tina fey

Tina Fey Biography

Date of Birth

18 May 1970, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA 

Birth Name

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey 

Height

5' 4½" (1.64 m) 

Mini Biography

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, in 1970 to Donald and Jeannec Fey. Going by the name of Tina, Ms. Fey considered herself a "supernerd" during her high school and college years. She studied drama at the University of Virginia, and after graduating in 1992, she headed to Chicago, the ancestral home of American comedy. While working at a YMCA to support herself, she started Second City's first set of courses. After about nine months, a teacher told her to just skip ahead and audition for the more selective Second City Training Center. She failed but about eight weeks later, she re-auditioned and got into the year-long program. She ended up spending many years at The Second City in Chicago where many SNL cast members first started out. Then in 1995, "Saturday Night Live" (1975) came to The Second City's cast, including Fey's friend, Adam McKay, as a writer, searching for new talent. What they found was Tina Fey. When Adam was made Head writer, he suggested Fey should send a submission packet over the summer with six sketches, 10 pages each. Tina took the advice and sent them. After Lorne Michaels met her and saw her work she was offered a job a week later. She admitted that she was extremely nervous working in the legendary Studio 8H; being a foot shorter than everyone else, younger, and being one of the only female writers at the time. After a few years, Tina made history by becoming the first female head writer in the show's history. Tina also made her screen debut as a featured player during the 25th season by co-anchoring Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon. Since Tina and Jimmy have taken over Weekend Update it has been considered the best ever. This year she made it to full fledged star by becoming a regular cast member, though she is hardly on the show, besides Update. And during the past two summers, Tina and Rachel Dratch performed their two-woman show to critical acclaim in both Chicago (1999) and New York (2000) and made their Aspen Comedy Festival Debut. Tina is married to Jeff Richmond, a Second City director and currently lives in New York City.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Reece 

Spouse

Jeff Richmond (3 June 2001 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark

Black plastic-rimmed glasses

Characters with embarrassing addictions to junk food

Characters with unsuccessful or embarrassing relationships

Frequent references to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Trivia

Came out of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, where she was a writer-performer.

She is "Saturday Night Live" (1975)'s first-ever female head writer.

Was chosen by Entertainment Weekly as the #8 entertainer of the year for the year 2001

Brother: Peter, who is 8 years older than Tina

Her husband, Jeff Richmond is a Second City director. That's how they met. He is ten years older than she is.

As a head writer for "Saturday Night Live" (1975) she has written the Old French Whore, The View, Sully and Denise and the Monica Lewinsky skits, among many, many others.

Fey's mother is from Greece

Was voted one of People's 50 Most Beautiful in the World.

Her father is German/Scottish-American, and her mother is Greek.

Told "Bust" magazine in 2004 that she considers herself a feminist.

In her first session as a member of the "Saturday Night Live" (1975) writing staff, the 5'4" Tina found discovered that she was a foot shorter than the mostly male writing staff, and felt for a while as if she'd shrunk.

Attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 1992.

Graduated from Upper Darby High School.

Recorded the voices for the British and German princesses for Williams' "Medieval Madness" pinball machine.

Tina and her husband, Jeff Richmond, had a girl, Alice Zenobia Richmond, on September 10, 2005.

She is an alumna of the Famous Improv Olympic, along with actors Vince Vaughn, the late Chris Farley, Ossie Beck, Mike Myers, Amy Poehler, and Adam McKay.

Close friends with fellow "Saturday Night Live" (1975) cast member, Amy Poehler.

Is often compared to Nana Mouskouri, to whom she bears a striking resemblance. This may be due to both women's common Greek ancestry and the fact that they both have black-rimmed glasses as their trademark.

Born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, the same town in which "Saturday Night Live" (1975) alumna Cheri Oteri (a cast member when Fey was writing on SNL) grew up.

In June 2008, rated the hottest woman for 2008, after having improved from last years 7th place according to Afterellen.com's "2008 Hot 100 List", a compilation of 100 Hot women voted in by the LGBTQ community.

Her hometown, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, is also where Todd Rundgren grew up. They both had the same algebra teacher, although 20 years apart.

Regarding the scar on Fey's left cheek, in an interview in Vanity Fair, husband Jeff Richmond says a stranger slashed Fey's face when she was five years old. He says the incident occurred in the front yard of her house.

Is a big fan of Star Wars movies and often uses references to the movies in her roles and writing.

Revealed in an interview that she did not lose her virginity until she was 24 years old. She also revealed that she was a virgin when she met her husband, and that he is the only man she has ever been intimate with.

Returned to work one month after giving birth to her daughter Alice in order to resume filming "Saturday Night Live" (1975).

Recipient of the 2010 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given annually by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Is semi-fluent in German. She says about herself that she speaks "less than first-grade" German.

Tina is five months pregnant with her second child [April 7, 2011].

Personal Quotes

The cover story of New York Magazine this week is "Baby Panic".  This goes perfectly with the other magazines on my coffee table - "Where Are The Babies?" (US), "Why Haven't You Had A Baby?" (People) and "For God's Sake Have A Baby" (Time). Thanks, Time magazine, this is just what I need - another article so depressing that I can actually hear my ovaries curling up.

Prostitutes in Lyons, France, sent a fax to the government to complain that they are losing business to Eastern European women who are protected by the Albanian mafia. Okay, first of all, how rough-looking are these French prostitutes that all their customers are running to the Albanians? Secondly, why did they send a fax, and from whence? Do they have a fax machine in the whorehouse, or did they all trundle down to Kinko's - "You fax these, I'll let you shave me." Thirdly, how come French whores know how to work a fax machine, but every time I try to use it, I hit Powersave, or I forget to dial 9? This just proves what my boyfriend always says - that I am dumber than a French whore.

