What It Was Like to Be Elaine’s Roommate on ‘Seinfeld’

You’d be forgiven if you forgot that Elaine had a roommate on Seinfeld. Despite the fact that Elaine lived with Tina for at least the first third of Seinfeld’s nine seasons — when Tina moved out is unclear — she only ever appeared three times on the show. 

The first time was during the formative episode “The Deal,” where Jerry and Elaine try to work out a “friends with benefits” arrangement only to have a slew of things, including Tina, get in the way. The second was when Tina dated Kramer for an episode, driving Elaine crazy. And lastly, Tina appeared in Season Five, where it’s established that she moved out some time ago (Elaine says “four years ago,” but the dates don’t back her claim).

Despite Tina being criminally underused on Seinfeld, every time she showed up, she stole the scene, which is a credit to the actress who portrayed her: Siobhan Fallon Hogan, who also had a stint on SNL and has had memorable parts in numerous movies, including Men in Black. To Seinfeld die-hards though, she’ll always be Elaine’s awful roommate.

How did you get the part of Tina?

I was in a play called American Splendor about the underground comic book writer, Harvey Pekar. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were fans of Harvey Pekar, so they came to the show, and they were like, “Let’s have this girl audition.” I went in to play Elaine’s roommate, and I basically did an imitation of my friend who always got the guys in high school. She’d talk right in your face like a space-invader. They liked that, so I got the part.

But after a week of rehearsal, Larry David called me and said, “Siobhan, I have some bad news.” I thought I was getting fired, but he was like, “I have to cut some of your part because we have to fit everything into 22 minutes.” So the scene I was in was originally longer than it ended up being. I was just thrilled not to be fired. I told Larry, “I thought you were shit-canning me!”

That was at the beginning of Seinfeld. When I did that episode, they were actually wondering if they were going to be picked up for Season Three. They didn’t know they were going to be a massive hit when I was first on. 

Do any memories stand out from that episode?

Working with Jerry. He’s so satisfying to work with because he thinks you’re really funny. For example, the scene in the apartment, when we were acting together, he’d look to the side of my head. I was like, “Jerry, what are you doing?” He said, “I can’t look at your face because if I look at your face, I’m going to laugh.” I said, “Well, if you don’t look at my face then I’m going to laugh,” and he said, “Well, that’s on you.” 

What about your second episode when you date Kramer?

After the first one, I got cast on Saturday Night Live. Larry and Jerry wanted me to do another one, but SNL wouldn’t let me. After the season of SNL ended, I did my second Seinfeld episode, which was the African dance one with Kramer. Michael Richards came up to me and said, “Siobhan, I brought in some African music for us to rehearse together in my trailer.” I thought, “For the love of God, can’t we just run our lines?” But I was just the guest star so I figured I’d suck it up and do it. I’m glad I did because it was hysterical. He was very thorough, more method. He wanted to rehearse the African dancing, and he was totally right about that. 

It was strange that they didn’t use your character more, being that she was Elaine’s roommate.

I wish! I don’t know how they did things, but what I did was a gift to me. It was amazing to be on one of the greatest shows ever on TV. Everyone was really nice, and they all worked really hard. They were all insanely dedicated and a very professional hard-working cast. 

My only complaint was that I have a sweet tooth, and the craft services table was really healthy. I remember Jerry loved lentil soup, and I was like, “What’s going on here?”