Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary Lynn Rajskub (born June 22, 1971) is an American actress, comedian , and writer best known for portraying the tech-savvy analyst Chloe O'Brian in the Fox action drama series 24 from 2003 to 2010. Born in Detroit , Michigan , and raised in Trenton, Michigan , where she graduated from Trenton High School in 1989, Rajskub began her career in the mid-1990s as a stand-up comedian and performer in alternative comedy scenes.
Rajskub gained early recognition as an original cast member of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1996) and in a recurring role as a guest booker on The Larry Sanders Show (1998), replacing Janeane Garofalo . Her breakthrough came with 24 , where her portrayal of the no-nonsense Chloe—initially a recurring character who became a series regular—earned praise for adding humor and humanity to the high-stakes narrative, contributing to the show's 2006 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and her two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2005 and 2007. Rajskub has since demonstrated versatility across genres, appearing in films such as Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Sunshine Cleaning (2009), Night School (2018), and The Tomorrow War (2021), as well as television roles including Gail the Snail in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–present), Lorraine Fuisz in The Dropout (2022), and Helen in the Netflix series North of North (2025), which was renewed for a second season in April 2025. Beyond acting, she has performed stand-up comedy for over two decades, releasing specials like Mary Lynn Rajskub: Live From The Pandemic (2021) and Road Gig (2024), and published the essay collection memoir FAME-ISH: My Life at the Edge of Stardom in 2022, drawing on her experiences in Hollywood.
Mary Lynn Rajskub was born on June 22, 1971, in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the nearby working-class suburb of Trenton starting at age two.
She is the youngest of three daughters born to Tony Rajskub, a pipefitter, and Betty Rajskub, a pharmacist's assistant, both of whom originated from Detroit before relocating to the suburbs amid the white flight following the 1967 riots. Her family heritage encompasses Irish ancestry on her mother's side and Czech and Polish on her father's.
Rajskub grew up in a middle-class, blue-collar household in the Downriver area south of Detroit , where the automotive industry's influence permeated daily life, though she later recalled having little personal interest in cars. This environment, marked by economic modesty and regional grit, shaped her early personality with a sense of resilience and determination ; she has described it as fostering an aggressive drive to assert herself, feeling as though she came from the "wrong side of the tracks." The family's working-class roots also contributed to her enduring down-to-earth demeanor.
Rajskub graduated from Trenton High School in Trenton, Michigan , in 1989. Following high school, she enrolled at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit , where she majored in painting as part of her visual arts training. She later transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute , continuing her studies in painting while broadening her artistic exploration.
During her time at the San Francisco Art Institute in the early 1990s, Rajskub's focus on visual arts evolved toward performance art , which she found more immediate and engaging than traditional painting . This shift was influenced by the experimental nature of her coursework, where she began creating pieces that blended visual elements with live performance, drawing from avant-garde theater traditions. Her early one-woman shows received feedback highlighting their quirky, theatrical style, further shaping her artistic voice.
