Tina Fey

At 53 years old, Tina Fey has this physical status:

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and playwright.

She is best known for her appearances on NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1997-2006) and directing the award-winning comedy series 30 Rock (2006–2019).

Fey is also known for her film work, including roles in Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2016), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), and Wine Country (2019). Fey debuted as a featured actor in The Second City, a Chicago-based improvisational comedy group.

She joined SNL as a writer, then moved to writer and performer, best known for her appearances as co-anchor and then as a guest speaker, and later for her satirical portrayal of 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in subsequent guest appearances.

Mean Girls, which was based on the 2002 self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes, co-starred and wrote the screenplay in 2004.

Fey created 30 Rock for Broadway Video, a sitcom loosely based on her SNL experience.

Fey appeared as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy film.

Bossypants, her memoir that debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks and won her a Grammy Award nomination in 2011.

Kimmy Schmidt co-created the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in 2015.

Fey produced Mean Girls, a Broadway revival that premiered on Broadway in 2018, and she received a Tony Award nomination. Fey has been nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actor Guild Awards, five Television Actors Guild Awards, and seven Writers Guild of America Awards.

Fey received the AP Entertainer of the Year award for her Sarah Palin appearance on SNL in 2008.

Fey was named the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2010, becoming the youngest-ever recipient of the award.

Early life

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in Upper Darby Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on May 18, 1970. Donald Henry Fey, a Korean War veteran, university administrator for the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University, and a grant proposal writer who raised $500 million for schools, hospitals, and public service agencies through appeals and direct mail appeals. Fey established a scholarship fund at Temple University to help war veterans researching journalism following her father's death. Zenobia "Jeanne" (née Xenakes) is a retired brokerage employee who was born in Piraeus, Greece. Vasiliki Kourelakou, Fey's maternal grandmother, left Petrina on her own and arrived in the United States in February 1921. Fey's father had English, German, Irish, and Scottish roots; one of her paternal ancestors, John Hewson, an English textile manufacturer who immigrated to the United States with Benjamin Franklin's permission, allowed Hewson to open a quilting shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fey's ancestry is 94% European, 3% Middle Eastern, and 3% from the Caucasus, according to a genealogical DNA test conducted by the television series Finding Your Roots. She has a brother, Peter, who is eight years older.

Fey describes encountering comedy early:

For a school project about comedians, Fey read Joe Franklin's Seventy Years of Great Film Comedians. Catherine O'Hara has been cited as a role model since growing up on Second City Television.

At an early age, Fey went by the name "tina" for a girl. In Upper Darby, she attended Cardington-Stonehurst Elementary School and Beverly Hills Middle School. She knew she was interested in comedy by middle school. Fey attended Upper Darby High School, where she was an honors student, a member of the choir, drama club, tennis team, and co-editor of the school's newspaper, The Acorn. The Colonel, she anonymously wrote the newspaper's satirical column. Fey began attending the University of Virginia in 1988, where she concentrated on playwriting and acting and was given the Pettway Prize. She graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama.

Personal life

Elizabeth Richmond, a pianist who later became Second City's musical director and then a composer on 30 Rock, began two years after Fey joined Chicago's Second City improvisational theatre troupe. On June 3, 2001, the two married in a Greek Orthodox wedding. Alice Zenobia and Penelope Athena are their two children. Fey and Richmond purchased a US$3.4 million apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City in April 2009.

Fey has a scar on the left side of her nose and cheek, the reason for which was unseen to the public until a 2009 Vanity Fair interview, where she revealed that "I was struck in the chest by a stranger in the alley behind my house."

Fey told Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she called the police to assist a man who was drifting in a kayak without an oar on the Hudson River in 2020, saving his life.

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Career

Fey moved to Chicago after college. She performed as a receptionist at the YMCA in Evanston, Illinois, and took part in performance classes at the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City at night. Fey first appeared at Improv Olympic, where she met pianist Jeff Richmond, her future husband and collaborator. Both Fey and Richmond obtained jobs in Second City. Fey appeared in "Paradigm Lost," alongside Rachel Dratch, Kevin Dorff, Scott Adsit, Jenna Jolovitz, and Jim Zulevic.

Fey started presenting scripts to NBC's variety show Saturday Night Live in 1997, at the behest of its head writer Adam McKay, a former entertainer at Second City. Following a meeting with SNL creator Lorne Michaels and a transfer from Chicago to New York, she was hired as a writer. "I'd had my eye on the show for a lifetime, the way other kids have their eye on Derek Jeter," Fey told The New Yorker. Fey "struggled" at SNL, in the beginning. Chris Farley appeared in a Sally Jessy Raphael parody in her first sketch to air. Fey went on to write a series of parodies, including one for ABC's morning talk show The View. Rachel Dratch, who plays one of the teen characters, co-wrote the "Sully and Denise" sketches with her.

