as a writer and supervising producer while also guest-starring as Lou Deckner. In 2013, she took on the leading role of Dawn Forchette on the HBO medical comedy Getting On, which earned multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations during its run from 2013 to 2015.
Alex Borstein Award Nominations
Throughout her career, Borstein has earned recognition from major television awards bodies for both her voice-over work and her on-screen performances. She received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2013 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her work as Lois Griffin on Family Guy, a category that highlights the craft of animated voice acting at the highest level of the industry. The Getting On ensemble also drew multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations during the show’s run, reflecting the strength of the cast that included Borstein’s lead performance as Dawn Forchette.
Alex Borstein Awards Won
Borstein has won three Primetime Emmy Awards across her career, establishing her as one of the most awarded comedic performers working in television. In 2018, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Susie Myerson in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and she repeated that win in 2019 for the same performance. She also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her work on Family Guy, cementing her reputation as a top-tier voice performer.
Alex Borstein Family
Borstein is the daughter of Irv Borstein and Judy Borstein, both of whom work in the mental health field. She has two older brothers and grew up in a household that valued conversation and storytelling. Her maternal grandmother survived the Holocaust in Budapest, Hungary, and later immigrated to the United States after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a family history that Borstein has spoken about publicly as a central part of her identity.
Personal Life
Borstein met actor and writer Jackson Douglas while studying improv at the ACME Comedy Theatre, and the two were married in 1999. Jackson Douglas filed for divorce in October 2014, and the divorce was finalized in 2017. Borstein and Douglas share two children, a son and a daughter. She is also a carrier of hemophilia and has served as a longtime advocate for the National Hemophilia Foundation, lending her public platform to raise awareness of the condition.
