Rachel Dratch is an American actress and comedian, perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006.

Dratch was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA, the daughter of Elaine, an energy director, and Paul Dratch, a radiologist. She was raised in Reform Judaism at Temple Isaiah. Dratch graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988, where she majored in drama and psychology and was a member of the comedy group called the Dog Day Players. She attended the National Theater Institute in the fall of '86. She is also an alumna of Lexington High School in Massachusetts.

Dratch was a member of the main stage cast of The Second City comedy troupe for several years, performing alongside future SNL head writers Adam McKay and Tina Fey as well as future 30 Rock performer Scott Adsit. The first incarnation of her SNL "Wicked" sketch was performed in Second City's Paradigm Lost. In addition to acting, Dratch also played the cello onstage. The theater also hosted the first incarnation of Dratch & Fey (her critically praised two-woman show with Tina Fey which was later performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, where it was dubbed "the funniest thing to be found on any New York comedy stage" by Time Out New York.

Dratch has appeared in several movies, including Martin & Orloff, The Hebrew Hammer, Down with Love, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Click and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. She also has joined fellow SNL cast members on A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T.: Improv which aired September 7, 2005, on the Bravo channel. Dratch has also made television appearances on NBC's Third Watch and in a recurring role on King of Queens (playing Denise, the on-off girlfriend of Spence, who worked in a bowling alley). Dratch wrote, directed, and performed in the short film The Vagina Monologues, which premiered at the New York Comedy Film Festival in 2001. Dratch also participated in a workshop for Legally Blonde: The Musical in the role of Paulette, but did not follow the production to its later San Francisco or Broadway incarnation.

After joining SNL in 1999 as a featured player and then a repertory player in 2001, Dratch played many people, both real and fictional. One of her most famous recurring characters was Debbie Downer, a depressed woman who creeps others out with disturbing non sequiturs. With seven seasons under her belt, Dratch became SNL's longest running female cast member and the first female cast member to have turned forty while on the show.

Dratch left SNL after the 2005-2006 season to join her co-star Tina Feys new NBC sitcom 30 Rock, loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer on SNL. Although the pilot episode originally featured Dratch as Jenna, the main star of 30 Rock's show-within-a-show, the show's format was re-worked and Dratch was replaced by Jane Krakowski. Dratch made cameo appearances as various characters in several first-season episodes; however, she did not appear in any of the second-season episodes.

After a guest spot on AquaTeen Hunger Force, Dratch's voice has appeared in numerous episodes of Assy McGee on Adult Swim.