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Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (born May 18, 1970) is an American writer, comedian, actress and producer. She is the writer, star, and executive producer of the television program 30 Rock, for which she won a Golden Globe. The show is a sitcom loosely based on her experiences at Saturday Night Live. A graduate of the University of Virginia and alumni of Chicago’s famed Second City improv troupe, fashionably bespectacled writer-comedienne Tina Fey proved, once and for all, that a brainy woman could be sexy. A popular crush among political junkies, cultural literates, and highbrow frat boys across America, this proud, self-described “supernerd” first came onto the scene, first, as a writer and later, as a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ) where she shown brightly as the sarcastic Weekend Update co-anchor to Jimmy Fallon, and later, to Amy Poehler. After proving her mettle as big screen scribe of the hit Lindsay Lohan flick, “Mean Girls” (2004), Fey spread her wings and left the “S.N.L.” nest to write and star in the hit NBC sitcom, “30 Rock” (2006- ). Fey was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, the daughter of Zenobia (aka Jeanne), a brokerage employee, and Donald Fey, a university grant-proposal writer. Fey's father is of German and Scottish ancestry and her mother was born in Lebanon and is of Greek ancestry, but raised in the United States from an early age. Fey was exposed to comedy early, saying: “ I remember my parents sneaking me in to see Young Frankenstein. We would also watch Saturday Night Live, or Monty Python or old Marx Brothers movies. My dad would let us stay up late to watch The Honeymooners. We were not allowed to watch The Flintstones though, my dad hated it because it ripped off The Honeymooners. I actually have a very low level of Flintstones knowledge for someone my age.” She also grew up watching SCTV and includes Catherine O'Hara as one of her role models. Fey attended Cardington Elementary School and Beverly Hills Middle School. 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. It was all about blind focus. I was so sure that I was doing exactly what I’d been put on this earth to do, and I would have done anything to make it onto that stage. Not because of SNL, but because I wanted to devote my life to improv. I would have been perfectly happy to stay at Second City forever." 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, as she noted in an interview for The Believer in November 2003: “ When I started, improv had the biggest impact on my acting. I studied the usual acting methods at college—Stanislavsky and whatnot. But none of it really clicked for me. My problem with the traditional acting method was that I never understood what you were supposed to be thinking about when you’re onstage. But at Second City, I learned that your focus should be entirely on your partner. You take what they’re giving you and use it to build a scene. That opened it up for me. Suddenly it all made sense. It’s about your partner. Not what you’re going to say, not finding the perfect mannerisms or tics for your character, not what you’re going to eat later. Improv helped to distract me from my usual stage bullshit and put my focus somewhere else so that I could stop acting. I guess that’s what method acting is supposed to accomplish anyway. It distracts you so that your body and emotions can work freely. Improv is just a version of method acting that works for me. ” While in Chicago she also made what she later described as an "amateurish" attempt at stand-up comedy. Fey is also a veteran of The ImprovOlympic. 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 September 2005, she went on maternity leave after giving birth to a daughter, Alice Zenobia Richmond. Her Weekend Update role was covered by Horatio Sanz for two episodes before her return to the show on October 22, 2005, at which time she noted: "I had to get back to work. NBC has me under contract; the baby and I only have a verbal agreement." The season was to be her last, as she thereafter departed to develop 30 Rock. In 2000, Fey and Jimmy Fallon became co-anchors of SNL's Weekend Update, a pairing that ended in May 2004 when Fallon last appeared as a cast member. (Fey also was co-writer of the Weekend Update segment). Fallon was replaced by Amy Poehler. It was the first time that two women co-anchored Weekend Update. On February 23, 2008, Fey hosted the first episode of SNL after the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, becoming the third female cast member to return and host. During her return to Weekend Update, in an editorial segment, she declared she was a "bitch" while throwing her support behind the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. She said Hillary Clinton was also a bitch, but "bitches get stuff done" and "bitch is the new black". Fey's celebrity impressions included Ellen Page (as Juno MacGuff) and Mary Jo Buttafuoco. Three weeks later, Fey's 30 Rock co-star, Tracy Morgan, cameoed on Weekend Update referring to her statement by responding with, "Bitch may be the new black, but black is the new President, bitch!" 