Ebersole was born in Winnetka, Illinois, the daughter of Marian Esther (née Goodley) and Robert "Bob" Ebersole. Her father was the president of a steel company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has Swiss-German and Irish ancestry. Ebersole graduated from New Trier High School in 1971. She attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, Class of 1975, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.\n', '

She met Marc Shaiman when he was 19 and the musical director of her first club act. She appeared in two different parts on Ryan\'s Hope in 1977 (as a nurse) and 1980 (as Lily Darnell), and was part of the cast of Saturday Night Live in the 1981–1982 season, the first full season under new producer Dick Ebersol (the similar names being a coincidence), acting as Weekend Update co-anchor with Brian Doyle-Murray and at times impersonating Mary Travers, Cheryl Tiegs, Barbara Mandrell, Diana, Princess of Wales and Rona Barrett. Following SNL, she appeared in One Life to Live as daffy Maxie McDermott (receiving an Emmy nomination) and Valerie. She co-starred with Barnard Hughes on the sitcom The Cavanaughs, played the title role in the short-lived sitcom Rachel Gunn, R.N., and guest-starred on Will & Grace, The Nanny, Dolly!, Just Shoot Me, Murphy Brown, Ally McBeal, Samantha Who, Boston Legal, The Colbert Report and Royal Pains. In 1991 she appeared as the titular Miss Jones in a pilot for an ABC series about a single mother, but the series was not taken up.\n', '

She appeared in the 1993 television movie adaptation of Gypsy starring Bette Midler, and in the 2000 ABC-TV movie Mary and Rhoda starring Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper.\n', '

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