If you do not recall the name, you will probably recognize the face. For nine years, Mimi Bobeck, the character played by Kathy Kinney, was Drew’s clown-like nemesis on “The Drew Carey Show”. This popular series reached its end years ago, but at a time, you would not be able to turn on TNT or TBS in the afternoon and not hear the voice of Mimi or see her big blue eyeshadow. The question we will answer in this article is where has Kinney been since “The Drew Carey Show” ended?
Queen of her own life
Since she left “The Drew Carey Show”, Kinney has made her own lifestyle brand for women between 40 and death, as she called it herself. As you can see, this is a wide range of target audience, but she has been successful and amassed a considerable fan base. Alongside her best friend and the former marketing executive Cindy Ratzlaff, she established Queen of Your Own Life, which is a blog and a Facebook community. They deal with daily inspirations and reflections that they share to their fans. The Facebook page has more than 337 thousand likes, proving Kinney is far away from her Mimi Bobeck.
During a February 2013 interview on Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio, she said: “We have so many women following us. It’s a thrilling, wonderful way for us to start the day by going there and saying howdy-do.”
Mrs. P’s Magic Library
Mimi Bobeck was the queen of mean in the show, but Kinney herself is capable of playing a motherly sweetheart as well. Together with her former “Drew Carey Show” producer Clay Graham, she launched Mrs. P’s Magic Library. This is an online home for classic children stories, brought to life by Kinney’s new character, Mrs. P. This is a valuable resource for both teachers and parents to use with the kids. The website intends to show young children the joy of reading and how it is beneficial.
“We spend all our own money on it. We’ve never had any advertising and we probably never will. We just really wanted to be able to give back some of the joy that we’d had of reading when we were children.”
She was successful in gaining an audience, as well, and the Los Angeles Times praised it, calling Mrs. P’s programming “a welcome departure from almost any other video entertainment available to kids.” Her amazing website hosts contests collaborates with schools and also features classic stories to stream. It is all read in-character by Kinney, and they are free to check out.
The price is not quite right
Although Drew Carey left his show for “The Price is Right” in 2007, for April Fools’ Day in 2009 and 2010, Kinney showed up in her full character makeup as Mimi. She seemed like she had not aged a single day since then. In 2010, Drew’s nemesis came to the CBS game show as the new executive producer of the series, a member of the television royalty in a cheetah chair.
“CBS hired me to be the executive producer and I’m gonna whip this place into shape.” For the rest of this episode, she lingered in the back and took part in the games. She was even Drew’s tormentor. But people come to “The Price is Right” for a payday after all, and not even Mimi could disrupt that part of the show.
Acting in a lower key
Since “The Drew Carey Show” ended, Mimi Bobeck mostly left the world of show business behind. She did return for smaller parts over the years though. Most recently, she was in the 5th of ABC Family sitcom, titled “Baby Daddy”.
Before this, she gelds a recurring role on “Secret Life of the American Teenager” on the same television, where she appeared in 33 episodes of the series as a butcher shop manager called Bunny. She also had a part as a fun cameo on “My Name is Earl”, where she played a cop on cops who come to Earl’s house to investigate. Off the camera, she gave her voice in two episodes of “The Penguins of Madagascar” to an obnoxious and flatulent walrus Rhonda.
Improv with Drew Carey and Friends
Like almost anyone else from “Drew Carey”, she did “Whose Line is it Anyway?” improv comedy. Drew hosted this show in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and it saw quick-witted comedians and actors in what was a set of fast-paced games of improvised humor. After Drew left this show, he took it to Las Vegas where Kinney joined it for a few live performances, televised shows, and also DVD appearances. Kinney is not an improve comedian by nature, but she was happy and ready to shake off her famous Mimi persona and show everyone what else she can do. She once said that she could have “played Mimi until the day I died,” it was awesome to see her reach beyond her iconic role. “My God, it’s so much fun. So much fun.”
A true showbiz family
In 2009, Kinney told The Las Vegas Sun that when is together with her TV colleagues, it is a quasi-revival of both their sitcom and the improv show that came after it. “When other people have their family reunion they have hot dogs and beans and picnic stuff but we perform in Las Vegas.”
After a decade, the time has not had any effect on this comedic crew. WSAW-TV 7 asked her whether she still gets in touch with all of them, to what she said, “I do, we all live fairly close together. Of course, we’ve moved on with our lives, but we see each other maybe once or twice a year … it’s like a family reunion.”
Books galore
After “The Drew Carey Show”, Kinney took her Queen of Your Own Life brand off the internet and made it into a memoir form. She authored books about similar inspirational material as her website deals with it. Cindy Ratzlaff often co-authored them. Some of her books are “Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-Up Woman’s Guide to Claiming Happiness”, and “Getting the Life You Deserve and Queenisms: 101 Jolts of Inspiration”.
Mimi is also into merchandise now
Kinney and Ratzlaff have had lots of success with their blog and Facebook page. Eventually, they have developed quote-a-day calendars, which combine “vintage images with short motivational messages, designed to encourage you on the journey to self-discovery.” They are marketed under the Queen of Your Own Life brand, and this is the first step in what will be a real merchandise campaign.
In February 2018, the pair released an announcement about the opening of the first Queen of Your Own Life Store. “Lovely gifts for you or a friend” is the banner, and the motivational royalty now sells mugs, note cards, t-shirts, hoodies, nightgowns, and much more, and everything has a QOYOL logo on it.
Home to help out
Although the former “Drew Carey Show” star now lives in California, she has not forgotten where she came from. The actress still loves to visit her hometown, which is Stevens Point, Wisconsin. She goes there every year and many of the reasons why include charity works. In an interview with the local CBS representatives, she said the following:
“I think I’m back pretty much once a year, doing some work with the United Way, which I really enjoy. If I’m free and people invite me to come back and do something for charity, I’m there.”
In one of these charitable events that she organized, Kinney brought her character of Mrs. P to her hometown of Stevens Point for a free live show. She gave out complimentary books to every child in attendance, which is a very thoughtful thing to do for a person who is best known as a bad guy on TV!
