Tina Fey
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (/feɪ/; born May 18, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, writer, and producer. Fey was a cast member and head writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1997 to 2006. After her departure from SNL, she created the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2006–2013, 2020) and the Netflix sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), the former of which she also starred in. Fey is also known for her work in film, including Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), Wine Country (2019), Soul (2020), A Haunting in Venice (2023), and Mean Girls (2024).
Tina Fey
- Comedian
- actress
- writer
- producer
1997–present
2
- Television
- film
- theatre
- books
Fey broke into comedy as a featured player in the Chicago-based improvisational comedy group The Second City. She joined Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a writer, later becoming head writer and a performer, appearing as co-anchor in the Weekend Update segment and, later, developing a satirical portrayal of 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in subsequent guest appearances. In 2004, she co-starred in and wrote the screenplay for Mean Girls, which was adapted from the 2002 self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes. After leaving SNL in 2006, Fey created the television series 30 Rock for Broadway Video, a sitcom loosely based on her experiences at SNL. In the series, Fey starred as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series. In 2011, she released her memoir, Bossypants, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks and garnered her a Grammy Award nomination. In 2015, she co-created the comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Fey also created the musical adaptation Mean Girls, which premiered on Broadway in 2018, and earned her a Tony Award nomination. She later adapted the stage production into a 2024 musical film of the same name.
Fey has received numerous accolades, including nine Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and seven Writers Guild of America Awards. She appeared on the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2007 and 2009. In 2008, the Associated Press gave Fey the AP Entertainer of the Year Award for her Sarah Palin impression on SNL. In 2010, Fey was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, becoming the youngest recipient of the award.
Career[edit]
Career beginnings[edit]
After college, Fey moved to Chicago. She worked as a receptionist during the day at the YMCA in Evanston, Illinois, and took performance classes at the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City at night.[26] Fey started doing gigs at Improv Olympic where she first worked with pianist Jeff Richmond, her future husband and collaborator. Both Fey and Richmond got jobs at Second City. Fey appeared in "the legendary revue 'Paradigm Lost', alongside the likes of Rachel Dratch, Kevin Dorff, Scott Adsit, Jenna Jolovitz and Jim Zulevic."[27]
Saturday Night Live (1997–2006)[edit]
While performing shows with The Second City[28][29] in 1997, Fey submitted several scripts to NBC's variety show Saturday Night Live, at the request of its head writer Adam McKay, a former performer at Second City.[9] She was hired as a writer[30] following a meeting with SNL creator Lorne Michaels, and moved from Chicago to New York.[31] Fey told The New Yorker, "I'd had my eye on the show forever, the way other kids have their eye on Derek Jeter."[9] Originally, Fey "struggled" at SNL.[31] Her first sketch to air starred Chris Farley in a Sally Jessy Raphael satire.[31] Fey went on to write a series of parodies, including one of ABC's morning talk show The View.[32] She co-wrote the "Sully and Denise" sketches with Rachel Dratch,[31] who plays one of the teens.[32]
Fey was an extra in a 1998 episode,[33] and after watching herself, decided to diet[34] and lost 30 pounds. She told The New York Times, "I was a completely normal weight, but I was here in New York City, I had money and I couldn't buy any clothes. After I lost weight, there was interest in putting me on camera."[35] In 1999, McKay stepped down as head writer, which led Michaels to approach Fey for the position.[31] She became SNL's first female head writer.[36] In January 2001, she appeared on an episode of Real World/Road Rules Extreme Challenge as a judge of a comedy-based mission.[37]
In 2000, Fey began performing in sketches,[9] and she and Jimmy Fallon became co-anchors of SNL's Weekend Update segment.[36] Fey said she did not ask to audition, but that Michaels approached her.[34][38] Michaels explained that there was chemistry between Fey and Fallon,[38] though he felt the decision was "kind of risky" at the time.[39] Her role in Weekend Update was well received by critics. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Fey delivers such blow darts – poison filled jokes written in long, precisely parsed sentences unprecedented in [Weekend Update] history – with such a bright, sunny countenance makes her all the more devilishly delightful."[40] Dennis Miller, a former cast member of SNL and anchor of Weekend Update, was pleased with Fey as one of the anchors: "Fey might be the best Weekend Update anchor who ever did it. She writes the funniest jokes."[41] Robert Bianco of USA Today, however, commented that he was "not enamored" of the pairing.[42]
In 2001, Fey and the rest of the writing staff won a Writers Guild of America Award for SNL's 25th anniversary special.[9] The following year at the 2002 Emmy Awards ceremony, they won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program.[43]
When Fallon left the show in May 2004, he was replaced on Weekend Update by Amy Poehler.[44] It was the first time that two women co-anchored Weekend Update.[45] Fey revealed that she "hired" Poehler as her co-host for the segment.[46] The reception was positive, with Rachel Sklar of the Chicago Tribune noting that the pairing "has been a hilarious, pitch-perfect success as they play off each other with quick one-liners and deadpan delivery".[44]
The 2005–2006 season was her last; she departed to develop 30 Rock for Broadway Video.[47] At the time she left, the 117 episodes she co-hosted made her SNL's longest-serving Weekend Update anchor, a mark that would later be passed by her replacement, Seth Meyers. In Rolling Stone's February 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date, Fey was ranked third in importance (behind John Belushi and Eddie Murphy). They credited her with "salvaging [Weekend Update] from a decade-long losing streak", and "slapping SNL out of its late-nineties coma."[48]
Charity work[edit]
Fey is a supporter of Mercy Corps, a global relief and development organization, in their campaign to end world hunger.[227] Fey narrated a video for Mercy Corps's Action Center in New York City, describing hunger as a symptom of many wider world problems.[228] She also supports the Love Our Children USA organization, which fights violence against children,[229] who named her among their Mothers Who Make a Difference, in 2009.[230] She was the 2009 national spokesperson for the Light the Night Walk, which benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.[231]
Fey has granted wishes for The Make-A-Wish Foundation and hosted the 2018 Power of a Wish Gala in New York City.[232]