Kristen Wiig

Kristen Carroll Wiig (born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter and producer.

Wiig was born on August 22, 1973, in Canandaigua, New York, the daughter of Jon Arne Joseph Wiig, who ran a lake marina in Western New York, and Laurie Day (née Johnston), an artist.

She has an older brother Erik.

Her father has Norwegian and Irish ancestry, and her mother, English and Scottish.

The name Wiig comes from the area of Vik in Sogn og Fjordane in Norway.

Kristen's paternal grandfather, Gunnar Ove Wiig, emigrated from Norway to the United States as a child and grew up in Rochester, New York, where he was an accomplished broadcaster for the Rochester Red Wings baseball team, and later became an executive at WHEC radio, WHEC-TV, and WROC-TV.

Wiig moved with her family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania at the age of three, and attended Nitrauer Elementary School and Manheim Township Middle School until eighth grade.

When she was 13, she and her family returned to Rochester where she attended Allendale Columbia School for ninth and tenth grades and graduated from Brighton High School.

Wiig attended Roanoke College, but soon returned to Rochester.

She attended community college and embarked on a three-month outdoor-living program.

She had no performing ambitions at the time.

She then attended the University of Arizona, majoring in art.

When she took an acting class to fulfill a course requirement, the teacher suggested she continue to act.

She was hired by a plastic surgery clinic to draw postsurgery bodies, but the day before the job began, she decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Wiig relocated to Los Angeles to act while working odd jobs to support herself.

She performed with Empty Stage Comedy Theatre and The Groundlings.

She felt improvisation was a better fit than acting, and being a part of the comedy group improved her skills.

She moved to Los Angeles, where she joined the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings and made her television debut as Dr. Pat on The Joe Schmo Show (2003).

During her stint at Saturday Night Live, she received four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 2003, she appeared in Spike TV's The Joe Schmo Show, a spoof of reality television, in which she portrayed Dr. Pat, a quack marriage counselor.

She auditioned for Mad TV.

While at The Groundlings, Wiig's manager encouraged her to submit an audition tape to Saturday Night Live.

She played the Target Lady on part of her audition tape.

First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved nationwide stardom during her seven-season tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012.

Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and later Rochester, New York.

She debuted on SNL shortly into season 31, on November 12, 2005.

She survived an SNL budget cut and became a full cast member at the beginning of season 32 in 2006.

Wiig made her film debut in the 2006 Christmas movie Unaccompanied Minors, and appeared in Judd Apatow's 2007 comedy Knocked Up as a passive-aggressive assistant.

She also performed in Jake Kasdan's Walk Hard, another Apatow-produced film.

Wiig also took on supporting roles in comedy films such as Knocked Up (2007) and Paul (2011).

She was featured in Entertainment Weekly 's list of 15 Great Performances for her various impersonations on SNL (December 2008) and in EW 's list of the 25 Funniest Women in Hollywood (April 2009).

She was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on SNL (2009 to 2012).

Wiig headlined the 2009 Christmas special SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas, featuring new sketches with her character Gilly and highlights of older SNL clips.

She has also lent her voice to the animated franchises How to Train Your Dragon (2010–2019) and Despicable Me (2010–2024).

She co-wrote and starred in the comedy film Bridesmaids (2011), which was critically and commercially successful.

It earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

She voiced Lola Bunny in the series The Looney Tunes Show from 2011 to 2014.

Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.

Her other film credits include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), The Skeleton Twins (2014), The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), The Martian (2015), Ghostbusters (2016), Downsizing (2017), Mother! (2017), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the comedy miniseries The Spoils of Babylon (2014).