Fey appeared in a 1998 episode, but after watching herself die and gained 30 pounds, she decided to eat. "I was certainly normal weight," she told The New York Times, "but I was here in New York City, I had money, and I couldn't buy any clothes." "I lost weight, so there was no point in putting me on camera." McKay resigned as the head writer in 1999, prompting Michaels to contact Fey for the position. She was the first female head writer in SNL. In January 2001, she appeared on an episode of Real World/Road Rules Extreme Challenge as a judge on a comedy-based mission.

Fey began performing in sketches in 2000, and she and Jimmy Fallon became co-anchors of SNL's Weekend Update segment. Fey said she did not apply to audition but that Michaels approached her. Michaels shared that Fey and Fallon had chemistry together, but that the decision was "kind of risky" at the time, but Michaels said it was "risky." Critics also lauded her participation in Weekend Update. "Fey delivers such bomb darts – poison filled jokes written in long, precisely parsed sentences] in [Weekend Update] history," Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote. "With such a bright, sunny countenance, she becomes all the more delightful." Dennis Miller, a former cast member of SNL and anchor of Weekend Update, was thrilled with Fey as one of the anchors: "Fey may be the best Weekend Update anchor ever did it." "She writes the funniest parodyst jokes." However, USA Today's Robert Bianco said he was "not enamored" of the pair.

Fey and the remainder of the writing staff were given the Writers Guild of America Award in 2001 for SNL's 25th anniversary special. They were named for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program at the 2002 Emmy Awards ceremony.

When Fallon appeared on Weekend Update in May 2004, he was replaced by Amy Poehler. It was the first time two women co-anchored Weekend Update. Fey confirmed that she "hired" Poehler as her co-host for the segment. The reception was encouraging, with Rachel Sklar of the Chicago Tribune remarking that the pairing "has been a strange, pitch-perfect success as they competed against each other with quick one-liners and deadpan delivery."

She said it would be her last season on Broadway Video in 2005-2006; she then moved to develop 30 Rocks for Broadway Video. The 117 episodes she co-hosted made her SNL's longest-serving Weekend Update anchor, a feat that would later be eclipsed by her replacement, Seth Meyers. Fey was ranked third in importance in Rolling Stone's review of all 141 SNL cast members to date (behind John Belushi and Eddie Murphy). "They credited her with [Weekend Update] from a decade-long losing streak, and "slapping SNL out of its late-nineties coma," the viewers said.

Fey suggested a pilot episode of a situation comedy about a cable news network in 2002, but NBC refused to air it. The pilot was reworked to revolve around an SNL style movie and was accepted by NBC. She signed a deal with NBC in May 2003, allowing her to continue as a writer on SNL at least through the 2005-2005 television season. Fey was to design a prime-time project for Broadway Video and NBC Universal as part of the deal. Liz Lemon, the head writer of a variety show on NBC, and how she handled her relationships with the show's unpredictable stars and the network's new head of the show, was the pilot, directed by Adam Bernstein. The pilot appeared on NBC in October 2006 as 30 Rock. Despite generally positive feedback, the episode ended third in its time slot.

Fey was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series by the Emmy Award in 2007. The show itself received the 2007 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy (and continued to do so for two years). In 2008, she received the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Emmy awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Fey received the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award in the same categories the previous year, and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Fey received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in early 2010 and was named Best Actress in the Screen Actor Guild Award for Best Lead Actress. The 30 Rocks returned to action in 2011-2012, but the season premiere was postponed until midseason due to Fey's pregnancy with her second child.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus inspired Fey's appearance on the show and later used Louis-Dreyfus to play Liz Lemon in flashback scenes from the live episode "Live Show" of the fifth season. 30 Rock ended its campaign with 112 Emmy Award nominations after receiving 13 Emmy Award nominations and two awards for the final season. It has been named as one of the best TV series of all time, and it is regarded as one of the best television shows in history.

It was announced on June 16, 2020, that the show would be back for a remotely produced hourlong special, which aired on July 16, 2020.

Fey apologised for episodes of 30 Rock in which characters appeared in blackface on June 23, 2020. The episodes, which first aired in seasons three, five, and six, were taken from streaming services and are no longer available in re-runs. "We want to do the work and do better in terms of race in America, we believe that these episodes starring actors in race-changing make-up are best taken out of circulation," Fey wrote.

Fey created and produced the television comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, co-alumnus Robert Carlock, in 2015. Ellie Kemper plays Ellie Kemper, the titular character who escapes from a doomsday cult and heads to New York City. Jane Krakowski, Fey's former co-star, as well as Tituss Burgess (who had previously appeared in four 30 Rock episodes) and Carol Kane appear in it. Despite being originally produced for NBC, it was eventually sold to Netflix and revived for a second season. The show premiered on March 6, 2015, a critical success.

