Early career Drescher's first break was a small role as dancer Connie in the movie
Saturday Night Fever (1977), in which she delivered the line "So, are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?" to
John Travolta's character. A year later, she began to gain attention in films such as
American Hot Wax (1978) and
Summer of Fear (1978). She also took on a rare dramatic role in the 1981
Miloš Forman film
Ragtime. During the 1980s, Drescher found success as a
character actress with roles in films such as
Gorp (1980),
The Hollywood Knights (1980),
Doctor Detroit (1983),
The Big Picture (1989),
UHF (1989),
Cadillac Man (1990), and in
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) as publicist Bobbi Flekman. She also made an appearance in a second-season episode of ''
Who's the Boss? in 1985 as an interior decorator. She also had an appearance on Night Court as a woman with dissociative identity disorder who flips from a prude to a sexually minded woman and ends up in a hotel with Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding. In 1990, Drescher appeared on ALF'' as Roxanne, the wife of grown-up Brian, who had no clue she was a mob boss, in the episode "Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades". In 1991, Drescher co-starred on the short-lived CBS sitcom
Princesses. In the early-to-mid 1990s, she voiced "Peggy" from
The P Pals on
PBS (the woman with the flower on her hat).
The Nanny and film roles Drescher and Jacobson created their own television show,
The Nanny, in 1993. The show aired on
CBS from 1993 to 1999, and Drescher became an instant star. In this sitcom, she played a woman named Fran Fine who casually became the nanny of Margaret ("Maggie") (played by
Nicholle Tom), Brighton ("B") (played by
Benjamin Salisbury), and Grace ("Gracie") Sheffield (played by
Madeline Zima); with her wit and her charm, she endeared herself to their widower father: stuffy, composed, proper British gentleman and Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (
Charles Shaughnessy). She reprised her
This is Spinal Tap character of Bobbi Flekman, a look-alike for her Fran Fine character, in season 5, episode 3, of
The Nanny. Drescher appeared in
Jack (1996), directed by
Francis Ford Coppola,
The Beautician and the Beast (1997) (for which she was also executive producer) and
Picking Up the Pieces (2000) co-starring
Woody Allen. She was also the voice of "Pearl" in
Shark Bait (2006). In 2025, she reprised her
Spinal Tap role of Bobbi Flekman in
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues; prior to this, Flekman had also made an appearance on a 1997 episode of
The Nanny. She appears in
Marty Supreme (2025), directed by
Josh Safdie as the mother of
Timothée Chalamet's character, "Marty Mauser".
Return to television In the 2000s, Drescher made a return to television both with leading and guest roles. In 2003, Drescher appeared in episodes of the short-lived sitcom
Good Morning, Miami as Roberta Diaz. In 2005, she returned with the sitcom
Living with Fran, in which she played Fran Reeves, a middle-aged mother of two living with Riley Martin (
Ryan McPartlin), a man half her age and not much older than her son. Former
Nanny costar Charles Shaughnessy appeared as her philandering ex-husband, Ted.
Living with Fran was cancelled on May 17, 2006, after two seasons. In 2006, Drescher guest-starred in an episode of
Law & Order: Criminal Intent; the episode, "The War at Home", aired on US television on November 14, 2006. She also appeared in an episode of
Entourage and, in the same year, gave her voice to the role of a female
golem in
The Simpsons episode "
Treehouse of Horror XVII". In 2007, Drescher appeared in the US version of the Australian improvisational comedy series ''
Thank God You're Here. In 2008, Drescher announced that she was developing a new sitcom entitled The New Thirty'', also starring
Rosie O'Donnell. A series about two old high school friends coping with midlife crises, Drescher described the premature plot of the show as "kind of
Sex and the City but we ain't getting any! It'll probably be more like
The Odd Couple." It was never produced. The following year, the sitcom
Happily Divorced, created by Drescher and her ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, was picked up by
TV Land for a ten-episode order. It premiered there June 15, 2011. The show was renewed in July 2011 for a second season of 12 episodes, which aired in spring 2012. On May 1, 2012, TV Land extended the second season and picked up 12 additional episodes, taking the second season total to 24. The back-order of season two debuted later in 2012.
Happily Divorced was cancelled in August 2013. To promote
Happily Divorced, Drescher performed the weddings of three gay couples in New York City using the minister's license she received from the
Universal Life Church. Drescher hand-picked the three couples, all of whom were entrants into "Fran Drescher's 'Love Is Love' Gay Marriage Contest" on Facebook, based on the stories the couples submitted about how they met, why their relationship illustrated that "love is love" and why they wanted to be married by her.
Broadway Drescher made her
Broadway debut on February 4, 2014, in the revival of
Rodgers and
Hammerstein's
Cinderella. Drescher's previous stage performances include an
off-Broadway production of
Nora Ephron's
Love, Loss, and What I Wore, and
Camelot at the
Lincoln Center with the
New York Philharmonic. On January 8, 2020, it was announced that Drescher and Jacobson were writing the book for a musical adaptation of
The Nanny.
Rachel Bloom and
Adam Schlesinger of
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend were brought on to compose the songs prior to Schlesinger's death in April 2020, while Marc Bruni (
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) was slated to direct. Drescher will not portray the title role, as she joked that if she did "We'd have to change the title to
The Granny."
Trade union leader In 2021, Drescher began her campaign to become president of the
Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (
SAG-AFTRA) union, citing both her entertainment and
political background. Her candidacy came from the "Unite for Strength" faction, and she ran against actor
Matthew Modine. On September 2, 2021, SAG-AFTRA announced that Drescher had won the election. Drescher announced the
SAG-AFTRA strike was to begin at midnight the following day, running alongside the concurrent
Writers Guild of America strike (
WGA strike) that began just over two months prior. The strike ended with a tentative deal between the union and the
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which was approved by the SAG-AFTRA board. Drescher was elected to a second two-year term as SAG-AFTRA president in August 2023. On July 25, 2024, ten months after SAG-AFTRA members voted overwhelmingly to authorize another strike against the video game industry, Drescher stated that SAG-AFTRA would begin a
strike against major video game publishers, with the strike then going into effect the following day at 12:01 am. On July 9, 2025, the strike ended after SAG-AFTRA members voted to ratify a tentative agreement with more performer safety measures, which was a specific concern for motion capture video game performers, motion capture actors having medics available during high-risk jobs, compounded increases in performer pay at a rate of 15.17% upon ratification and additional 3% increases in November 2025, November 2026 and November 2027 with 95.04% approval. On August 8, 2025, it was revealed that Drescher, after leading two successful strikes, would not seek re-election to another term as SAG-AFTRA president, with
Sean Astin, a member of Drescher's 2023 political slate and negotiating committee, and Chuck Slavin, a SAG-AFTRA New England Local board member, each vying to replace her. During this race, Drescher would endorse Astin to succeed her. Both Astin and his secretary-treasurer running mate
Michelle Hurd would be elected to their respective positions. On August 13, 2025, a month before the election to determine Drescher's successor as SAG-AFTRA president concluded, it was announced that SAG-AFTRA members were able to settle a lawsuit against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan for negligence which was related to a
cyberattack that resulted in a
data breach. ==Personal life==