Kristen Wiig

Kristen Wiig
File:Kristen Wiig TIFF 2014.jpg Wiig presenting Welcome to Me at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2014
Born	Kristen Carroll Wiig (1973-08-22) August 22, 1973 Canandaigua, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Arizona
Occupation	Actress comedienne writer producer
Years active	2003–present
Spouse(s)	Hayes Hargrove (m. 2005; div. 2009)
Website	kristenwiig.com
Comedy career
Medium	Television, film
Genres	Satire/political satire/news satire, improvisational comedy, sketch comedy
Subject(s)	American politics, American culture, current events, pop culture, mass media/news media
Notable works and roles	Saturday Night Live Bridesmaids

Kristen Carroll Wiig (/ˈwɪɡ/; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedienne, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (2005–12), and such films as Knocked Up (2007), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Paul and Bridesmaids (both 2011), Girl Most Likely (2013), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), the animated Despicable Me film series, The Skeleton Twins (2014) and The Martian (2015).

Born in Canandaigua, New York, and brought up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Rochester, New York, Wiig attended the University of Arizona, majoring in Art. She later relocated to Los Angeles, where she broke into comedy as a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings and made her television debut in 2003. Wiig joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2005 and the following year she co-starred in the Christmas comedy film Unaccompanied Minors. After appearing in a series of supporting roles in comedy films such as Knocked Up, Adventureland, Whip It, and Paul, she also starred in and wrote the screenplay for Bridesmaids, which was both critically and commercially successful.

Wiig received seven consecutive Emmy Awards nominations and has been nominated for an Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production for her work on Despicable Me 2. In 2012, Bridesmaids earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy, as well as nominations for the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay and a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. She was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role as Cynthia Morehouse in the miniseries The Spoils of Babylon.

Early life

Wiig was born in Canandaigua, New York, the daughter of Laurie J. (née Johnston), an artist, and Jon J. Wiig, who ran a lake marina in Western New York. Her father is of Norwegian and Irish ancestry and her mother is of English and Scottish descent. The name Wiig comes from the area of Sogn og Fjordane in Norway. Wiig moved with her family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at the age of three, and attended Nitrauer Elementary School. She later moved to Rochester, New York, where she attended the prestigious Allendale Columbia School for ninth and tenth grade and graduated from Brighton High School.

She left her first try at college, seeking fun and, eventually, soul-searching. During this time, she returned to Rochester, attended community college, and did a three-month outdoor living program. She had no performing ambitions at this time. Wiig attended the University of Arizona, majoring in Art. When she took an acting class in college to fulfill a course requirement, the teacher suggested she continue to act. She expected to start out a job at a plastic surgery clinic drawing pictures of people's post-surgery bodies, but decided to move to LA and act.

Early career

Kristen dropped out of school at 19 and relocated to Los Angeles to act while working odd jobs to support herself. She performed with Empty Stage Comedy Theatre and with The Groundlings. She felt improv was a better fit than acting, and being a part of the comedy group improved her skills. In 2003, she appeared in the Spike TV show The Joe Schmo Show, a spoof of reality television, in which she played "Dr. Pat", the quack marriage counselor.

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

Career

Television

Wiig debuted on SNL shortly into Season 31, on November 12, 2005. She survived an SNL budget cut, becoming a full member of the repertory cast at the beginning of Season 32 in 2006 up until 2012.

Wiig was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Saturday Night Live (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). In December 2009, she headlined in the Christmas special SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas, which featured new sketches with her character Gilly and highlights of older SNL clips. Wiig was featured in Entertainment Weekly's list of 15 Great Performances for her various impersonations on Saturday Night Live (December 2008) and in EW's list of the 25 Funniest Women in Hollywood (April 2009). As of 2011, she voiced Lola Bunny in the series The Looney Tunes Show.

Her final performance as a cast member on Saturday Night Live was Season 37, Episode 22, which aired on May 19, 2012. The show was hosted by Mick Jagger. The closing celebration of her time on the show included SNL alumni Amy Poehler, Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Will Forte and Rachel Dratch, as well as Steve Martin and Jon Hamm. She returned to host the program on May 11, 2013. Wiig appeared on the second episode of fellow SNL alumnus Jimmy Fallon's run on The Tonight Show from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City (February 19, 2014). In what appeared to be an unscripted spoof, she played the role of ideal boy band One Direction member Harry Styles. She returned as a special guest to appear in the monologue and several sketches of SNL again alongside host Bill Hader on October 14, 2014. Wiig's SNL comedic style has been widely praised but also criticized for leaving "little room for her female contemporaries to shine."[1]

At the 2015 Grammy Awards, Wiig joined with child-dancer Maddie Ziegler to give a concert dance performance alongside songwriter / recording artist, Sia, who sang her 2014 single 'Chandelier'.

Film

Wiig made her film debut in the 2006 Christmas movie Unaccompanied Minors The following year, she appeared in Judd Apatow's comedy Knocked Up as a passive-aggressive assistant and performed in Jake Kasdan's Walk Hard, another Apatow-produced film. In 2008, she had small roles in several films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and David Koepp's Ghost Town. In 2009, Wiig had supporting roles in Greg Mottola's Adventureland, Mike Judge's Extract, and Whip It, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. In 2010, she appeared in the films MacGruber, the animated comedies Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, and Andrew Jarecki's All Good Things. Wiig had her first lead role as Ruth Buggs in Greg Mottola's comedy Paul in 2011.

