Rachel Leah Bloom (born April 3, 1987 in Los Angeles County, California) is an American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and songwriter.
Bloom is best known for her work on the CW musical dramedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which she co-created, wrote for, produced, and acted in. For her role as Rebecca Bunch, she won a Golden Globe in the Best Actress – Television Series (Musical or Comedy) category.
Prior to her breakout in that series, Bloom gained notoriety for her satirical music videos on YouTube. "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" —a raunchy ode to the science fiction writer— was a finalist for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2011. That song (as well as others) are featured on her first studio album, 2013's Please Love Me.
She's also written for and acted in shows like Allen Gregory, Robot Chicken, and BoJack Horseman. She wrote an original song, "Super Friend"
, for the Flash / Supergirl musical episode "Duet", which was released as a single on iTunes.
Her one-woman musical comedy Death, Let Me Do My Show received an off-Broadway residency in September 2023 after previously touring the United States.
Discography:
- Please Love Me (2013)
- Suck It, Christmas (2013)
Selected filmography:
- Allen Gregory (2011) note
- Robot Chicken (2012 — 2014) as various voices note
- If Disney Cartoons Were Historically Accurate (2013) as the Princess (voice)
- The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange (2013 — 2014) as Chickpea & Breakfast Pastry (voice) note
- BoJack Horseman (2014 — 2016) as Laura (voice)
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015 — 2019) as Rebecca Bunch note
- Bill Nye Saves the World (2017) as herself
- Most Likely to Murder (2018) as Kara Doblowski
- Muppet Babies (2018) as Dot the Dragon (voice)
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2018) as Autumn Blaze (voice)
- Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019) as Batgirl (voice)
- Trolls: The Beat Goes On! (2019) - Cybil (voice)
- Vampirina (2020) as Esmeralda and her crystal ball (voice)
- Trolls World Tour (2020) as Queen Barb (voice)
- Trolls: Holiday in Harmony (2021) (voice)
- Extinct as Op (voice)
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) as Flounder, various (voice)
- The School for Good and Evil as Honora
- Reboot (2022) as Hannah
- The Muppets Mayhem (2023) as Samantha Swiftie
Rachel Bloom's work provides examples of the following tropes and trivia:
- Approval of God: Ray Bradbury supposedly found "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" very funny.
- "Basic Instinct" Legs-Crossing Parody: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend homages the scene as part of its season 3 promo campaign. Rachel Bloom's Rebecca is the one sitting on the chair.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: "Die When I'm Young" starts as an upbeat party song where Rachel sings about living in the moment and how she wants to die young, only to get a call from her doctor confirming she's actually dying. She quickly regrets it.
- Boob-Based Gag: Bloom has frequently joked and even written songs about the struggles of her naturally busty figure. Most notably, Heavy Boobs.
- Comedic Sociopath: Her music videos rarely present their narrator in a good light, even when that narrator is explicitly called "Rachel" and therefore presumably meant to be based on herself. Examples include "I Steal Pets" (self-explanatory) and "NOBODY WILL WATCH THE F*CKING TONY AWARDS WITH ME" (which actually has the narrator cheerfully admitting, after a video full of her acting like a self-obsessed Jerkass that "I may be a sociopath").
- Fangirl: She really loves the works of Ray Bradbury. In fact, she's such a huge fan of him that she even wrote a song called "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury", about her extreme dedication towards the author.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: "Pictures of Your Dick" is about shaming an ex-boyfriend by posting "pictures of your tiny dick on the internet." In live performances, Rachel frames this as a post-breakup empowerment song. In the song itself, she does mention the hypothetical boyfriend "Tim" confronting her and threatening to sue her for invasion of privacy.
- Old Shame: She doesn't look back on her time writing for Allen Gregory due to both the extremely low quality of the finished product and her bad time in the writers' room where she was regularly belittled and ignored due to being the only woman.
- Too Hot for TV: She has a very crude sense of humor. As such, some of the songs for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend were either bowdlerized or never put in the actual show (such as "period sex"). You can find the dirty versions and deleted songs on her YouTube channel.
