Ellie Kemper

Elizabeth Claire Kemper (born May 2, 1980) is an American actress and comedian, best known for her roles of Erin Hannon in the sitcom The Office (2009–2013), and Kimmy Schmidt in the sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2019).

As a freshman, she played on Princeton's 1998 national championship field hockey team, maintaining she sat on the bench "roughly 97 percent" of the time, before moving on the following year to focus on theatre.

She attended Worcester College, Oxford, for a year, where she studied towards a master's degree in English literature.

Kemper continued her interest in improvisational comedy at Princeton.

She participated in Quipfire!, Princeton's oldest improv comedy group, and the Princeton Triangle Club, a touring musical comedy theater troupe.

She also appeared in a radio spot for Dunkin' Donuts.

Kemper earned her Screen Actors Guild card doing commercial advertising of a one-week sale of tents at Kmart.

It featured her camping with an onscreen husband, and a shot where a tarantula crawled across her face.

In 1999, at age 19, she was presented as a debutante at the Veiled Prophet Ball, and was named the Veiled Prophet's Queen of Love and Beauty.

Her participation sparked controversy in 2021 due to the Ball's background, which was described as "racist and elitist".

The backlash prompted Kemper to release a statement denouncing white supremacy and apologizing for participating in the event.

Kemper's family moved to St. Louis when she was five.

She attended Conway Elementary School in the affluent suburb of Ladue and high school at John Burroughs School, where she developed an interest in theater and improvisational comedy.

One of her teachers was actor Jon Hamm, with whom she appeared in a school play.

She regularly appeared in comedy sketches on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the late 2000s, and made guest appearances on Important Things with Demetri Martin, and E! Television's The Gastineau Girls, which has been described as her "breakout role".

Though the series was reality TV, her role was scripted.

Kemper graduated from Princeton University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

At Princeton, she was a member of the improv comedy troupe Quipfire, which was known for its elaborate pranks.

She was also a member of the Ivy Club.

As part of her undergraduate degree, she completed an 82-page senior thesis, "Isn't It Ironic?", under the supervision of Susan Wolfson, with contribution from Ulrich C. Knoepflmacher.

In 2007, she appeared in How to Kick People, a performance combining comedy and literary performances.

She has appeared on Fuse TV's The P.A. In October 2008, she appeared on The Colbert Report in a PSA for Teen Voter Abstinence.

She has written several sketch comedy shows, many with her comedy partner Scott Eckert, a fellow Princeton grad.

She is a contributing writer for the national satirical newspaper The Onion, and for McSweeney's.

She is also a contributor to HuffPost.

Upon moving to New York City, Kemper participated in the People's Improv Theatre and the city troupe of Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy theater.

She has appeared in several shows for the Brigade, including Death and/or Despair, Listen Kid, Gang Bang and The Improvised Mystery.

At the UCB, she performed with the house improv teams Mailer Daemon and fwand.

At the People's Improv Theatre she performs with the house improv team Big Black Car.

In August 2008, she auditioned for a spot on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, but was not cast.

In July 2009, Kemper was named one of Variety magazine's "10 Comics To Watch".

She has also appeared in films, notably Bridesmaids (2011), 21 Jump Street (2012), Sex Tape (2014), and Home Sweet Home Alone (2021).

In 2018, she released her debut book, My Squirrel Days.

She earned two consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and has also been nominated for a Critics' Choice Movie Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards, three Satellite Awards, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Kemper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the second of four children of Dorothy Ann "Dotty" (née Jannarone) and David Woods Kemper, a son of one of the wealthiest families in Missouri.

Her father is the executive chairman of Commerce Bancshares, a bank holding company founded by the Kemper family.

She is the granddaughter of Mildred Lane Kemper, namesake of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis and the great-great-granddaughter of banker William Thornton Kemper Sr.

She is the elder sister of television writer Carrie Kemper.

Kemper is of Italian (from her maternal grandfather), English, French, and German ancestry.

She was raised and remains a practicing Roman Catholic.