Petite, wide-eyed with a mass of curls, Andrea Martin created several memorable characters as part of the troupe writing and performing on "Second City TV/SCTV/SCTV Network" (syndicated 1977-81; NBC 1981-83). Two of her more memorable creations were the gibberish-spouting cleaning woman Prini Schlerosi and the leopard-skin clad, tightly-wound TV station manager Edith Prickly. During the course of the series run, Martin was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards for her writing (winning back to back awards in 1981/82 and 1982/83) and one for her characterizations. A romance led her to relocate to Toronto, where Martin appeared with Martin Short, Gilda Radner and Victor Garber in a now legendary production of "Godspell". Other stage roles followed and this "honorary Canadian" was invited to join the Second City troupe as they were developing a TV variety series. Her success on "SCTV" led to other offers; Martin made a number of busted pilots. She also appeared in numerous comedy specials, including "Martin Short Concert for North America" (Showtime, 1985), HBO's "Comic Relief" (1986) and headlined her own Canadian Broadcasting Corporation special, "Andrea Martin: Together Again" (1989). Martin's big screen outings began with Ivan Reitman's improvisational "Cannibal Girls" (1973), but she never really found a breakthrough role to propel her to movie stardom. Martin was mostly relegated to small character roles as in "Wholly Moses!" (1980), "Club Paradise" (1986) and "Too Much Sun" (1991). She was appropriately mousy as a librarian with a yen to dance in "Stepping Out" (1991) and had a few good moments as Whoopi Goldberg's long-suffering, but faithful secretary in the appropriately titled "Bogus" (1996). In 1992, Martin returned to stage work, scoring a Tony Award as Featured Actress in a Musical for her delightful turn as the only female staff writer on a 50s TV show not unlike "Your Show of Shows" in "My Favorite Year", an uneven musicalization of the charming 1982 film. Martin tackled the Bard in the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1994 production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor". "Nude, Nude, Totally Nude" (1996) was Martin's one-woman show which allowed her free rein to create a galaxy of characters while also exploring her heritage, her marriage and her affairs with younger men.
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