Leila Kenzle has been in the entertainment business
since she staged her little dancing shows for her appreciative parents during breaks in
the family's dinners. "Our foyer made a great proscenium arch and I had my first
stage," recalls Kenzle. "I had a captive audience and got fed when it was
over!"
Kenzle was born in Patchogue (Long Island), New York, on a
July 16 and was raised in Rutherford, New Jersey, as one of three daughters. Her father
was an electrical supply salesman and mother was an antiques dealer. She obtained her
B.F.A. in theater from the Mason Gross School of the Arts Conservatory at Rutgers but
promptly lost her will to act and worked as a hotel telephone operator. Eventually she was
coaxed into acting by a sympathetic casting director who arranged an audition for an
off-Broadway role, which Kenzle eventually got.
Her big break came when she was cast as a stripper in the
off-Broadway production of "Tony 'n Tina's Wedding" ("I play a lot of
strippers and prostitutes"). In 1989 she went to Los Angeles, still unsure of her
career as an actress, but quickly found work in the first of five TV series pilots. Few
years ago she appeared in the feature film "Other People's Money" and had a
recurring part as the sister of Fran Drescher's character on the series
"Princesses" (she played the wife of the character portrayed by Richard Kind,
who again plays her husband in "Mad About You"). Her other TV credits include
appearances on "The Golden Girls," "thirtysomething" and "Bill
Cosby Show." She recently finished work in "The Charmer," a TV movie. Last
year Kenzle co-starred with Marcia Cross ("Melrose Place") in the TV movie
"All She Ever Wanted" and in the fall of 1997 stars in the TV movie
"Dogmatic."
Kenzle says she recently derived satisfaction from
producing her first short film, "Bigger Fish," a black comedy which was on the
festival circuit and received 12 first place awards, including Best Short Film at South
Carolina’s Worldfest Charleston and Houston’s Annual Worldfest.
Kenzle describes her "Mad About You" character as
"a really wonderful friend with a change in her life and marital status. She's really
trying to find herself now."
In her spare time, Kenzle enjoys shopping antiques, yoga
and hiking. She learned to walk the high wire in an acrobatic appearance on "Circus
of the Stars." She also works with adolescent wards of the state as part of
Children's International Institute and is active in multiple sclerosis charities. She
resides in West Hollywood with her husband,
Neil Monaco, a private acting coach whom she married in April.