Biography

Actress Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett) discovered Cohn and also named her character, Natalie, on The Facts of Life (1979). Rae met Cohn after she and the show's producers noticed her entertaining a group of friends at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where they had gone to research and observe.

Member of the board of directors of weSPARK, a cancer survivor organization founded by actress Wendie Jo Sperber.

When she was on "The Facts of Life" for 9 years, the producers wouldn't let her audition for film roles, such as for St. Elmo's Fire (1985) in 1984. There was a wide gap between television and film actors at the time, until Michael J. Fox changed it when he starred in the hit film Back to the Future (1985) while simultaneously starring in the hit TV series "Family Ties". Mindy said Mare Winningham ended up getting the role in "St. Elmo's Fire" and that she did a great job in it.

Graduated from Loyola Marymount in 1995 with a degree in sociology.

Keeps in touch with her The Facts of Life (1979) co-star Kim Fields.

Right now, I'm an unemployed actor. My dream is to do eight shows a week [on stage], but I can't do that and financially take care of myself in the way I've become accustomed.

[on herself being overshadowed by her Natalie Green character]: It's a catch-22, I get the 'Where have you been? We want to see more of you' comments and I also understand from a producer's point of view, 'We don't want Natalie in our movie.'

[on her The Facts of Life (1979) co-star, who was fired after the first season]: Felice Schachter is my soul sister. Felice and I became incredibly close, very quickly, very same sensibility. She just felt like family. I think Felice got a bum deal.

Ultimately, I want people to be able to see me, that I'm an actor. Sometimes people see me with whatever label, and I've not yet been able to show what I can do. That's the exciting part. I still have the tenacity and the hunger, and my patience is going to pay off. My motto in life is 'The best is yet to come'.

[Who admitted that in one aspect she was similar to her Natalie Green character]: Anything that takes more than 20 minutes? No can do.