Teresa Ganzel was born in Toledo, OH. Her love of performing began during high school in Minnesota where she took home many a first prize trophy in state-wide speech contests for her category of "Humorous Intrepretation". Her love of acting began doing school plays and musicals. Most importantly her first "TV job" was the lead in a national Arctic Cat Snow mobile commercial where she played the Cindy Williams character in a take-off of American Graffiti. More commercials and industrial films followed.
For college, she auditioned and was accepted into the prestigious Goodman Theater in Chicago, where she had two years of intensive training. She moved to Los Angeles but after a few frustrating years trying to get work as a serious actress, she tried dying her brunette hair with a bottle of peroxide. The "blonde" worked, and so did she. She perfected her "ditzy blonde" persona in feature films such as National Lampoon's Movie Madness opposite Peter Riegert, COD with Chris Lemon, My Favorite Year with Joe Bologna, Transylvania 6-5000 opposite Jeff Goldblum and The Toy with Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason.
Her first television role was guest starring as "Greedy Gretchen" on Three's Company. Her TV comedy career took off. For six years in a row Teresa was cast as a series regular on a network series. Teacher's Only with Lynn Redgrave and Jean Smart, The Duck Factory with Jim Carrey, Roxy with Andrea Martin, The Dave Thomas Comedy Show, Dirty Work, and The Arena with Ted Bessell.
While promoting Teacher's Only on The Tonight Show, she met Johnny Carson. After several successful panel appearances (as well as a couple with Gary Shandling), Johnny invited her to do sketches with him. Besides being Art Fern's "Matinee Lady", she portrayed several other Mighty Carson Art Player's characters. She made over 30 appearances for the final 10 years of the show, until Johnny's retirement in 1992.
Teresa guest starred in many hit television shows and TV movies. Highlights include the mini-series Fresno starring Carol Burnett where she played Bill Paxton's wife, Night Court, Newhart, Empty Nest, Remington Steele, The Love Boat, Married With Children, and many more.
Teresa was a frequent celebrity game show player on Password, Hollywood Squares, Win Lose or Draw, etc., but she is best known for her appearances on the $25,000 Pyramid, where she showed her quick-witted smarts. She appeared on the show more than any other female celebrity.
In voice-over, her main niche was radio commercials, she voiced well over 100 of them. Animation roles include the female lead "Miss Vavoom" in Droopy Master Detective and many guest spots such as The Emperor's New School, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Rugrats, Cow and Chicken and more. She did ADR on top box office feature films including Monsters Inc., Cars, Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me 3.
On stage, she was the female lead in the three character comedy Viagara Falls. It toured for several years, including a stint at the Little Shubert in NYC. She co-starred with Bernie Kopell, Harold Gould, Lou Cutell and Robert Pine. Though critically panned, she managed to get the most positive reviews of the bunch. Theater awards include Stage Scene LA's Best Comedy Ensemble for the revival of Heartbreak Hotel with Melissa Peterman and Marissa Winokur and the same for Meet and Greet with Carolyn Hennesy and Vicki Lewis. Teresa also won a Robby award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for House of Blue Leaves directed by Gordon Hunt. Other highlights include Harvey at the Laguna Playhouse with French Stewart, Sunshine Boys at the La Mirada Theater directed by Glenn Casale and Steel Magnolias at the Jetson Theater Company in North Carolina.
After a couple years of refueling and reinvention, Teresa is continuing on to the next chapter. She's about to begin filming the title role in the short film Angelica Fish, as well as making her stand-up debut at several Los Angeles comedy clubs.
