Pryor was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Shelley R. (née Bonis) and Comedian Richard Pryor. Rain Pryor's mother was a Jewish go-go Dancer and Rain was largely raised with her Jewish maternal grandparents, who taught her about Jewish culture. Her award-winning solo show Fried Chicken and Latkes explores racism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In regard to her background, Pryor has joked that while growing up she felt "proud, but guilty about it."
Pryor graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1987.
Pryor is also a jazz/blues vocalist since 1993, having played to sold-out crowds in Los Angeles, DC, Hong Kong, Scotland and London, where she released a performance CD, Rain Pryor Live in London. Her live cabaret show received four stars and was critically acclaimed "not to be missed."
In 2002, Pryor married family therapist Kevin Kindlin; they divorced in 2006.
Pryor created and toured in the award-winning show based on her life, Fried Chicken and Latkes, in 2004 and 2005. She appeared in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006.
Harper Collins published her book Jokes My Father Never Taught Me in 2006.
In 2007, she began dating Yale Partlow, a Baltimore nursing student/meditation Teacher who later became a police officer. After many miscarriages, she gave birth to their daughter Lotus Marie on April 1, 2008. Partlow and Pryor divorced in 2014. Pryor currently resides in Baltimore with daughter Lotus and her third husband, Dave Vane.
In 2012, Rain was named the artistic Director of Baltimore's Strand Theater.
