Quick Facts
Biography
Betty Aberlin (born December 30, 1942) is an American actress, poet, and writer. She is best known as "Lady Aberlin" on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Employment
Born Betty Kay Ageloff in New York City, Aberlin had a regular role as "Lady Aberlin" on the children's television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. She also appeared on The Smothers Brothers Show (1975) and various TV spots. For a short period of time, using the name Betty Aberlin, she volunteered to do a late night radio on WYEP-FM in Pittsburgh. The program featuring jazz and some spoken arts/poetry. The radio station was (and still is) a non-commercial, community supported station for progressive music, arts and public affairs. Later in her career, she formed a friendship with Kevin Smith and became a frequent collaborator, appearing in Dogma, Jersey Girl, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Red State. She had a supporting role as "Cheryl" in the Joseph Papp production of Cryer & Ford's "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road" at The New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theatre in New York.
Works
As a contributor to the literary website "Fresh Yarn," Aberlin's essay, The Blonding of America, was published in 2005. She has also published a collection of poems, The White Pages Poems, as a companion to A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul, an 1880 collection of poems by George MacDonald.
In popular culture
Musician Jonathan Coulton wrote the song "Lady Aberlin's Muumuu" about Aberlin's Mister Rogers character.