And, perhaps most memorably, on Seinfeld, she was the NYU journalist who unwittingly outed Jerry and George. "Not," as Jerry said repeatedly in the episode, "that there's anything wrong with that."
"I don't hear about Seinfeld much anymore, but I sure used to," Marshall says, rolling her eyes and laughing. "Everybody knows that catchphrase. But you know, when someone remembers your name, it's amazing. Either they've got great memories, or they really had a crush on you. Either one's OK by me."
Lots of Rockville guys probably had a crush on Paula Marshall, Robert E. Peary High School, Class of '82. "I think I was a pretty normal kid," she says. "I wasn't the prom queen, but I wasn't a freak, either. I was the captain of the pompom squad, but not the cheerleading squad. There's a difference. The Peary Poms were the best in the state."
Despite such an early turn in the spotlight, Marshall never saw herself as an actor. Neither of her parents was into performing: Dad Jim worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital, while mom Betty was a hairdresser in D.C. And the only thing young Paula was really into was photography.
But a chance encounter at a mall fashion show - she was in the audience - sent 18-year-old Paula to a Georgetown modeling agency. Print-ad jobs soon followed.
"I think my mom thought, when I moved to New York City ... I was going to be a prostitute," Marshall says.
But no, what Betty Marshall's daughter had in mind was becoming an actress. She enrolled in classes, continued modeling on the side - "Modeling was my waitressing job, getting $300 an hour to stand in my underwear" - and waited for her big break. She'd head to Los Angeles for pilot season, audition for everything, even land a job or two, then return to New York with little to show for it.
"Finally, I was 25, and my agent said, 'Paula, why don't you just move there? Why don't you just live in L.A.?' And I immediately started getting jobs. Seinfeld was one of my first."
Before Gary Unmarried, her favorite gig was on Cupid, where she co-starred with Jeremy Piven. The hourlong series followed a man (Piven) who insisted he was really the god of love, and the psychiatrist (Marshall) who tries convincing him he isn't, with little success. The series had charm and wit, not to mention nice chemistry between its co-stars, and seemed on the verge of becoming a hit when it was yanked from ABC's schedule.
