Tina Fey

Tina Fey is an American writer, comedian, actress and producer. She was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, the daughter of Zenobia "Jeanne" a brokerage employee, and Donald Fey, a university grant proposal-writer. Fey's father is of German and Scottish ancestry and her mother of Greek ancestry.

Fey was exposed to comedy early. She also grew up watching SCTV and includes Catherine O'Hara among her role models. By middle school, she knew she was interested in comedy, even doing an independent-study project on the subject in eighth grade. She graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1988. After Fey graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Drama in 1992, she moved to Chicago in order to take night classes at The Second City. Once her Second City training began, she immersed herself in the "cult of improvisation," becoming, as she described it a decade later, "one of those athletes trying to get into the Olympics." By 1994, she was invited to join the cast of The Second City, where she performed in the Jeff Award-winning revue Paradigm Lost. Improvisation became an important influence on her initial understanding of what it means to be an actress. While in Chicago, she also made what she later described as an "amateurish" attempt at stand-up comedy.

With then-head-writer Adam McKay's help, Fey became a writer for NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1997. By 1999, Fey was SNL's first female head writer, a milestone she downplays in light of the fact that there have not been very many head writers. As co-head writer of SNL's 25th anniversary special, Fey won a 2001 Writers Guild of America Award. She and the writing staff also won a 2002 Emmy Award for their work on the show.

In 2000, Fey and Jimmy Fallonbecame co-anchors of SNL's Weekend Update, a pairing that ended in May 2004 when Fallon last appeared as a cast member. Fallon was replaced by Amy Poehler It was the first time that two women co-anchored Weekend Update.

On the 34th season premiere episode, aired September 13, 2008, Fey returned to SNL in the role of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, alongside Amy Poehleras Hillary Clinton. It quickly became NBC.com's most-watched viral video ever. On November 5, 2008, Fey told reporters she was retiring her impersonation of Sarah Palin, in order to focus on 30 Rock.

Fey developed a sitcom, 30 Rock, for NBC's fall 2006 schedule. The show is produced by NBC and Broadway Video, with Lorne Michaels and two former producers of The Tracy Morgan Show, David Miner, who is also her manager at 3 Arts, and Joann Alfano. Fey also writes and stars in the sitcom, said to be based on her experiences at SNL.

In July 2007, Fey was nominated for an Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for her role as Liz Lemon. The show itself won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. In 2008, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series on January 27.

In 2004, she made her feature film debut as writer and co-star of Mean Girls. Characters and behaviors in the movie are based on Fey's high school life at Upper Darby High School and on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. The cast includes other present and past cast members of SNL including Tim Meadows Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler She also made a voice cameo in the animated film AquaTeen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters as the team's mother, a giant burrito.

Fey and former SNL cast mate Amy Poehlerstarred in Baby Mama, released April 25, 2008 and written and directed by Michael McCullers. The plot concerns a business woman (Fey) who wants a child but discovers she has only a million-to-one chance of getting pregnant then decides to find a surrogate, "Angie" (Poehler), a white-trash schemer.