Phil Rosenthal has become a food-tasting icon in recent years, thanks to Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil.
However, the chef is best known as the creator, writer, and executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond.
He collaborated on the series’ 21 episodes with co-producer and main character Ray Romano.
Rosenthal and his wife, Monica Horan, met almost ten years before the hit comedy series premiered in 1996.
Horan is an actress best known for her role as Amy MacDougall-Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, the on-again, off-again girlfriend of Robert Barone, played by Brad Garrett.
Rosenthal had seen a play in which his wife had starred and was enthralled by her flawlessness.
The producer happened to run into Horan and told her he was a big fan of hers.
“We ran into each other, and he said to me, ‘I’m a big fan of yours. Hello!.’ “I actually told him, ‘I’m a big fan of yours, too,'” the actress revealed to Jewish Exponent.
But the actress had never seen any of his works and only said that out of surprise.
The Storyline of Phil Rosenthal and His Wife on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’
The two joined the same comedy troupe after discovering that they were both theater majors at Hofstra University.
The couple married in April 1990, but not before Horan converted to Judaism.
They worked on Everybody Loves Raymond after their marriage and based the show on their own marital experiences.
The majority of the plots involving the show’s titular characters, Raymond and Debra (Patricia Heaton), were inspired by the couple’s own life.
Rosenthal told People in 2002 that he and his wife fought over a can opener.
“I spilled the tuna everywhere and got angry, and things were said,” the show’s creator explained.
This incident was incorporated into the series, resulting in one of Romano’s most memorable gaffes when he asked Debra, “Why am I making tuna fish when I just got home from work?”
Debra PMS-ed in another episode titled ‘Bad Moon Rising,’ which was inspired by real-life conversations between Rosenthal and Horan.
Romano and Rosenthal received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for that episode.
Ray and Debra frequently quarrelled in the show, but it was therapeutic for Rosenthal and Horan because it gave them something to bond over.
Children of Phil Rosenthal
Rosenthal and his wife have two children: Ben Rosenthal, a son, and Lilly Rosenthal, a daughter.
Lily, like her father, enjoys food, which inspired her charity project.
She and her friend Olivia Sui founded ‘Liv a Lil’ in September 2021 to bring different restaurants together for charitable collaborations.
The “Jewish-Chinese Alliance chicken sandwich” was also created by the duo, which combined Asian fried chicken from Luther Bob’s with Jewish challah bread and a side of mini latkes.
Aside from that, little is known about Rosenthal’s family.
A quick scroll through Lilly and Ben’s Instagram shows they adore their parents.
Whether it’s Rosenthal and his wife’s birthdays, anniversaries, or special occasions like Mother’s/Day, Father’s his children never fail to acknowledge them on Instagram.
Rosenthal, too, paid tribute to his late father, Max Rosenthal, on Instagram on Father’s Day, June 20, 2021.
The producer stated that he and his brother were the luckiest fathers because of their father, who taught them how to be one.
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