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Melissa McCarthy (born August 26, 1970, Plainfield, Illinois) is an actress and comedian who portrayed Abby Yates in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), playing one of the four central Ghostbusters and the character who drives much of the team's formation.
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McCarthy plays Abby Yates in the 2016 film, a paranormal researcher and co-author of the study of the paranormal who recruits her former colleague Erin Gilbert back into ghost-hunting. The character is the organizational heart of the new Ghostbusters operation.
McCarthy is also acknowledged by name on page 215 of the in-universe tie-in book "Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal" (Three Rivers Press), in the acknowledgment section alongside the rest of the principal cast.
A recurring in-film joke has Abby admitting she has always been attracted to husky men in hats. The line is a deliberate nod to McCarthy's television series "Mike and Molly," in which her character Molly was married to Mike, a husky police officer. During the climactic Times Square battle sequence, Abby is dropped onto a car that is a Rambler, the same make of car McCarthy's character drove in the 2013 film "The Heat."
Stunt performer Luci Romberg served as McCarthy's stunt double on the film. Romberg confirmed the role on July 31, 2015; it was her fourth time doubling for McCarthy. On July 15, 2016, Romberg posted a photograph of herself and McCarthy performing splits together on the Times Square set during production.
In a separate casting note, the role that ultimately became Patty Tolan, played by Leslie Jones, was originally conceived with McCarthy in mind. Director Paul Feig's surname choice for that character, Tolan, was a deliberate nod to McCarthy's Irish heritage.
McCarthy has had a wide-ranging career in film and television before and alongside her Ghostbusters work. Selected credits include:
Earlier in her career she worked in television production, including as a production coordinator on "The Weird Al Show" (1997, two episodes) and as an actress in one episode of "The Jenny McCarthy Show" (1997).
