Oteri grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (also the hometown of SNL writer/performer Tina Fey). Moving to Los Angeles at age 25, she worked at A&M Records for four years and eventually joined the famed comedy troupe The Groundlings. It was there that she was noticed by SNL and was hired in 1995 as part of a nearly all-new cast brought in to save the show after the disastrous 1994 season. Oteri would eventually form a third of the so-called "SNL female power trio" that also included Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer and which was responsible, along with Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and others, for bringing SNL out of its slump.

She was known for playing perky, upbeat, often hyper characters including cheerleader-wannabe Arianna, grouchy grandmother Rita DelVecchio, and the pill-addicted Collette Reardon. Her dead-on impression of Barbara Walters also bolstered her fame.

Oteri left SNL in 2000. Since then she has appeared in several movies including Scary Movie and Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, and also on the television show Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Television Personalities, Health,