The foul-mouthed Bernhard is a standup comic, occasional TV actress, author, and lesbian icon. She also happens to be patient zero for Kabbalah, having hooked Madonna on all the silliness.

Bernhard was raised in Scottsdale and moved to LA at age 19, working as a manicurist to pay the bills while she pursued a standup career. Her first major movie role arrived in 1983 when she appeared in The King of Comedy with Robert De Niro and became a household name in the early '90s when she played one of the first openly gay characters on TV, Nancy Bartlett on Roseanne. Since then Bernhard has popped up on the small screen with cameos on The Sopranos, Ally McBeal, Crossing Jordan, and The L Word (natch). But she's also continued to pump out her bawdy one-woman shows, including I'm Still Here…Damn It! in the late '90s and, more recently, Everything Bad and Beautiful.

Her comedic mainstay may be the acerbic take-down of our shallow celebrity and fashion driven culture, but Sandra has always moved in pretty glamorous circles herself. Bernhard has alternately described herself as gay and bisexual over the years, and her extremely close friendship with Madonna in the 1990s raised eyebrows. The two had a falling out for reasons neither has ever explained, although it seems they've since reconciled.

Bernhard currently lives with long-time partner, Vanity Fair PR chief Sara Switzer. Bernhard has a daughter named Cicely Yasin, who was born in 1998. Bernhard has never identified the father. [Image via Getty]