During her nine years as the character "Rhoda", she was the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, Harvard University Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award, Hollywood Women's Press Club "Golden Apple" Award, and a Photoplay Gold Medal Award. In 2000 Valerie reprised the role of Rhoda Morgenstern (along with Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards) in the ABC television movie "Mary and Rhoda," which attracted nearly 18 million viewers. In 1987 she was seen as "Valerie Hogan" in the then-titled NBC series "Valerie" (later "The Hogan Family") and also starred in the 1990 CBS series "City" and in the 1994 CBS series "The Office." She has appeared as a special guest star on various television series: "Committed" (NBC), "Less Than Perfect" (ABC), "Sex and the City" (HBO), "Family Law" (CBS), "Three Sisters" (ABC), "That's 70s Show" (FOX), "Touched by an Angel" (CBS), "Promised Land" (CBS), "Melrose Place" (ABC), and "Missing Persons" (NBC).

Born in Suffern, New York, Valerie attended Hunter College and the New School for Social Research, both in Manhattan. Her stage career began at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, not as a Rockette but dancing in the now-discontinued Corps de Ballet. While earning her living by performing in such Broadway musicals as "Li'l Abner," "Destry Rides Again" with Andy Griffith, "Take Me Along" with Jackie Gleason, "Wildcat" with Lucille Ball and "Subways Are For Sleeping" with Orson Bean and Carol Lawrence, Valerie studied acting. Her teachers included John Cassavetes, Mary Tarcai and William Hickey. She was privileged to train with and work for Viola Spolin, the creator of Theater Games and author of "Improvisation for the Theatre." Viola's son, director Paul Sills who created and directed the famed Second City, invited Valerie to join his company of players. As time went on she performed in nightclubs (Cellar Door, Village Gate), summer stock (University of Connecticut), regional theatre (Seattle Repertory Company) and improvised and wrote radio commercials. Valerie's later Broadway credits include Carl Reiner's "Something Different," the Tony award-winning "Paul Sills' Story Theater," Sills' production of "Ovid's Metamorphoses" and in the new millennium, Charles Busch's "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife."

Valerie has starred in the feature films "Blame It On Rio" with Michael Caine, Neil Simon's "Chapter Two," "Freebie and The Bean" with Alan Arkin, and "The Last Married Couple In America" with Natalie Wood and George Segal, and as a teenager she appeared in Paramount Pictures' "Li'l Abner" and with Tuesday Weld in "Rock, Rock, Rock." She has starred in many television movies, including: "The Great American Mom Swap" with Shelly Fabares and Sid Ceasar, "Stolen One Husband" with Elliott Gould and Brenda Vaccaro, "A Friend To Die For" with Kelli Martin and Tori Spelling, "The Execution" with Jessica Walter and Sandy Dennis, "Dog's Best Friend" with John Ratzenberger, "The Day The Loving Stopped" with Dennis Weaver and Ally Sheedy, "Farrell For The People" with Ed O'Neill, "Drop Out Mother" with Wayne Rogers and Carol Kane, "Strange Voices" with Nancy McKeon, "Fun and Games" with Jo Beth Williams and Michael Nouri, "Don't Go to Sleep" with Dennis Weaver and Ruth Gordon, "An Invasion of Privacy" with Jerry Ohrbach and Carol Kane, "Night Terror" with Richard Romanus, "The People Across The Lake" with Gerald McRaney, "Perry Mason Movie Special" with Raymond Burr, and "Thursday's Game" with Gene Wilder. Valerie's other notable television appearances include the role of Maggie in "The Shadow Box," an ABC Theatre dramatic presentation directed by Paul Newman, Neil Simon's "The Trouble With People" with Alan Arkin, Norman Lear's "I Love Liberty" with Judd Hirsch, and as host of the critically acclaimed documentary on child abuse "Innocence On Trial".

Throughout her career, Valerie has continued to work in the theatre. She performed with various companies of Second City and Story Theatre in many venues all over the country and in Canada. In 1970 she was a member of the original stage production of "Story Theater" in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum and opened with the show in New York when it moved to Broadway. During the run at the Ambassador Theater, Paul Sills opened his second production: "Ovid's Metamorphoses" (also to rave reviews) to run in repertory with Story Theater. Most happily, Valerie was a part of this joyous theatrical experience as well. In the mid-seventies, she played Los Angeles' James Doolittle Theatre and later toured in "Dear Liar" with Anthony Zerbe (a play comprised of a lifetime of letters between George Bernard Shaw and the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell.)

In 1983 she toured Florida with Zev Bufman's production of "Agnes of God" playing The Psychiatrist. In the mid-nineties Valerie starred in the New York production of "Death Defying Acts" by Elaine May and Woody Allen. At this time, Valerie and her husband Tony Cacciotti began developing a one-woman play based on the life and work of Pearl S. Buck, the Nobel Prize-winning author of, among many works, "The Good Earth." Valerie co-wrote and performed the play "All Under Heaven" in New York (1999), in Los Angeles (2000) and across the country.

In 2001 Valerie was back on Broadway starring in Charles Busch's hilarious comedy "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife". She played "the Wife" (Marjorie Taub) for a year on Broadway and then for another year in the National Tour.