The TV nanny named Fran was from Flushing, Queens, just like her real-life alter ego Fran Drescher. A former Miss New York Teenager, Drescher went to high school with TV Land neighbor Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond). Another classmate, Peter Marc Jacobson, became her husband and later her collaborator on The Nanny.

Before her trademark nasal voice hit CBS on a weekly basis in 1993, Fran Drescher made distinctive appearances in movies throughout the 1970s and 1980s, most notably as Bobbi Flekman, "the hostess with the mostest" in This Is Spinal Tap. She had previously made her big screen debut in Saturday Night Fever and appeared in cult classics American Hot Wax, The Hollywood Knights and Doctor Detroit. In the latter film, she became close with co-stars Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon. With Dixon, Drescher made her first foray as a series star in the short-lived Charmed Lives. After numerous guest appearances on TV and small but memorable roles in movies such as Cadillac Man, she headlined another short-lived CBS series, Princesses. Her character was a prototypical Drescher character -- Jewish, outspoken, worked in a department store -- and perhaps a blueprint for Fran Fine. Dreschers co-star on Princesses was her friend Twiggy, whose kids are said to have inspired Drescher to create the Sheffield children.

On a fateful trip to Paris, Drescher ran into CBS President Jeff Sagansky. She pitched him the idea of The Nanny, and a show was born. Her role as Fran Fine earned her two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. During its run, she capitalized on her persona, starring in the movie The Beautician and the Beast. Other film appearances included Jack and Car 54, Where Are You? After The Nanny wrapped its six-season run and her marriage to Jacobson ended, Drescher was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She wrote about her experience in the book Cancer Schmancer, then helped others by forming the Cancer Schmancer Foundation. In 2005, she starred in Living with Fran, a show that somewhat paralleled her real life, playing a divorcee in a relationship with a younger man. The following year, she appeared off-Broadway in Neil LaBute's "Some Girls." A vocal health care advocate, she threw her hat in the ring when New York was looking to replace Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. She is also the author of Enter Whining, her autobiography.

In 2011, Fran stars in a new TV Land original sitcom, Happily Divorced.