Upon moving to the Los Angeles area, Garofalo met actor/comedian Ben_Stiller, who in 1992 invited her to join the cast of his short-lived but acclaimed Fox television sketch comedy program The Ben Stiller Show. A stint on Garry Shandling’s breakthrough HBO series The Larry Sanders Show (for which she was nominated for an Emmy award in 1996) soon followed, and in 1994 Garofalo reunited with Stiller in the film comedy Reality Bites, a role which earned her the much-despised tag of ‘Generation X comedian.’
After signing on as a correspondent on Michael Moore’s news magazine TV Nation and hosting Comedy Product, a standup showcase on the Comedy Central cable network, Garofalo began work on her breakthrough role, co-starring with Uma Thurman in the 1996 romantic comedy hit The Truth About Cats and Dogs. That same year, she also co-starred with Bill Murray in Larger Than Life, and appeared briefly in The Cable Guy and Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. Garofalo’s prolific output continued in 1997; in addition to starring roles in two comedies, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion and The Matchmaker, she was featured prominently in James Mangold’s Cop Land and Paul Schrader’s Touch, she hosted the MTV series Indie Outing, and she remained a fixture of the emerging alternative comedy circuit.
In 1998, Garofalo’s career continued to thrive, with starring and supporting roles in a number of films. Some of her more notable work included Clay Pigeons, a black comedy with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix; Permanent Midnight, which marked another collaboration with Stiller; and the animated Kiki’s Delivery Service, which featured Garofalo as the voice of a new age artist, and mystic. She also acted against type as one half of a revoltingly cheerful couple in Bruce McCulloch’s comedy Dog Park.
