Renée Taylor

Renée Taylor (born Renée Adorée Wexler on March 19, 1933) is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director whose career has spanned more than seven decades. She was raised in the Bronx, New York City, the daughter of Charles and Frieda Wexler, and was named after the silent‑film star Renée Adorée, a choice that foreshadowed her lifelong devotion to the performing arts. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Taylor honed her craft in improv groups during the 1950s and later worked as a nightclub comedian at Bon Soir, where she introduced a young Barbra Streisand as her opening act. Her breakout screen role came in 1967 when Mel Brooks cast her as an actress playing Eva Braun in The Producers, a part she secured while sharing the stage with Gene Wilder in the play Luv. Together with her second husband, actor Joseph Bologna, Taylor co‑wrote the Broadway hit Lovers and Other Strangers and earned an Academy Award nomination for the film adaptation in 1970, cementing her reputation as a skilled screenwriter. The couple also collaborated on the 1971 film Made for Each Other, which garnered a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Comedy. Taylor’s television career flourished in the 1990s, most famously as the over‑protective mother Sylvia Fine on the sitcom The Nanny, a role that showcased her comedic timing and affection for culinary references. She simultaneously appeared on HBO’s Dream On and Fox’s short‑lived Daddy Dearest, demonstrating her versatility across network and cable platforms. In later years Taylor continued to delight audiences with guest spots on popular series such as How I Met Your Mother, Shake It Up, Victorious and voice work on Ice Age: The Meltdown and Bob’s Burgers. She remained active on stage, starring in the Off‑Broadway production My Life on a Diet alongside Bologna, and appeared in films like Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013) and The Do‑Over (2016). Her most recent screen credit is the 2021 drama Tango Shalom, a family project that included her son Gabriel as director and served as Bologna’s final performance before his death.