April Winchell

April Winchell
Full Name	April Terri Winchell
Born in	New York City
Eye color	Brown
Hair color	Black
Occupation	Actress; Writer; Voice actor; Radio host; Commentator
Role	Ma

 April Terri Winchell (born on January 4, 1960) is an American actress, writer, voice actor, talk radio host, and commentator. She was born in New York City, the daughter of ventriloquist, voice actor and comedian, the late Paul Winchell.

Acting

As a professional voice actress, she has been heard in hundreds of animated television programs, such as King of The Hill, Robot and Monster, Phineas & Ferb, Pucca,  Kim Possible, Recess (as Miss Muriel Finster), Goof Troop (as Peg Pete), Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (as Wikipedia:Clarabelle Cow), Bonkers (as Dyl Piquel), Pepper Ann (as Lydia Pearson), The Legend of Tarzan (taking over for Rosie O'Donnell as Terk) and 101 Dalmatians: The Series (as Cruella De Vil), SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron (as Molly Mange).

She has also voiced roles in numerous films, including Antz, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Rob Zombie's The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Winchell portrayed the "Glendale Federal Bank" lady – a cranky, cynical customer mollified by the service at her new bank – in a series of highly successful radio commercials, which Winchell wrote and directed herself. She was also considered for the part of Regan in The Exorcist until she fell ill and was taken out of consideration.

Radio

Besides her many contributions to radio advertising as a performer, writer and director, Winchell also hosted a radio talk show program on KFI, a Los Angeles radio station. This weekend program aired for three years, and enjoyed the fastest growing audience in the history of the station. Subsequent to the end of this program in November 2002, she appeared semi-regularly on the Ask Mr. KABC program, on KABC, an AM station also in Los Angeles – until the show ended in February 2007.

In 2005, Winchell signed a deal with U.S. pay-TV service HBO to develop and host a show on Sirius Satellite Radio. However on her official website on May 3, 2006, she announced that negotiations had stalled out between HBO and Sirius, leaving her program in limbo.

On March 16, 2007, she returned to semi-regular radio appearances on The Marc "Mr. K" Germain Show on KTLK-AM (the new show hosted by the former Mr. KABC) and appeared twice a month. (Her appearances on Germain's show are available at her website in addition to KTLK's website.) During March, Winchell was "banned for life" from KABC (AM) in Los Angeles at the behest of ABC radio host Bill O'Reilly, over a retelling of an occurrence she dubbed "Croissantgate" (KABC provided Bill O'Reilly with croissants that were not fresh enough for his taste, causing a commotion at the station).

Theater

As a musical theatre actress, she starred as Ado Annie in the Columbia Artists revival of Oklahoma!, and also appeared opposite Kevin Spacey in Gypsy.

Additionally, Winchell wrote and starred as "Sheila Sands" in her show at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles to sold out crowds. The show was produced by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, who discovered her at Cafe Largo in Hollywood.

She has also been a frequent panelist on the live-stage version of What's My Line at the Acme Comedy Theatre in Hollywood.

Advertising

In 1992, Winchell and her then-husband Mick Kuisel formed Radio Savant Productions, a radio advertising production company. Since that time, Winchell has many awards including Cannes, Clio, The $100,000 Mercury Award and The International Grand Andy (bestowed by The Association of Independent Commercial Producers) – it was the only time the Andy was given for radio.

Internet

Winchell's official website chronicles the actress' activities, which include her professional, personal, and romantic life.

In October 2009, Winchell (under the pseudonym "Helen Killer") launched Regretsy, a blog website which satirized Etsy. Within four days, the site had received nearly 90 million hits.^{[citation needed]} This huge viral success caught the attention of Random House, who would then win a bidding war to publish a book based around the Regretsy website. The book, which was published April 6, 2010, features humorous and bizarre crafts and artwork from several different artists, as well as essays about Winchell's personal life, childhood and own crafting failures. As of March 1, 2012, the Regretsy site had raised over $200,000 for charitable causes. The popularity of Regretsy's "Not Remotely Steampunk" section even inspired a viral "chap-hop" music video. Winchell ceased updating Regretsy on February 1, 2013, archiving it at aprilwinchell.com.

Personal life

Winchell is the daughter of the late voice actor, inventor and ventriloquist Paul Winchell. In her weblog writings and appearances on radio, she describes her childhood with many references to the great talent of her father as well as the many disturbing incidents owing to his mental health issues. Ms. Winchell did not speak publicly about his mental illness and drug use for many years, due to the "tremendous responsibility" she felt to his fans, and the people who had fond childhood memories of his work from the 1960s through the late 1980s. But her silence ended in March 2004 after her father published his autobiography Winch, in which he openly criticized his ex-wife, Nina Russel, and other family members.

In broadcasts of her KFI show, on her web diary and several other websites, April Winchell revealed that she and Kevin Spacey dated for a while after high school, during the run of the Gypsy musical, and went to New York together. She and Spacey remained friends ever since.

