June Diane Raphael

Sarcasm as her trademark

June Diane Raphael enrolled at New York University with the goal of becoming a prestigious dramatic actress. But in a clown class, she met Casey Wilson, and that plan went out the window.

In 1998, the two decided that comedy was a faster way to pay the bills. They started by writing sketches at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. That improv school worked as a testing lab for trial and error, where Raphael refined a dry, sharp style.

And it worked.

In 2005, they managed to sell a screenplay to New Line Cinema. That gave them enough money to move to Los Angeles and start working in the industry professionally.

It wasn't all easy on the West Coast.

Her big break came in 2015 with the premiere of Grace and Frankie on Netflix. Raphael played Brianna Hanson for seven seasons and ninety-four episodes. Her character broke away from the stereotype of the compliant daughter, since Brianna was cynical and ambitious.

She made audiences empathize with a woman who hated hugs.

During the years she filmed the series, she balanced her work with film appearances. In 2017, she took part in The Disaster Artist, and in 2019, she shot Long Shot alongside Charlize Theron.

The industry from the office

In 2010, she launched the podcast How Did This Get Made? with Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas. The show examines movies with disastrous productions and nonsensical scripts. The project is still going strong after recording more than three hundred episodes.

But Raphael didn't limit herself to acting or talking in front of a microphone.

In 2013, she wrote and starred in the movie Ass Backwards. It was an independent production that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival after years of searching for funding.

And the gamble paid off.

She founded The Jane Club in 2018 to offer workspaces and support to working mothers. The physical location closed in 2020 due to the global health crisis, but the community moved online. The business structure, however, remained intact.

In 2023, she joined the cast of the revival of Frasier to play June. She also voiced several characters on the animated series Big Mouth between 2017 and 2024.

Her contract with the talent agency United Talent Agency has remained in place for more than a decade.