The series was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards on July 16, 2015, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Fey was nominated both as the series's creator/executive producer and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Marcia, a bumbling prosecutor referring to Marcia Clark.

Fey appeared in the role of Kimmy's psychiatrist Andrea Bayden in season two, a role she reprised for season three. Among other awards, the season and the following two seasons were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. On January 25, 2019, the fourth and final season will conclude.

The series would return on May 8, 2019, as it premiered on May 12, 2020. The special attracted raves from critics and gained a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Film.

Fey appeared in Martin & Orloff's surreal comedy in 2002. Mean Girls, Karen Shepard, was both an author and co-star on the 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls. Fey's high school experience at Upper Darby High School as well as Rosalind Wiseman's non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes are based on the film's non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes. Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler, among other SNL cast members, are included in the cast. The film received rave reviews and became a box office hit, grossing US$129 million worldwide.

Fey expressed a desire to write and direct films in a 2004 interview. Fey worked on a script for Paramount Pictures in 2006, which was to include Sacha Baron Cohen, by the name of Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill, based loosely on the true story of a Hasidic rock musician. She appeared in the animated comedy film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters as the Aqua Teens' mother, a massive burrito.

She earned her SAG card after playing in Artie Lange's Beer League in 2006, which she was compelled to pay "a thousand dollars" for her entry.

In the 2008 comedy Baby Mama, Fey and a former SNL castmate Amy Poehler appeared. Michael McCullers wrote and directed the film. Kate (Fey), a business woman who wants a child but finds she has just a slim chance of getting pregnant, is concerned about Angie (Poehler), an obnoxious germ killer. Baby Mama received mixed feedback, but critics adored Fey's performance. "Fey is a delight to watch throughout," Variety's Todd McCarthy wrote. Kate never melodramatizes her situation, nor does her dependable, perfectionist side become overbearing, despite being able to convey Kate's intentions and feelings through simple looks and inflections. At the box office, the film grossed over US$64 million.

Fey's projects since 2008 include a role in the Japanese-language version of the Japanese animated film Ponyo. In 2009, she appeared in The Invention of Lying. Fey and Steve Carell, the couple's next film role, were in Shawn Levy's 2010 comedy Date Night, a film about a married couple who are on a date; however, the night went awry for the two actors. In the DreamWorks animated film Megamind (2010), Roxanne Ritchie, a television journalist, appeared as herself in the same year. Megamind is Fey's most commercially profitable picture to date, with a worldwide total revenue of US$321 million. It earned US$173 million outside of the United States and US$148 million domestically.

Fey appeared alongside Paul Rudd in Admission, a romantic comedy-drama film based on the Jean Hanf Korelitz novel of the same name. Paul Weitz directed the film. Fey appeared in the 2014 comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You, directed by Date Night producer Shawn Levy. Fey's performances were well received by film critics, as well as Baby Mama. Both of these films received generally mixed feedback.

Fey was announced in 2015 that he would be the narrator of the Disney Nature film Monkey Kingdom, which was released in theaters on April 17, 2015. She appeared in the 2015 comedy film Sisters as the title characters, and received accolades for her performance. Fey appeared in the biographical war comedy-drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in which some criticize the film's whitewashing of characters of color. Don Fey, a veteran, researcher, and firefighter, was the film's title.

Fey appeared in Wine Country, longtime collaborator Amy Poehler's debut directorial debut on Netflix in 2019, and she was given a supporting role. Fey would voice 22, the co-lead role in the Pixar fantasy comedy adventure film Soul, which was released on Disney+ in December 2020 to critical acclaim, in August 2019. The film went on to receive three Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Animated Feature. Fey received the Critics' Choice Super Award for Best Voice Actress in an Animated Film for her role.

Tina Fey was announced as a cast member in Kenneth Branagh's A Haunting in Venice, his third book that was based on Agatha Christie books and set to be released in 2022. Fey, as well as Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Dornan, are among the cast members of the ensemble.

