47°
The actress, producer, and Emmy Award-winning television presenter, from Hastings-on-Hudson, turns 48 on Wednesday.
Lake is best known for her talk show which was broadcast internationally from 1993 to 2004. In autumn 2012, Lake embarked on a second syndicated talk show endeavor airing on weekdays.
Ricki Pamela Lake was born Sept. 21, 1968, to Barry, a pharmacist and Jill Lake, a homemaker, in Hastings-on-Hudson.
She attended Hastings High School through the end of her sophomore year, graduated from the Professional Children's School and attended Ithaca College for one year.
Lake made her film debut as Tracy Turnblad, the lead character in John Waters' 1988 cult-classic "Hairspray." Lake also starred in other Waters films including "Cry-Baby" (with Johnny Depp and Susan Tyrrell), "Cecil B. Demented" (with Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff), and "Serial Mom" (with Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston). She starred in "Mrs. Winterbourne" with Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser, "Cabin Boy", "Last Exit to Brooklyn", Cookie, and "Inside Monkey Zetterland".
She joined the cast of the Vietnam War drama series "China Beach" as a Red Cross volunteer, Holly "the Donut Dolly" Pelegrino, for the show's third season. She also had a recurring role on the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens" as Doug's sister Stephanie. She guest-starred on television series including "Drop Dead Diva" and a voice role on "King of the Hill", and starred in the television movie "Baby Cakes".
Lake competed on the 13th season of "Dancing with the Stars," achieving success on the show by scoring high. After making the finals, Lake was announced came in third place, losing to TV personality Rob Kardashian and actor and Army veteran J. R. Martinez.
On April 20, 2011, Lake signed with Twentieth Television to develop "The Ricki Lake Show", which premiered in September 2012.
As of February 2014, Lake is working with director Abby Epstein on a documentary about the dangers of hormonal birth control, titled "Sweetening the Pill." The film is based on Holly Grigg-Spall's 2015 book titled "Sweetening The Pill Or How We Became Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control".
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