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Mindy Cohn
Mindy Cohn
May 20, 1966, Los Angeles, California
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Mindy Cohn is a founding member of the weSpark cancer support center.
So that's my philosophy: If you believe in yourself, the chances and the opportunities will come around.
Mindy Cohn
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comedian known for her role as Natalie Green, the smart, overweight student of Edna Garrett (played by Charlotte Rae), on the TV show The Facts of Life. She currently resides in Beverly Hills.
Cohn was born in Los Angeles, California. She was discovered by actress Charlotte Rae when Rae and other producers of The Facts of Life visited Westlake School in Bel Air, California, while doing research for the show. Cohn was cast in the role of Natalie and portrayed the character for the entire run of the series, from 1979 to 1988, as well in the reunion movie of 2001. The impact of her work on The Facts of Life was honored when she was ranked 43 on VH1's List of 100 Greatest Kids Stars. She also had a lot of fun working with series' lead, Charlotte Rae, for 7 of 9 seasons, both on- and off-camera. As of 2011, Cohn continues to keep in touch with the beloved TV star.
Cohn has continued with her acting career outside of The Facts of Life. In 1986, she appeared in The Boy Who Could Fly playing the part of 'Geneva'. She also had guest appearances in other popular TV shows such as in Charles In Charge in the episode "Bottle Baby" playing Buddy's sister Bunny, a young alcoholic, in 1988, as well as two guest appearances in the second season of the cop drama 21 Jump Street, in the episodes "Christmas In Saigon" in 1987 and "Chapel of Love" in 1988 playing Rosa.
In 2003 she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on the TV show What's New Scooby Doo?, where she did the voice of Velma Dinkley. She also reprised her role of Velma on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated along with several Scooby Doo movies.
She also received a positive notice from Variety in her role in the 2007 Daniel Waters directed comedy film Sex and Death 101.
Cohn said that one of the reasons she did The Facts of Life Reunion film in 2001 was because she claims that the actors in the long-running series have been wrongly denied a cut of the syndication and DVD profits from the series. "We all never got paid and still don't get paid for DVDs and reruns ... we felt we were owed."
In 2010, she played the role of Violet, the leading character in Casper Andreas' movie Violet Tendencies.
On October 29, 2010, she appeared on the Season 8 premiere of TLC's What Not To Wear.
In addition to her acting career, she has earned a degree in cultural anthropology from Loyola Marymount University and is a founding member of the weSpark cancer support center.
Graduated from Loyola Marymount in 1995 with a degree in sociology.
Actress Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett) discovered Cohn and also named her character Natalie on "The Facts of Life" (1979). Rae met Cohn after she and the show's producers noticed her entertaining a group of friends at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where they had gone to research and observe.
Ranked #43 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars".
Was parodied in the TV show "Clerks" (2000).
Continues to look for acting work and turns down all the VH1 reality shows ("Celebrity Fit Club" (2005), etc.) because she doesn't want to cash in on her early "The Facts of Life" (1979) fame.
Was among the guests at Justine Bateman's 17th birthday party.
Keeps in touch with her "The Facts of Life" (1979) co-star Kim Fields.
Is good friends with Angelina Jolie's brother James Haven, and is even the godmother of two of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children.
On her "Facts of Life" co-star, who was fired after the first season: Felice Schachter is my soul sister. Felice and I became incredibly close, very quickly, very same sensibility. She just felt like family. I think Felice got a bum deal.
Ultimately, I want people to be able to see me, that I'm an actor. Sometimes people see me with whatever label, and I've not yet been able to show what I can do. That's the exciting part. I still have the tenacity and the hunger, and my patience is going to pay off. My motto in life is 'The best is yet to come'.
[On her latter on- and off-screen chemistry with Charlotte Rae, who played Edna Garrett]: I was discovered by Charlotte Rae and the producer at the time, Norman Lear, came to the school that I was attending, Westlake School For Girls, to try and authenticate the scripts and try to get a feel of what it was like to be - in an all-girls school, and Charlotte was really wanted to make sure that "Mrs. Garrett," there was a reason for "Mrs. Garrett" to leave 'Diff'rent Strokes,' which was the show she started on, and go to this all-girls school, for a reason. So , they were trying to figure that out, so I was one of the students they talked to and she and I hit it off ... I guess, extremely well, as a 13-year-old. I don't really know what that means to hit it off with someone.
[On the impending departure of Charlotte Rae, who played Edna Garrett, from 1978-1986 on both "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978) and "The Facts of Life" (1979), which was a spin-off]: One of the reasons she left was that this show is really started to focused on the girls, the pull of the show started to be different of her. She sorta felt like 'I'm done!'
[Who admitted that in one aspect she was similar to her Natalie Green character]: Anything that takes more than 20 minutes? No can do.
[On herself being overshadowed by her Natalie Green character]: It's a catch-22, I get the 'Where have you been? We want to see more of you' comments and I also understand from a producer's point of view, 'We don't want Natalie in our movie.'
Right now, I'm an unemployed actor. My dream is to do eight shows a week [on stage], but I can't do that and financially take care of myself in the way I've become accustomed.
[Of Charlotte Rae]: I just had my Bar Mitzvah, when I was 13, I had no desire to be an actress that wasn't kind of my career treachery; it was really a chance to go talk to the lady that I recognized from Diff'rent Strokes, Mrs. Garrett [Charlotte Rae]. Charlotte discovered me and we have been great friends ever since.
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