What started out as an audition like any other has led to more than 20 finished spots (watch them here), which she says can take more than a day to film. With her retro style and super sweet demeanor, Flo has caught the eye of bloggers who have said she’s “so goshdarned perky she makes Kelly Ripa look like Amy Winehouse” and called her a “babelicious brunette” with “kissable red, red lips.”

“I realized when people starting sending me pictures of them dressed up as Flo for Halloween,” Courtney says of her character’s surprise appeal. (In case you’re considering a Flo costume this year, her advice is to “keep powdering and you’ve got to keep applying the lipstick,” she says. “You have to do it every five minutes or else it’s gone.”)

The actress, who is a main stage cast member of Los Angeles’s acclaimed Groundlings theatre company, spoke with PEOPLE about her alter ego, playing a switchboard operator on Mad Men, falling for the lighting director at her job and more.

1. She’s not like her character, Flo.
Transforming into the perky insurance expert is no small task for Courtney, who says she barely gets recognized in public. “They don’t use any tricks or anything,” Courtney says of Flo’s big hair. “That’s all [the stylist] teasing it and shaping it and spraying it. That’s like one hour in her chair. And then the makeup is like another hour.” Instead of Flo’s thick eye makeup and bright red lipstick, Courtney says she’s more of a J.Crew kind of girl when it comes to her personal style. “I’m sort of East Coast so I like the off-white and the navy blues and the low-key preppy kind of thing,” she says.

2. She always wanted to be an actor.
Courtney grew up in Stony Point, N.Y., where she started doing plays “every year since the first grade,” she says. “I just loved it. Even if I wasn’t due for rehearsal that day, I’d just sit and watch. It just didn’t feel like work to me.” After some “hard going” in New York City, where she did mostly free theatre, Courtney decided to move to L.A. when her now-manager discovered her six months after giving stand-up comedy a try.

3. She played a switchboard operator on Mad Men.
“The amount of work in L.A. as opposed to New York just kind of blew my mind,” Courtney says of her decision to relocate. Since then, she’s appeared in movies and on TV shows, including three of her favorites: HBO’s canceled comedy The Comeback, Adult Swim favorite Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job and Mad Men. “It was just magical. I love that era,” she says of playing switchboard operator Marge on the AMC hit. “I absolutely jumped on that opportunity. It’s so much fun. It’s smoky, ’50s debauchery. It’s just wonderful.”

4. She married the lighting director.
After moving to L.A., Courtney started at The Groundlings, a sketch comedy and improv theatre company that counts Cheryl Hines, Kristen Wiig, Jennifer Coolidge, Will Forte, Will Ferrell, Kathy Griffin and Lisa Kudrow as alumni. It was there that she met her husband Scott Kolanach, who is a lighting director for the theatre. “Every crazy old lady character I ever walked out as on that stage had beautiful, peachy gem lighting because he liked me,” she says.

5. She admires Steve Carrel and Amy Adams.
“I love how [Carrel] can marry absolute humanity and hilarity. He can walk that tightrope. He pulls it off,” she says. “Amy Adams has the same thing where she’s skirting the edge. It’s amazing. She’s bigger than life but it’s very grounded. It’s really heartwarming. These guys take risks I think that are really cool.”

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While the ads might have some diving for the remote, we like that Flo is a throwback to the days of friendly commercial mascots like the Maytag repairman. (Her retro-geek chic style brings back fond memories of Burger King’s “Herb the Nerd.”)

We spoke to actress Stephanie Courtney about how she came to portray Flo, her own new-found fame, and which bespectacled spokesperson she finds “crushable.”

A regular on the Los Angeles improv scene where she’s a member of the Groundlings theater, Stephanie appeared on the first season of “Mad Men,” (“I’m sort of living in the ’50s and ’60s a little bit,” the actress says) and starred in the hilarious Bob Odenkirk–directed film “Melvin Goes to Dinner.”

She also turned up on the short-lived Geico “Cavemen” sitcom (but we won’t hold that against her).

Stephanie tells us that Flo was created to be a sort of “friendly waitress” face for the Progressive brand. Her background in improv comedy helped her nail the perky, friendly vibe the company was looking for. As for the look, the ad agency wanted a “retro-futuristic ‘Jetsons’ sort of thing” that helped Stephanie perfect the character. “Once you’re in that makeup and outfit, you’re sort of there,” she says.

While Flo has quite the online fanbase, Stephanie enjoys her anonymity. The actress says she only gets recognized “maybe once a month or so,” adding that it’s “always when I’m in no makeup, hair in a ponytail, chasing after my nephew. That’s when someone will be like ‘Aren’t you …’”

We’ve often wondered about the white, gleaming world Flo exists in. Where is this magical land where insurance comes in cardboard boxes? And could it actually be in the same world as the Mac and PC guys? Think about crossover potential. “We could all play poker together in the break room,” Stephanie laughed. What does she think about Flo and PC having a little flirtation? “Both [Mac and PC] are extremely crushable.” Did someone say spin-off?

Flo fans will want to look for Stephanie in an upcoming episode of “Sons of Tucson” and in new Progressive ads coming soon. She’ll also be appearing in the movie “Fred,” playing the “awful mother of a bully.” But it’s her weekly show at the Groundlings theater that keeps the real-life Flo, well, grounded. “Whatever happens in this crazy business, I get to go there and play with my friends onstage.”

