Iris Bahr

Iris Bahr is an American actress, comedian, director, writer, author, producer public speaking, and performance coach. She is best known for her recurring role as Rachel Heineman on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Perla on Hacks, her solo show DAI (enough), and her TV series Svetlana, which she wrote, directed, starred in and produced with Mark Cuban. She is the author of three published books, Dork Whore, Machu my Picchu and Book of Leon which she co-wrote with J. B. Smoove.

Bahr was born in the Bronx, New York. At around twelve years old, her parents divorced and she moved to Israel with her mother. She served in the IDF for two years and held the rank of sergeant. ^[3] As a young woman, she traveled throughout Southeast Asia and South America.^[4] She chronicles her adventures in her two memoirs, Dork Whore and Machu My Picchu. Both have been translated into several languages. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University, where she studied neuropsychology and religious studies.^[4] Bahr did neuroscience and cancer research at Stanford University and Tel Aviv University.^{[1] [5]}

Bahr guest starred on a variety of television shows, including guest appearances on "Hacks", "The Conners", Good Girls, Losing Alice, 9-1-1, Strong Medicine, The Drew Carey Show, Friends, and The King of Queens, as well as recurring character Rachel Heineman on Curb Your Enthusiasm, appearing in four episodes, including the finale.

In 2006, Bahr appeared in her first movie lead role in playing Amy Butlin in Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector alongside Larry the Cable Guy. In May 2006 she had a supporting role as Leonard Hofstadter's co worker in the unaired pilot of The Big Bang Theory.

In November 2006, she opened her one woman show Dai (Enough) at the Culture Project in New York City.^[6] Bahr received the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Performance for Dai, which also earned 2 Drama Desk Award nominations for Best Solo show and Best Sound Design. She also received a UK Stage Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance. Bahr was invited to perform Dai at the United Nations for over 100 ambassadors and delegates. She premiered her third solo show, I Lost You There at the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC in 2017. Her fourth solo show, a sequel to DAI, entitled DAI 2.0, was slated to open in NYC in April 2020 but was canceled due to Covid. She reimagined the show for streaming and premiered the show to a live audience online in December 2020. Her fifth solo show, "See You Tomorrow" was nominated for the 2024 Helen Hayes Award and premiered in Washington DC. It is slated to run in Toronto in July 2024. Her sixth solo show, "Stories from the Brink" premiered in Montreal in June 2024 and won the Frankie Storytelling Award.

In 2007, Bahr was a part of the film Poughkeepsie Tapes. In this she plays an interviewed news broadcaster.^[7]

She moved to Los Angeles after a city truck injured her when it collided with her bicycle on Great Jones Street in New York.^[2]

Bahr's memoir entitled Dork Whore was published in 2007, and was translated into German, Italian and Portuguese. It became a bestseller in Germany. The sequel, Macchu My Picchu chronicles her travels through South America. She co-wrote Book of Leon, which came out in 2018, with comic JB Smoove.

Bahr did voice acting work for the Star Trek computer games Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force, Star Trek: Elite Force II and Star Trek: Away Team, released in 2000, 2003 and 2001 respectively. She followed this up with an appearance on the last episode of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame" in 2001. She also voiced the character of Madeline Taylor in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix (2002).

Bahr also had a weekly commentary on NPR's Los Angeles affiliate KCRW entitled "Social Studies",^[8] featuring one of her characters - Svetlana, Russian lady of the night and proprietor of the "St. Petersburg House of Discreet Pleasure."^[9][10] Svetlana was also a recurring guest on The Marc Maron Show, and has done regular pieces for Kurt Andersen's show on WNYC's Studio 360.^[11] She is the host of the X-RAE podcast as her alter ego Rae Lynn Caspar White, a "Southern Intellectual, professional baby surrogate and sexpert". Her guests have included Lawrence O'Donnell, Doug Liman, author Roddy Doyle, Andie MacDowell, neuroscientists, academics and various comedians and artists. In 2023 she launched "The Near Death" podcast sharing both her own near death experiences and her guests.

• Bahr, Iris (2009). DAI : (enough): a play (1st ed.). Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810126435. LCCN 2009024606.
• Bahr, Iris (2007). Dork whore: my travels through Asia as a twenty-year-old pseudo-virgin (1st U.S. ed.). New York, New York: Bloomsbury, Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers. ISBN 9781596912342. LCCN 2006018506.
• Bahr, Iris (2011). Machu my Picchu: searching for sex, sanity and a soul mate in South America. maps by Piper Verlag. Guilford, Connecticut: Skirt!. ISBN 9780762772773. LCCN 2011024307.

• Iris Bahr's official website
• Iris Bahr's official podcast website
• Iris Bahr at IMDb
• New York Times feature article on Iris Bahr
• Svetlana website for TV series