On August 19, 2005 she announced on her website that she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent successful surgery and radiation treatment. To promote solidarity during her radiation treatment, she issued her own rubber wristbands. Where Lance Armstrong's wrist bands were yellow, April's were "Glow in the Dark" so one could "glow along" with April. Winchell is also widely known as a supporter of various charity causes, including Project Angel Food, a Los Angeles-based service providing meals for homebound people living with AIDS. Her website, Regretsy, generates charitable funds through selling of Regretsy merchandise. On, April 17, 2011, Winchell created April's Army, one of the largest selling teams on Etsy. The Army's members run monthly campaigns, and all the profits gathered from their store go to a selected Regretsy member who has encountered hardships. On December 5, 2011, Regretsy began a Secret Santa program, collecting donations for presents for needy children. Regretsy raised so much money so quickly that Paypal froze the Regretsy account – as well as Winchell's unrelated personal account – for six months in order to "investigate." As this move effectively destroyed Christmas for 200 needy families, public outcry was massive, resulting in Regretsy becoming a worldwide trending topic on Twitter. After publicly apologizing, Paypal reinstated Winchell's accounts and donated $20,000 to the families she was raising money for. Winchell has provided the award winning radio and television advertising for Big Bear Mountain Resorts since the early 1990s. In 2007, she began appearing in their television ads as a reporter-on-the-scene dealing with a hapless studio anchorman.

Filmography

Roles in television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972–1973	Kid Power	Connie	Voice only Animated series
1992–1993	Goof Troop	Peg Pete	Voice only Animated series
1993–1994	Bonkers	Dyl Piquel	Voice only Animated series
1993–1994	SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron	Molly Mange	Voice only Animated series
1997–1998	101 Dalmatians: The Series	Cruella De Vil	Voice only Animated series
1998–2000	Pepper Ann	Lydia Pearson	Voice only Animated series
1999–2000	Mickey Mouse Works	Clarabelle Cow	Voice only Animated series
1997–2001	Recess	Muriel Finster	Voice only Animated series
2000–2001	Clerks: The Animated Series	Judge	Voice only Animated series
2001–2002	House of Mouse	Clarabelle Cow	Voice only Animated series
2002–2003	Teamo Supremo	Hypnotheria	Voice only Animated series
2003	Lloyd in Space	Nora Nebulon	Voice only Animated series
2003–2006	Lilo & Stitch	Mrs. Edmonds	Voice only Animated series
2006	Asterix and the Vikings	Vikea	Voice only Animated series
2006–2007	Legion of Super Heroes	Winema Wazzo	Voice only Animated series
2006–2011	Mickey Mouse Clubhouse	Clarabelle Cow	Voice only Animated series
2007	The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy	Mr. Slither	Voice only Animated series
2003–2007	Kim Possible	Bernice Trisha	Voice only Animated series
2007–2008	Tak & the Power of Juju	Donna	Voice only Animated series
2009	King of the Hill	Teacher	Voice only Animated series
2010–2011	Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil	Helga	Voice only Animated series
2008–2011	Phineas and Ferb	Blanca Dechan Bridgette Oshinomi	Voice only Animated series
2008–2011	Jake and the Never Land Pirates	Singsong Bird Slippery Serpent	Voice only Animated series
2012	Gravity Falls	Grandma	Voice only Animated series
2012	Robot and Monster	Grandma Arpa	Voice only Animated series
2013	Wander Over Yonder	Sylvia	Voice only Animated series

Roles in film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	Mrs. Herman Baby Herman (on-camera)	Voice only
1993	Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby	Additional voices	Voice only Television film
1997	Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off	Tanya	Voice only Direct-to-video
1998	Belle's Magical World	Chandeleria	Voice only Direct-to-video
1998	Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World	Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
1998	Antz	Additional voices	Voice only
1999	Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas	Firefighter Mother	Voice only Direct-to-video
2000	Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman	Madame Raya	Voice only Direct-to-video
2001	Recess: School's Out	Miss Finster Mrs. Detweiller	Voice only
2001	Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure	Mrs. Mahoney	Voice only Direct-to-video
2001	Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse	Mother Von Drake	Voice only Direct-to-video
2001	Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street	Miss Finster	Voice only Direct-to-video
2002	Template:Sortname	Lady DeBurne	Voice only Direct-to-video
2002	Tarzan & Jane	Terk	Voice only Direct-to-video
2002	Mickey's House of Villains	Clarabelle Cow	Voice only Direct-to-video
2002	Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa	Nana	Voice only
2003	Recess: All Growed Down	Miss Finster	Voice only Direct-to-video
2003	Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade	Miss Finster	Voice only Direct-to-video
2004	Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers	Clarabelle Cow Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
2004	Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas	Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
2005	Mulan II	Matchmaker	Voice only Direct-to-video
2005	Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama	Reporter	Voice only Direct-to-video
2005	Tarzan II	Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
2005	Kronk's New Groove	Hildy Marge Tina Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
2006	Asterix and the Vikings	Vikea	Voice only
2006	Queer Duck: The Movie	Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
2006	Template:Sortname	Additional voices	Voice only Direct-to-video
2007	Happily N'Ever After	Additional voices	Voice only
2009	Template:Sortname	Dame Grace Appleton Liza Babs Dolly Joan Gloria Scripty Helga Strudel	Voice only Direct-to-video
2010	Superman/Batman: Apocalypse	Female Radio Caller #1 Tresha	Voice only Direct-to-video

External links

• Official website
• April Winchell at the Internet Movie Database
• Video of Winchell and "Mr. K" appearing on KABC Radio, July, 2006