Tina Fey

Elizabeth Tina Fey was born on May 18, 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Coming from a diverse background (her mother is Greek, her father German-Irish) she grew up with multiple influences, humor among them. Her mother's biting wit pushed Tina to start making snappy remarks when she was just a kid. But both parents loved comedy and they watched funny movies and TV shows with Tina all the time. A self-described "supernerd," Tina wrote a humor column for her high school newspaper while taking part in the drama club and the choir. She reserved her smart-ass remarks for the popular crowd, the kids who glorified their own boozing and sleeping around. Fey studied drama at the University of Virginia, graduated in 1992 and moved to Chicago.

Her goal was to join the elite Second City comedy troupe, which had been the breeding ground for such past Saturday Night Live as John Belushi, Chris Farley and Bill Murray. She failed her first audition for the selective Second City Training Center in 1994 and took a job at the YMCA until, eight weeks later, she tried again and got it. Second City honed Fey's talents as a writer and performer for several years, sharpening her improvisational skills in particular. In 1995, scouts for NBC, who were looking for fresh talent for SNL, called upon Second City and were impressed by Fey. Her friend Adam McKay was a writer himself and he invited Tina to send in some sketches for review. Shortly thereafter, she went to New York and met SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, who was instantly smitten and gave her a job the following week. After a few years writing for the show, including the recurring parodies of Live with Regis and Kelly and The View, Tina was named head writer for SNL, becoming the first woman to occupy that position.

Not long after that, Tina made her debut in front of the camera, co-hosting "Weekend Update" with Jimmy Fallon. It became their permanent gig and many lauded it as the best incarnation of "Update" ever. As she continued writing for the show, she went on the road with fellow cast member Rachel Dratch for a two-woman sketch show called Dratch & Fey, which received widespread praise. But her latest and most successful independent undertaking was writing a screenplay based on a book that had been receiving a lot of attention. Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends & Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman reminded Fey of the backstabbing and conniving girls of her high school. Adding some of her comedic spins, she wrote the screenplay for the hit movie Mean Girls (2004), which starred her niece, Lindsay Lohan. Fey continues to write for SNL;in fact, her leadership pulled the show from a dip in ratings. She lives in New York with her husband Jeff Richmond, a director at Second City.