Vanessa Bayer

Vanessa Polster Bayer (born November 14, 1981) is an American actress and comedian best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Early life Bayer was born and raised in Orange, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. She is the daughter of Carolyn (née Polster) and Todd Bayer. Her family is Jewish. Bayer graduated from Orange High School in 2000 and attended the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in communications and French, graduating in 2004. Her older brother Jonah is a music journalist and musician who has written for various music and guitar magazines, and has appeared as a music correspondent on Fuse TV, as well as being the guitarist for punk band United Nations. Bayer had leukemia, fighting it throughout her childhood after being diagnosed with the disease at a young age. Career While attending college, Bayer interned on the television shows Sesame Street and Late Night with Conan O'Brien and participated in the cast of Bloomers, an all-female musical and sketch comedy troupe. Bayer was part of the all-Jewish cast of Second City's stage show Jewsical: The Musical, a musical that presented a comedic take on Jewish life and culture. Bayer played the role of Kate Clark in the Chicago-based feature comedy Off the Cuff. Bayer performed improvisational comedy at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, where she trained with SNL castmate Paul Brittain as well as the Annoyance Theatre and Second City.