[on her six-week maternity leave] I had to get back to work . . . NBC has me under contract; the baby and I only have a verbal agreement.

[on Matthew McConaughey] He was always taking his shirt off, he's like "Yeah, here's my deal, I'm hot." We had a meeting one day at like 11 o'clock, right before the show and he walks into the meeting shirtless wearing this like old musty sarong . . . He doesn't smell great, no.

[on Paris Hilton] She's a piece of shit. The people at ["Saturday Night Live" (1975)] were like, "Maybe she'll be fun, maybe she won't take herself so seriously". She takes herself so seriously! She's unbelievably dumb and so proud of how dumb she is. She looks like a tranny up close . . . Also, you would walk down the hall and find what just looked like nasty wads of Barbie hair on the stairs . . . Her hair is like a Fraggle.

[on the idea of future Sarah Palin skits on "Saturday Night Live" (1975)] I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5. So, if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me.

[on her resemblance to Sarah Palin] I was resistant to acknowledge there was a resemblance. But my kid saw her and said, "That's Mommy", so I thought, "Oh, great".

Mary Tyler Moore was a working woman whose story lines were not always about dating and men. They were about work friendships and relationships, which is what I feel my adult life has mostly been about.

On first drawing up "30 Rock" (2006): We wanted to make sure that everything we did with Liz Lemon rang true on some level - to me or to one of the other women in the room. And we did kind of know we were going into her as . . . well, as the opposite of a "Sex and the City" (1998) character. She's not about wish fulfillment or fantasy. I personally am a big fan of SATC - but it's pretty and it's fun to watch, like candy. One is a fairy tale, and the other is a grim fairy tale. I do really enjoy "Sex and the City" (1998) in spite of what I just said. I think I identify with Miranda. The redhead lawyer. I enjoyed her story lines most.

I had a great time doing [Sarah Palin] but it was one of the strangest things that's ever happened to me. You can grow up thinking, 'I want to be on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) one day' or 'I want to be in a movie some day', but you never think, 'I hope there's a politician who looks just like me.' So much of everything I've ever done has come out of hard work and just hanging in there, being the last one standing at the bar - and then to have that fall in my lap was just crazy. Having done plays in Chicago for two actors and then all of a sudden people are just saying, 'Yes! Put the outfit on! You can say whatever you want!'

I studied the usual acting methods at college - Stanislavsky and whatnot but none of it really clicked for me. At The Second City, I learnt that your focus should be entirely on your partner. Suddenly it all made sense.

Stepping into the "Saturday Night Live" (1975) studio for the first time was momentous. The only equivalent would be doing "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992) - stepping into the show that I grew up watching. And it has a live audience. Even with a taped audience, you can get them jacked up and they know it's their job to pretend they like it. But especially in New York, that live audience is a real proving ground.

I think there's a huge overlap in the middle, where funny is just funny - everyone gets it and laughs at that. But then I think there are certain kinds of jokes that women prefer and certain kinds that men prefer. Like, men will gravitate towards screaming and bears fighting robots. On the female side, if left alone, we will drift towards more and more character detail and minutiae. The tiniest behaviour will amuse us.

I am obsessed with things like strippers and Playboy Playmates. I'm obsessed with portraying that as how grim I think it is. My friend Stephnie Weir did the best version of a sketch that I was always figuring out how to do. She did it perfectly, playing a stripper at a bachelor party who had to bring her kid because the babysitter fell through. The discomfort of that really makes me laugh.

A portion of "30 Rock" (2006) is autobiographical. Our world is a little more bent, but the relationships reflect the kind of over familiarity and competitiveness mixed with friendship mixed with contempt. It's a very, um, specific kind of workplace. The one thing about our show was that we could never portray writers as heroic. They're the least heroic, most cowardly, lazy group of people you could spend time with.

"30 Rock" (2006)'s fast-talking style comes from the fact that our show needs to be two and a half minutes longer than it is - I'm trying to fit five pounds' worth of ideas into a two-pound bag".

I work, and then whenever I have any other time, I'm with my daughter, and then I go to sleep. I think you basically have to abandon the dreams of having any other adult activities in your life. You have to go to sleep whenever your child goes to sleep. That's basically how we're doing it.

I try to keep learning, but I do think there is some . . . If you ask someone else, they would probably tell you there is something to do with gender and telling the truth about women. At least, as truthfully as I can see it. To let them be flawed in the way they are flawed. I don't know. I like to write about women, not so much about the way they relate to men, but about the way they relate to each other. And I don't think anyone's really doing it.

[on wearing a Princess Leia costume for a "Saturday Night Live" (1975) sketch] You put that costume and that wig on and nerds go bananas. People were just staring at me in the hall, all these extras and background people and nerds wanted to talk to me all of a sudden. Guys have a real weird thing for that outfit.

[on Paris Hilton on "Saturday Night Live" (1975)] She just wanted to make fun of all the girls she hates. She was like, Jessica Simpson, I hate her.' She would come in the room and say, 'You should do a show about 'Jessica Simpson' because she's fat.'

Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin! [2009 Emmy acceptance speech.]

Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.

[on performing in Improv]: You have to be resilient in that world. You have to fight your way in and hopefully you are playing with good players and their give and take is good and they will let you in. I always liken it to basketball. If you get passed to once in a game, you have to learn to make that basket or you don't get passed to again.

I'm not that good looking... nobody is that good looking. I have seen a lot of movie stars and maybe four are amazing looking. The rest have a team of gay guys who make it happen.

Salary

"30 Rock" (2006) $300,000/episode (2009-10)

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