Later in 2011, she starred in the film Bridesmaids, which she co-wrote with fellow Groundlings performer Annie Mumolo for Universal Pictures, released on May 13, 2011. The film became both a critical and box office success, receiving two nominations for Best Picture-Musical or Comedy and Wiig herself was nominated for Best Actress-Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy at the 69th Golden Globe Awards. The film also received two Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for which Wiig and Mumolo were nominated. The second nomination was for Best Supporting Actress for co-star Melissa McCarthy. The film grossed over $280 million worldwide.

In 2014, Wiig starred with Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins. In 2015, she starred in Nasty Baby, as Polly, a family practitioner who is more interested in having a baby than having a man. The film was directed by Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva. Wiig also starred in Welcome to Me, a comedy-drama directed by Shira Piven which premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2014, news outlets reported that Wiig and Mumolo were writing a new comedy, which will see Wiig making her debut as a director. The name of the film and release date are yet to be confirmed. In January 2015, Wiig became one of the leading roles in the planned reboot of Ghostbusters with co-stars Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.

Personal life

Wiig was married to actor Hayes Hargrove from 2005 to 2009. She is a vegetarian.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Unaccompanied Minors	Carole Malone
2007	Knocked Up	Jill
2007	Meet Bill	Jane Whitman
2007	The Brothers Solomon	Janine
2007	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	Edith Cox
2008	Semi-Pro	Bear Handler
2008	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Yoga Instructor
2008	Pretty Bird	Mandy
2008	Ghost Town	Surgeon
2009	Adventureland	Paulette
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Pudgy Beaver Mom (voice)
2009	Whip It	Maggie Mayhem
2009	Extract	Suzie Reynolds
2010	How to Train Your Dragon	Ruffnut (voice)
2010	Date Night	Haley Sullivan
2010	MacGruber	Vicki St. Elmo
2010	Despicable Me	Miss Hattie (voice)
2010	All Good Things	Lauren Fleck
2011	Paul	Ruth Buggs
2011	Bridesmaids	Annie Walker	Also writer and producer
2012	Friends with Kids	Missy
2012	Revenge for Jolly!	Angela
2013	Girl Most Likely	Imogene	Also executive producer
2013	Despicable Me 2	Agent Lucy Wilde (voice)
2013	Her	SexyKitten (voice)
2013	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	Cheryl Melhoff
2013	Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues	Chani
2014	Hateship, Loveship	Johanna Parry
2014	The Skeleton Twins	Maggie
2014	How to Train Your Dragon 2	Ruffnut (voice)
2014	Welcome to Me	Alice Klieg	Also producer
2015	The Diary of a Teenage Girl	Charlotte
2015	Nasty Baby	Polly
2015	The Martian	Annie Montrose
2016	Zoolander No. 2	Alexanya Atoz	Post-production
2016	Sausage Party	Hot dog bun (voice)	Post-production
2016	Ghostbusters	Erin Gilbert	Post-production
2016	Masterminds	Kelly

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	The Joe Schmo Show	Dr. Pat	9 episodes
2004	I'm with Her	Kristy	Episode: "The Heartbreak Kid"
2004	The Drew Carey Show	Sandy	Episode: "House of the Rising Son-in-Law"
2005–2012	Saturday Night Live	Various	135 episodes
2007	30 Rock	Candace Van der Shark	Episode: "Somebody to Love"
2009	Flight of the Conchords	Brahbrah	Episode: "Love Is a Weapon of Choice"
2009–2010	Bored to Death	Jennifer Gladwell	3 episodes
2010	Ugly Americans	Tristan (voice)	Episode: "So, You Want to Be a Vampire?"
2010	The Cleveland Show	Mrs. Stapleton (voice)	Episode: "The Curious Case of Jr. Working at The Stool"
2011–2014	The Looney Tunes Show	Lola Bunny (voice)	25 episodes
2011	The Simpsons	Calliope Juniper (voice)	Episode: "Flaming Moe"
2011	SpongeBob SquarePants	Madame Hag Fish (voice)	Episode: "The Curse of the Hex"
2012	Portlandia	Gathy	Episode: "Cat Nap"
2013	The Simpsons	Annie Crawford (voice)	Episode: "Homerland"
2013	Saturday Night Live	Herself (host)	Episode: "Kristen Wiig/Vampire Weekend"
2013	Arrested Development	Young Lucille Bluth	7 episodes
2013	Drunk History	Patty Hearst	Episode: "San Francisco"
2014	The Spoils of Babylon	Cynthia Morehouse	6 episodes
2015	A Deadly Adoption	Sarah Benson	Television film
2015	The Spoils Before Dying	Delores O’Dell	6 episodes
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Courtney	3 episodes

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Kristen Wiig

• She was named one of PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities of 2011.
• She is part of Time's 2012 list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World.

External links

• Kristen Wiig at AllMovie
• Kristen Wiig at AllMusic
• Kristen Wiig at the Internet Movie Database
• Kristen Wiig at the TCM Movie Database
• Works by or about Kristen Wiig in libraries (WorldCat catalog)