Diane Farr is a household name to Gen X and Y’ers for her work as co-host of MTV’s cult phenomenon ‘Loveline’. This fall, Farr will join the WB network starring in the comedy, ‘Like Family.’ Farr will star opposite Holly Robinson Peete and the two will bring a “Laverne and Shirley sense of comedy to motherhood.”

In 1997, Farr was brought on board MTV’s highest rated show to give ‘Loveline’ a long awaited feminine edge. Farr added her charismatic personality and quick-witted intelligence to what was once “the all male couch.” Her “whisky soaked voice” offered perspective to callers for 165 episodes of ‘Loveline’, making Farr one of the leading female personas of young America. Universities around the country have packed audiences into the thousands for a ninety minute stand-up show by Farr on “What’s up with America’s youth?”

Diane left ‘Loveline’ to join the cast of ABC’s ‘The Drew Carey Show’, playing a recurring role as the love interest of the whole cast. Following ‘Drew,’ she joined the cast of the WB drama ‘Roswell’. Farr brought a comic, left of center, character to this very “out of this world” drama. Farr has also had recurring roles on UPN’s ‘Secret Agent Man,’ TNT’s ‘Bull’ and received critical acclaim for her cameo role in HBO’s ‘Arliss,’ for which HBO submitted her for an Emmy nomination.

In ABC’s most critically acclaimed series of the 2000 season, Diane played Jan Fendrick on ‘The Job’ opposite Denis Leary. Diane brought her own bravado to the series, playing a tough New York City detective, which she desperately needed to be as the only female in the series. This thirty minute, single-camera comedy was touted as “the best thing on network television since M*A*S*H.”-- just before ABC cancelled it.

This year in ‘Like Family,’ Farr will play Maddie, a 31 year old single mother of a 16 year old boy she can no longer handle on her own. Maddie is forced to ask her oldest friend for help and subsequently moves in with her and her very African-American Family. ‘Like Family’ has an ‘old school sitcom syle,’ says Farr. Like Lucy and Ethel, Farr and Robinson Peete get in most of their trouble right at home, where the laughter and the drama among family members and ‘like’ family members takes place.

Raised in New York City, Diane got her start as a model at the age of twelve. While pondering her major at Stonybrook University, Diane took various theatre classes. Realizing her love for the craft, she applied for a scholarship to a prestigious drama program at Loughborough University in England. Diane was accepted overseas and studied classical theatre, graduating with a joint B.A. from the two universities. Upon returning to the states Diane began her theatre career. She made her Broadway debut in the lead role of Jackie in the original comedy “No Place Like Home.” Diane’s free time was spent globe trotting to places like Cambodia, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Brazil, Vietnam, India, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Egypt, Israel, Thailand, South Africa and all of continental Europe.

After moving to Los Angeles, Farr was asked by an entertainment lawyer if she had any desire to teach acting. The query led to an unbelievable opportunity for Diane to teach at a maximum security men’s prison in Los Angeles. Motivated to succeed at something she thought she could feasibly fail at, she accepted the job. Since then, Diane has completed two ten-week contracts teaching at the prison and has begun a similar program with un-wed teenage mothers in South Central Los Angeles. Farr is currently working on a documentary about her prison experience.

Earlier this year Farr was engaged to be married. Just after her engagement Farr sent 300 announcement cards to her closest friends and family telling them all the big news. The bigger news was yet to come when her fiancé called off the engagement six weeks later. Farr was left with the incredibly hard job of telling everyone that her plans were off and figured the only way to do it with some grace and humor was by sending another announcement card. Her ‘Single’ card was such a gigantic hit she was asked to be on ‘Oprah’ and tell her ‘making lemonade out of lemons story. Diane and her best friend soon started ‘Otherannouncements.com’ to help everyone over life’s little road bumps. Diane’s humorous cards are currently moving into stores nationwide.

Farr’s first book, THE GIRL CODE, was released on Valentine’s Day 2001. The book is a comic look at single women in the twenty-first century. The book is published by Little, Brown and Co. and has been sold to seven countries, in four languages. Diane has written for Jane, Esquire, Glamour and Self magazines; as well regular contributions for Cosmopolitan and Soma.

Credit: uniteddivas.com