On this date in 1987, entertainer Rachel Leah Bloom, was born in Los Angeles to Shelli (Rosenberg), a musician, and Alan Bloom, an attorney. She was raised in Manhattan Beach with what she called a “heavy” Jewish identity. While the Blooms weren’t observant, her parents were “always going to Holocaust museums” and were “all up on who’s Jewish in Hollywood.” (Tablet online, July 8, 2014)
When she was 10, she dropped out of Hebrew School because it conflicted with her interest in taking theater classes. She engaged in her passion for theater throughout her childhood and attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received a BFA in 2009.
Bloom is best known for her co-creation of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (2015-19), in which she had the starring role. The dark-humored television series is centered around the life of a young woman suffering from anxiety and depression while searching for happiness. Bloom’s empathy with those who, like her, struggle with mental illness, motivates her work as an activist for improved quality and availability of mental health care for all who need it.
She is also a proponent of women’s rights and issues, believing that feminism and humanism are inseparable allies. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Dan Gregor, whom she married in 2015. They have a daughter, born in 2020.
PHOTO: Bloom at PaleyFest 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif.; photo by Shutterstock.com/Kathy Hutchins