Fey appeared on SNL's first episode on February 23, 2008, after the Writers Guild of America's strike in 2007-2008. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Individual Achievement in a Variety or Music Program for this appearance. On April 10, 2010, Fey appeared on SNL for the second time, and she was given a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

Fey appeared on SNL from September to November 2008, appearing in a series of parodies of Republican vice president Sarah Palin. Fey imitated Palin in a sketch on the 34th-season premiere episode, which aired on September 13, 2008, alongside Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. Clinton had to inform Palin about her "Tina Fey glasses" during their repartee. With 5.7 million viewers as a result of the following Wednesday, the sketch quickly became NBC's most watched viral video. Fey appeared on the show of October 4, on the show of October 18, where she was joined by the real Sarah Palin, and on the show of November 1, where she was joined by John McCain and his wife Cindy. The show of October 18 had the highest ratings of any SNL show since 1994. Fey received an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her impersonation of Palin. Fey appeared in SNL in April 2010 and reprised her Palin appearance in a single sketch titled the "Sarah Palin Network." When Fey hosted Saturday Night Live on May 8, 2011, she gave her impression of Palin once more. On September 28, 2013, she appeared on September 28, 2013. Fey returned to host on December 19, 2015, when she received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Her most recent hosting appearance was on May 19, 2018, when she revived her Sarah Palin appearance.

She appeared on the December 18, 2021 episode hosted by Paul Rudd in an emergency revision of the episode due to a spike in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants. She was assisting with Weekend Update with incumbent co-anchor Michael Che.

"Fey's surprisingly spot-on SNL impersonation of the wannabe VP (and her ability to strike a balance between comedy and cruelty) made for truly transcendent television in December 2009. Rolling Stone characterized her Palin appearance as "probably the most innovative move SNL ever made."

Fey and other members of The Second City gave the pinball game Medieval Madness their voice in 1997.

Fey and Amy Poehler were able to act in the City's 1999 video game Deer Avenger 2: Deer in the City.

Fey appeared in the Off Broadway two-woman show Dratch & Fey at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City in 2000. Rachel Dratch, a fellow SNL cast member, appeared in Dratch & Fey. Critics were extremely critical of the performance. The fun part of watching Fey and Dratch perform was "finding how familiar they are with each other," Tim Townsend of The Wall Street Journal wrote. Dratch and Fey are just funny, according to Mr. He said that the film isn't about two people being funny. "Periodical" has characterized this period. "Sully and Denise," one of SNL's sketches, was born in The Second City.

Fey and his longtime associate Eric Gurian formed Little Stranger in 2001. Fey is featured in numerous projects, including the sitcoms 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Fey appeared in "The Bookaneers" on August 13, 2007. On the November 25, 2007, episode of the Food Network program Iron Chef America, she appeared as a guest judge.

In Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams," Fey appeared as Tinker Bell. She has also worked for American Express and Garnier Nutrisse. Fey has appeared in SpongeBob SquarePants, Phineas, and Ferb, as a guest voice actor.

Bossypants, Fey's autobiography, received a positive review from The New York Times on April 5, 2011. Janet Maslin, a writer, praised the book, saying that "Bossypants isn't a memoir." It's a spiky mix of humor, introspection, critical thinking, and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation.

Fey narrated The Secret Life of Girls, a two-hour radio documentary made by the Kitchen Sisters, in 2011. She told stories of women and girls from around the world, as well as memories of her own girlhood and mother.

Fey made her rapping debut on the Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) mixtape Royalty in 2012. Glover is a former writer on 30 Rock, on which he worked with Fey. Fey appeared in the Nickelodeon teen sitcom "iShock America" that same year.

Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th Golden Globe Awards on January 13, 2013, to critical acclaim. The pair performed again in 2014 and 2015, bringing the highest ratings for the annual event in a decade and receiving similar recognition.

Fey guest appeared in the Comedy Central variety sketch series Inside Amy Schumer, alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette in 2015. In 2016, she appeared in the NBC variety series Maya & Marty and the Hulu dark comedy series Difficult People.

Fey appeared on NBC sitcom Great News as Diana St. Tropez in 2017, which she co-executive produced. Mean Girls was also adapted into a musical of the same name in 2017. It debuted on Broadway in 2018, winning 12 Tony Award nominations, one for Best Book of a Fey. Paramount Pictures' stage musical's developer announced that it would be released as a feature film in January 2020.

Mr. Mayor, starring Ted Danson and Holly Hunter, was co-created, wrote, and executive produced by Fey. In January 2021, the series premiered in Winnipeg, 2021. Fey returned to co-host the 78th Golden Globe Awards with Amy Poehler in February 2021 for the first ever bi-coastal display. Fey appeared live from the Rainbow Room in New York City and Poehler from the old Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Girls5eva, a Peacock musical comedy film, debuted in May 2021 to critical acclaim, was written by a Fey executive. Dolly Parton appeared in an episode of the series as Dolly Parton. Also in 2021, Fey appeared in the Hulu mystery comedy film Only Murders in the Building as Cinda Canning, a true crime podcaster. Fey also reprised her role as 22 in 22 vs. Earth in the same year.

Netflix announced a 20-episode order for animated sitcom Mulligan, with Fey as executive producer and collaborators Sam Means and Robert Carlock, in March 2020.

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