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When it comes to great characters from famous television commercials, the most memorable appear no more: 1997 Taco Bell’s talking Chihuahua (“¡Yo Quiero Taco Bell!”); 1989 LiteCall’s Mrs. Fletcher (“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”); and 1984 Wendy’s Clara Peller (“Where’s the beef?”).

She’s a bundle of energetic contradictions, bursting here, retracting there. Her expressions blink and change like a neon sign. Her eyes are popping globes. And she just sold you a bunch of car insurance.

She’s the one who makes viewers either want to befriend her, date her or buy her insurance. She may be the most animated real-life character on television since Lucy.

Flo is her name. She’s the spokeswoman for Progressive Auto Insurance, lighting up televisions in a series of commercials in which her perky cashier pitches the money-saving merits of Progressive to customers.

However, the actress who plays Flo has her own name: Stephanie Courtney of Stoney Point, NY.

Stephanie Courtney, an actress, stand-up comic and member of acclaimed improvisational group, The Groundlings, has made Flo famous worldwide. This makes worthwhile the two hours she spends in fat, upholstered chairs in the studio’s make-up and hair department, morphing into Flo. That big-hair bubble do of the ’60s, flame-red lipstick, and banjo-eyed enthusiasm, leave the viewer wishing to immediately hook onto another Progressive Flo commercial; they’re as addictive as chain smoking, only without the cigarette.

Stephanie also has recurring roles as one of the receptionists on AMC’s hit Mad Men; Showtime’s The United States of Tara; and as cousin Gayla in the movie The Heartbreak Kid.

“It’s so weird,” says Stephanie Courtney, the actress who plays Flo.

Stephanie Courtney, 38, has been playing Flo for about a year, and was recently signed to do 12 more Progressive ads. Which makes her the face and voice of Progressive, a peer of the Geico gecko (do they ever hang out, compare rates?) and the Verizon guy. She follows in a heady tradition of corporate mascots, from Palmolive’s Madge to Tony the Tiger.

It began with a simple audition for a commercial last fall. She showed up in a polo shirt and ponytail. She did some improvisation.

“They wanted someone with a lot of personality,” Stephanie says by phone from her Los Angeles home.

They liked her and signed her. Then, the look. That look.
They cut her hair, gave her bangs. They subjected her to two hours of hair and make-up.
“They tease my hair, spray it and stick the headband in it,” Courtney explains.
“And the makeup is like painting a portrait on my face,” she says, laughing. “It’s insane. It totally changes things on my face. It’s like having a mask on.”

Courtney has popped up in the movies “The Heartbreak Kid” and “Blades of Glory,” and was one of four leads in the smart adult comedy “Melvin Goes to Dinner,” which won the audience award at South by Southwest in 2003. She also has a recurring role as a gossipy switchboard operator on the hit show “Mad Men.” And you can see her doing yoga in a new Glade commercial.

“It’s me at my silliest,” she says. “You start off with a script, but at the end they usually let me put a little zinger in there. We put a little mustard on it. That’s when it gets fun.

Though Courtney is engaged to a sixth-grade teacher, Flo appears alluringly single. So pine away, in the same brunette-crush way you did with Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island” and Velma on “Scooby-Doo.”

Too bad guys. You had to be told sooner or later.

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Stephanie Courtney as Flo for Progressive Insurance is the hottest girl in commercials today, with advertisement spots that are making guys go crazy.

Local press sat down recently with Courtney whom they describe as the following:

“bubbly and beaming, high-volume, with a flip of dark hair and a face like a lollipop. She irks as she endears, bemuses as she bewitches. She’s a bundle of energetic contradictions, bursting here, retracting there. Her expressions blink and change like a neon sign. Her eyes are popping globes. And she just sold you a bunch of car insurance.”

She recently spoke to the Houston Press in an article called “The Cult of the Progressive Car Insurance Chick”. That article said of Courtney:

“Am I the only one completely and totally enamored of the woman in the television ads for Progressive car insurance? You know, the ones starring that babelicious brunette named Flo with her ‘tricked-out name tag’ and her ’60s style eye makeup and her kissable red, red lips?”

“It’s so weird,” says Stephanie Courtney.

Courtney is 38 and has had the role of Flor for one year. Now because of the cult following she has been signed for 1 more year. Stephanie Courtney is a former member of Los Angeles’ Groundlings.

She says it takes 2 hours to transform her for the commercials. “And the makeup is like painting a portrait on my face.”

She is best known for playing the advertising character Flo for Progressive Insurance and is noted for her recurring roles on several television shows including: the voices of Renee the Receptionist and Joy Peters on the Adult Swim comedy Tom Goes to the Mayor (2004-2006); Marge on the AMC drama Mad Men (2007); and Diane on the ABC comedy Cavemen (2007). Courtney is a senior member of The Groundlings improvisational theater in Los Angeles, California.

Courtney was born in Stony Point, New York. She graduated from Binghamton University in 1992.

In 2003, Courtney won the Copper Wing award at the Phoenix Film Festival with the ensemble cast for the comedy Melvin Goes to Dinner. She has also appeared in television commercials, such as Skittles (2008), Wienerschnitzel (2005), SC Johnson Glade products, and as the cashier Flo for Progressive Auto Insurance (2008-2010).

Courtney also appeared in the film The Heartbreak Kid as cousin Gayla, and in season 1, episode 2 of The United States of Tara on Showtime. She also appeared in the film Blades of Glory as the ESPN2 reporter.

In 2008, she married Scott Kolanach, the lighting director at The Groundlings Theatre.

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