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. The title is a reference to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NBC's headquarters where much of the show's action is portrayed. The show made its debut with mostly positive reviews but weak ratings; ratings improved when NBC moved it to the Thursday night "Must See TV" comedy block. NBC renewed the series for a second season, which began in October 2007. 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. Along with the rest of the show's writing staff, Fey participated in the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, which began at 12:01 AM on November 5, 2007 and concluded on February 12, 2008. While picketing in Rockefeller Center on the first day of the strike, Fey was quoted as saying, "I'm a member of the Guild and I am here to support my fellow Guild members. This strike affects the show in which I work. We put our pens down yesterday, and we will not write until negotiations resume." Fey, however, continued with her acting and producing duties on 30 Rock, as required by her contract Production on 30 Rock ended Friday, November 9, and resumed at the end of the writers strike. Fey wrote the script for and co-starred in the 2004 movie 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 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters as the team's mother, a giant burrito. Slated for April 25, 2008 is Baby Mama, Fey's collaboration with former Saturday Night Live castmate Amy Poehler. 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 (Poehler). As of April 2006, Fey was working on a script for a Paramount Pictures film by the name of Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill that is said to be based loosely on the true story of a Hasidic rock musician. On the Internet Movie Database, Fey is still listed as writer of this film, which is still listed as "announced", with a projected release for 2009. In 2000, Fey partnered with fellow SNL cast member Rachel Dratch in the critically acclaimed two-woman show Dratch & Fey at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City, the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, and the Chicago Improv Festival. Lorne Michaels saw her at one of the performances, which led to her becoming the co-anchor of SNL's Weekend Update. SNL's popular Boston Teens sketch originated at Second City in Chicago. Tina played Rachel Dratch's mother. She also appeared in Martin & Orloff, a surreal comedy which premiered at Austin's SXSW. Based on her experiences at “Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock” received the official blessing of Lorne Michaels, who served as an executive producer. Fey served as both star and head writer/producer for a show that also starred big shot movie star and favorite “S.N.L.” host, Alec Baldwin. The show got off to a rocky start from out of the gate, beginning with a much-publicized last minute casting change – the firing of Fey’s longtime friend and co-star Dratch in favor of actress Jane Krakowski. To make matters worse, the premiere episode of “30 Rock” performed unimpressively in the ratings, placing third in its timeslot. Despite this disappointing showing, “30 Rock” still appeared in high enough standing with NBC – enough for the network to move it to Thursday night’s “must-see TV” comedy line-up. The time change proved to be a wise decision, stabilizing the show’s ratings and dramatically increasing its exposure. By the end of 2006, “30 Rock” topped several publications’ "year’s best" lists, including LA Weekly, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. On Sept. 16, 2007, “30 Rock” executive producer-creator-star Fey received the ultimate vindication for a rocky, albeit ultimately successful year: an Emmy award for Outstanding Comedy Series. And for her acting talents – which she herself felt insecure about – she won a Golden Globe for Best In 2007, Tina Fey was chosen as one of the 100 People Who Shape Our World by Time magazine. She placed seventh on that year's Hot 100 List on AfterEllen.com, a website for queer (LGBT) women. She was ranked #80 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002 and she was included in the People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People 2003. Fey guest-starred on the August 13, 2007 Sesame Street episode, "The Bookaneers." Tina Fey appeared as a guest judge on the November 25 2007 episode of the Food Network program Iron Chef America. Fey has appeared in Disney campaign "Year of a Million Dreams" as Tinker Bell, along with Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan and Gisele Bündchen as Wendy Darling. Fey is married to Jeff Richmond, a composer on SNL. They met at Chicago's Second City and dated for seven years before marrying in a Greek Orthodox ceremony on June 3, 2001. They have a daughter, Alice Zenobia Richmond, who was born on September 10, 2005 in New York. Her daughter has appeared with her in the commercial and printed advertisement for American Express. Alice's image is also the logo of Fey's production company, Little Stranger, Inc. Fey has a scar a few inches long on the left side of her chin and cheek. Responding to questions about its origin, Fey was quoted in the November 25, 2001 New York Times as saying: "It's a childhood injury that was kind of grim. And it kind of bums my parents out for me to talk about it." Fey is known as a committed environmentalist and has noted that, apart from recycling, she also drives a Lexus hybrid. |
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