Don’t let the sweet smile and wholesome, inoffensive looks fool you: Amy Sedaris is an adroit comedienne who specialized in skewering societal conventions and revealing the dysfunctional manias that lie beneath the mannered fronts people present. A Second City alum, Sedaris first came to the public’s attention in 1995 as a writer, performer and co-creator of the Comedy Central sketch comedy series “Exit 57,” which also featured the writing of her older brother, acclaimed author David Sedaris. After parts on Broadway and a few film appearances, Sedaris snared her breakthrough role as the clueless-but-earnest Jerri Blank—a 46-year-old runaway, ex-con, former drug addict and alcoholic prostitute who returns to her parents’ house and attends high school as a freshman and draws all the wrong conclusions from the weekly life lessons she learns—on Comedy Central’s “Strangers With Candy” in 1999, a parody of afterschool specials which she also co-wrote and co-created. From there the actress laid claim to showy and memorable guest stints on popular TV series such as “Just Shoot Me” and “Sex and the City” before graduating to big screen supporting roles. In 2002 she had an antic turn as wealthy hotel visitor in the Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy “Maid In Manhattan.”