Drescher was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, the daughter of Sylvia, a bridal consultant, and Morty Drescher, a naval systems analyst. Her Ashkenazi Jewish family is of South-East Central European origin (her great-grandmother was born in Foc?ani, Romania). She has an older sister, Nadine.

Drescher was a first runner-up for "Miss New York Teenager" in 1973, as revealed in her first autobiography "Enter Whining" released December 29th 1995, and on her interview on William Shatner's Raw Nerve, which first aired on January 27, 2009. She attended Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens, where she met her future husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, whom she married in 1978, at age 21. They divorced in 1999. Jacobson was Drescher's constant supporter in her show-business career, and he wrote, directed and produced her signature television series, The Nanny.

Early career and film roles

Her first break was a small role as the dancer Connie in the blockbuster movie Saturday Night Fever (1977) in which she delivered the memorable line to John Travolta, "Are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?". A year later, she began to gain more attention in films such as American Hot Wax (1978), and Wes Craven's Summer of Fear (1978). She also took on a rare dramatic role in the Milos Forman 1981 film, Ragtime.

During the 1980s, Drescher found moderate success as a character actress with memorable roles in films such as The Hollywood Knights, Doctor Detroit, The Big Picture, UHF, Cadillac Man, and This is Spinal Tap.

The Nanny and later film roles

Drescher and Jacobson created her own television show, The Nanny in 1993. The show aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999, becoming an instant success, and Drescher became an instant star. In this sitcom, she played a charming and bubbly woman named Fran Fine who casually became the nanny of Margaret ("Maggie"), Brighton Sheffeild, and Grace ("Gracie") Sheffield; with her wit and her charm, she endeared herself to their widower father Maxwell Sheffield, a stuffy, composed, proper British gentleman and Broadway producer (played by British actor Charles Shaughnessy).

Drescher appeared in Jack (1996), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Beautician and the Beast (1997) (for which she was also executive producer) and Picking Up the Pieces (2000) co-starring Woody Allen. She also was the voice of "Pearl" in Shark Bait (2006).

Return to television

In recent years, Drescher has made a return to television both with leading and guest roles. In 2005, she returned to TV with the sitcom Living with Fran, in which she played Fran Reeves, a middle-aged mother of two, living with Riley Martin (Ryan McPartlin), a man half her age and not much older than her son. Former Nanny costar Charles Shaughnessy appeared as her philandering ex-husband, Ted. Living with Fran was cancelled May 17, 2006, after two seasons.

In 2003, Drescher appeared in episodes of the short lived sitcom, Good Morning, Miami as Roberta Diaz. In 2006, Drescher guest starred in an episode of Criminal Intent; the episode, "The War at Home", aired on US television on November 14, 2006. She also appeared in an episode of the series Entourage and in the same year, gave her voice to the role of a female golem in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XVII". In 2007, Drescher appeared in the US version of the Australian improvisational comedy series Thank God You're Here.

Drescher will make a return to television with her own daytime talk show to begin airing November 26, the day after Thanksgiving. Filmed live before a studio audience, Drescher plans to discuss topics ranging from pedicures to politics and everything in between.

In January 1985, two armed robbers broke into Drescher's and Jacobson's Los Angeles apartment. While one ransacked their home, the other raped Drescher and a girl friend at gunpoint. Jacobson was also physically attacked, tied up, and forced to witness the entire ordeal. It took Drescher many years to recover, and it took her even longer to admit this to the press. She was paraphrased as saying in an interview with Larry King that although it was a traumatic experience, she found ways to turn it into something positive. In her book Cancer Schmancer, the actress writes: "My whole life has been about changing negatives into positives." She saw her rapist, who was on parole at the time of the crime, returned to prison, sentenced to two life sentences.

After separating in 1996, Drescher and Jacobson divorced in 1999. They did not have any children stating "I would have been able to conceive but not hold on". She later dated a man sixteen years her junior.

Cancer battle

After two years of symptoms and misdiagnosis by eight doctors, Drescher was admitted to Los Angeles's Cedars Sinai Hospital on June 21, 2000, after doctors diagnosed her with uterine cancer. She had to undergo an immediate radical hysterectomy to treat the disease. Since then, Drescher was given a clean bill of health and no post-operative treatment has been ordered.

She wrote about her experiences in her second book, Cancer Schmancer. Her purpose for this book was to raise consciousness for men and women "to become more aware of the early warning signs of cancer, and to empower themselves." Drescher says, "I was going to learn what I needed to learn, ask questions, become partner with my doctor instead of having some kind of parent/child relationship."

Cancer Schmancer Movement

On June 21, 2007, the seventh anniversary of her operation, Drescher announced the national launch of the Cancer Schmancer Movement, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all women's cancers be diagnosed while in Stage 1, the most curable stage. She celebrated her tenth year of wellness on June 21, 2010.

