Saturday Night Live

Dunn joined SNL in 1985 with the return of Lorne Michaels as executive producer. The 1985–1986 season proved to be a ratings disaster, and she was one of only five cast members who was not fired at its end (the others were newcomers Jon Lovitz, A. Whitney Brown, Dennis Miller and longtime featured player Al Franken).

Dunn's characters included half of "The Sweeney Sisters" lounge act alongside Jan Hooks, as well as talk show host Pat Stevens (which became a popular recurring role starting in the low-rated 1985–1986 season), melodramatic French hooker Babette, and film buff Ashley Ashley from the "Actors on Film" sketch from the 1985–1986 season. Her impressions included Ann Landers, Imelda Marcos, Liza Minnelli, Tyne Daly, Joan Baez, Martina Navratilova, and Cokie Roberts.

Dunn made headlines in 1990 when she, along with original musical guest Sinéad O'Connor, boycotted an episode that was hosted by comedian Andrew Dice Clay because they found his misogynistic humor offensive. Looking back on the incident ahead of SNL's 40th anniversary, she explained, "Lorne said, 'Andrew Dice Clay was a phenomenon worth examining.' And yeah, he was a phenomenon, but if you’re going to examine him, he shouldn’t be the host, you should write an article. We didn’t examine the hosts of "SNL." We supported them, we wrote for them, and we made them look good. Otherwise you’d never get a host. You’re there to make them look good […] My objection to Andrew Dice Clay was that his character was only about one thing: abusing women and laughing about abusing women. There was nothing else behind it. There was nothing else about it except to make him look harmless."^[3]

Other work

Dunn appeared in recurring roles on Sisters from 1993–1996 and The Nanny from 1998–1999, as well as a guest-starring role in a two-part episode of The X-Files in 1998. In the 8th episode of the 9th season of crime procedural drama Bones, she played author Tess Brown, a feuding rival of protagonist Temperance Brennan. In 2015 she appeared in the fourth season of New Girl. In 2009, Dunn played the sister-in-law of Frank Reynolds in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Her film work includes Working Girl (1988), How I Got into College (1989), Miami Blues (1990), I Love Trouble (1994), Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1994), the Last Supper (1995), Three Kings (1999), What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001), Zoolander (2001), Max Keeble's Big Move (2001), Bruce Almighty (2003), Runaway Jury (2003), The Hebrew Hammer (2003), Love for Rent (2005), Pineapple Express (2008), My Suicide (2009), LOL (2012), Entourage (2015) and The Lost Husband (2020).

In 2014, Dunn began appearing in a series of commercials for Clorox. She has also been a storytelling contributor to Chicago's Under the Gun Theater.^[4]

Television

Film