Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, to Xenobia "Jeanne" (Xenakes), a brokerage employee, and Donald Henry Fey, who wrote grant proposals for universities. Her mother is Greek, born in Piraeus, while her father had German, Northern Irish, and English ancestry. Going by the name of Tina, 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 lives in New York City.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Reece

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (7)

Black plastic-rimmed glasses



Characters with embarrassing addictions to junk food



Characters with unsuccessful or embarrassing relationships



Her Sarah Palin impression



Characters wanting to be mothers



Facial scar on left side



Trivia (33)

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





Is the first-ever female head writer of Saturday Night Live (1975).

Was chosen by Entertainment Weekly as the #8 Entertainer of the Year for 2001.





Has one brother, Peter Fey , who is eight years older than Tina.



Met her husband, Jeff Richmond , when he was a Second City director. He is 10 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.

Her paternal grandfather, Heinrich "Henry" Fey, was the son of German immigrants, and her paternal grandmother, Mildred Ada (Ritchie), had English, German, and Northern Irish ancestry. Tina's mother is Greek, born in Piraeus, to Constantine "Gus" Xenakes and Vasiliki Kourelakos.



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



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 had shrunk.

Attended and graduated from Upper Darby High School in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania (1988).



Received her Bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia (1992).



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





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. They both had the same algebra teacher, although 20 years apart.

Rated the hottest woman in Afterellen.com's "2008 Hot 100 List", a compilation of 100 Hot women voted in by the LGBTQ community, up from seventh place in 2007. [June 2008]





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 huge fan of the 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.



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.





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



Was four months pregnant with her daughter Penelope Richmond when she took maternity leave from filming 30 Rock (2006).



Returned to work two months after giving birth to her daughter Penelope Richmond to resume filming 30 Rock (2006).

Was the youngest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize.





Wrote a remake of Bye Bye Birdie (1963) that was to be directed by Jon M. Chu . But the project was canceled due to budget concerns.



Gave birth to her first child at age 35, a daughter Alice Zenobia Richmond on September 10, 2005. Child's father is her husband, Jeff Richmond



Gave birth to her second child at age 41, a daughter Penelope Athena Richmond on August 10, 2011. Child's father is her husband, Jeff Richmond

Can improvise certain parts of Tracy Morgan's speech and personality.



She and her cousin were mistaken for prostitutes in a casino while on vacation in Monaco.



Personal Quotes (33)

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 storylines 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 someday", 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.".

[her 2009 Emmy Award acceptance speech] 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!



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.



[on getting her first period at age 10] I knew from commercials that one's menstrual period was a blue liquid that you poured like laundry detergent onto maxi-pads to test their absorbency. This wasn't blue, so I ignored it for a few hours.



Lie and say "Yes! I lost all my baby weight! Can you believe it?". And people will be like "Good for you!" and they won't really look.





[to Anne Hathaway at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards presentation] You gave a stunning performance in "Les Miserables". I have not seen someone so totally alone and abandoned like that since you were onstage with James Franco at the Oscars.

Many of the world's greatest discoveries have been by accident. I mean, look at the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or Botox. There are no mistakes, only beautiful happy accidents.



I think every working mom probably feels the same thing: you go through big chunks of time where you're just thinking, "This is impossible -- oh, this is impossible." Then you just keep going and keep going and you sort of do the impossible.



[on being ridiculed and belittled on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis] You know what? There is a level of malice to your whole behavior and questioning style that's like, while it's kind of humorous, it's actually very cowardly. It's almost like you're being willfully obtuse in these questions to make some kind of vague point about the fatuous nature of celebrity interviews which is a pretty well-trod observation - I mean, yes we all agree that celebrity interviews are vacant and empty and at the same time you *asked* me to come here, you called me to do this as a favor and then I come here and you're very rude to me, it's almost like "Oh, I'll be rude to a celebrity, to prove that I'm too cool to be caring about celebrity," at the same time increasing your own "celebrity."



I have no affinity for animals. I don't hate animals and I would never hurt an animal; I just don't actively care about them. When a coworker shows me cute pictures of her dog, I struggle to respond correctly, like an autistic person who has been taught to recognize human emotions from flash cards. In short, I am the worst.



I don't have a driver's license. It's just one of the many ways in which I am developmentally stunted. ... Things most people do naturally are often inexplicably difficult for me.



Salary (2)