Fran says: Her goal is to live in a time when women's mortality rates drop as their healthcare improves and early cancer detection increases. More information can be found on her website at cancerschmancer.org.

Her efforts as an outspoken healthcare advocate in Washington DC helped get unanimous passage for (also known as Johanna's Law) and she is acknowledged in the Congressional Record.

Politics

In September 2008, Drescher, a Democrat, was appointed as a U.S. diplomat by the U.S. State Department. Her official title is Public Diplomacy Envoy for Women's Health Issues. By traveling throughout the world, she will support U.S. public diplomacy efforts, including working with health organizations and women's groups to raise awareness of women’s health issues, cancer awareness and detection, and patient empowerment and advocacy. Her first trip was in late September and included stops in Romania, Hungary, Kosovo and Poland.

In 2008, Drescher supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. She attended a Super Democrat rally for Clinton. Drescher claimed to have been considering a run for Congress in 2008 to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed by New York State's Governor David Paterson to succeed Clinton after Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State.

On September 28, 2009, she released a single entitled "Eye for an Eye".

Drescher has been the recipient of the John Wayne Institute’s Woman of Achievement Award, the Gilda Award, the City of Hope Woman of the Year Award, the Hebrew University Humanitarian Award, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Spirit of Achievement Award.

Most recently she was honored with the City of Hope Spirit of Life Award, which was presented to her by Senator Hillary Clinton.

On April 10, 2010, she was guest of honor at the "Dancer against Cancer" charity ball held at the Imperial Palace, Vienna, Austria, where she received the first "MyAid Award" for her achievements in support of cancer prevention and rehabilitation.

• Film
• Saturday Night Fever (1977) as Connie
• American Hot Wax (1978) as Sheryl
• The Hollywood Knights (1980) as Sally
• Gorp (1980) as Evie
• Ragtime (1981) as Mameh
• Doctor Detroit (1983) as Karen Blittstein
• This is Spinal Tap (1984) as Bobbi Flekman
• The Rosebud Beach Hotel (1984) as Linda
• The Big Picture (1989) as Polo Habel
• UHF (1989) as Pamela Finklestein
• Wedding Band (1990) as Veronica
• Cadillac Man (1990) as Joy Munchack
• We're Talking Serious Money (1992) as Valerie
• Car 54, Where Are You? (1994) as Velma Valour
• Jack (1996) as Dolores "D.D." Durante
• The Beautician and the Beast (1997) as Joy Miller (also executive producer)
• Kid Quick (2000) (short subject) as Kerrie
• Picking Up the Pieces (2000) as Sister Frida
• Beautiful Girl (2003) as Amanda Wasserman
• Santa's Slay (2005) as Virginia Mason
• Shark Bait (2007) as Pearl

• Television
• Summer Of Fear aka "Stranger In Our House" (1978) as Carolyn Baker
• Fame (1 episode, Metamorphosis) (1982) as Rhonda
• Who's the Boss (1 episode, "The Heiress") (1985) as an Interior Decorator.
• Charmed Lives (1986) (canceled after 4 months) as Joyce Columbus
• Night Court (1986) (1 episode) as Miriam Brody
• Rock 'n' Roll Mom (1988) as Jody Levin
• What's Alan Watching? (1989)
• Love and Betrayal (1989) as Germaine
• Princesses (1991) (canceled after 7 episodes) as Melissa Kirshner
• Terror in the Towers (1993) as Rosemarie Russo
• The Nanny as Fran Fine ,Main Role, Bobbi Fleckman (1 episode), Herself (1 episode), 30 year old Sylvia Fine (2 episodes), Writer (8 episodes),executive producer (1 episode),Director (Call Me Fran 1998)(1993-1999)
• Oy to the World (1995) (voice)
• Strong Medicine as Irene Slater (1 episode, 'Cinderella in Scrubs' ,2004),Director ('Like Cures Like', 2004)
• A Nosh to Remember as herself (Hosted by herself and her mother Sylvia Drescher) (2004)
• Living with Fran as Fran Reeves and also executive producer (2005-2006)
• What I Like About You as her Living with Fran character, Fran Reeves (1 episode, Girls Gone Wild) (2005)
• The Simpsons (1 episode, Treehouse of Horror XVII) (2006) as The Female Golem
• Criminal Intent (1 episode, The War At Home (2006) as Elaine Dockerty
• Thank God You're Here (US version) (2007) as Herself/Ms. Bumblebee
• Entourage (2008) as Mrs. Levine
• The Wendy Williams Show (1 episode) as herself (2010)
• Glenn Martin, DDS Guest Appearance (2010)]
• The Fran Drescher Tawk Show (2010) as Herself (Host)