Kristen Wiig



Kristen Carroll Wiig (pronounced /ˈwiːɡ/; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Wiig was a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings,and has appeared in several films and television series, including Bridesmaids, MacGruber, Flight of the Conchords, Adventureland, and Paul. Her voice acting credits include "Ruffnut" in How to Train Your Dragon, "Miss Hattie" in Despicable Me and "Lola Bunny" in the series The Looney Tunes Show.

In 2011, Wiig co-wrote and starred in Bridesmaids, receiving nominations both for her acting and writing, which included the Golden Globe for Best Actress, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and the Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Original Screenplay.[4] She is the first female SNL cast member to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Life and Career

 * 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 Upstate New York.[5] [6]


 * Her father is of Norwegian and Irish ancestry and her mother is of English and Scottish descent.[7] The name "Wiig" hails from the area of Sogn og Fjordane in Norway.[8]


 * She moved with her family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at the age of three.


 * Wiig later moved to Rochester, New York, where she attended and graduated from Brighton High School.[9]


 * After a short stint at Roanoke College, Wiig went on to attend the University of Arizona with a major in art.[10]


 * She took an acting class in university to fulfill a course requirement; her teacher suggested she continue to act.[10]

She also performed in Jake Kasdan's Walk Hard, another Apatow-produced film, and in David Koepp 's Ghost Town. Wiig has also appeared in Greg Mottola's Adventureland, Mike Judge's Extract, and in Whip It, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. Wiig also had a lead role in Greg Mottola's Paul. Wiig also appeared as the yoga teacher in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
 * She dropped out and relocated to Los Angeles, where she joined The Groundlings while working odd jobs to support herself.
 * Wiig's work has mostly been in comedy, including performing at the Empty Stage Comedy Theatre.[11] 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.[1
 * Wiig was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series[13] for her work on Saturday Night Live for 2009,[14] 2010 and 2011.
 * 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 clips.
 * Following Amy Poehler's departure in the 34th season to work on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, Wiig was the only female regular cast member on SNL until Abby Elliott was promoted to a repertory player in the show's 36th season.[citation needed]
 * In December 2008, Wiig was featured in Entertainment Weeklys list of 15 Great Performances for her various impersonations on Saturday Night Live[16] and in April 2009, Wiig was featured in EWs list of the 25 Funniest Women in Hollywood.[17] She also has a role as the voice of Lola Bunny in the series The Looney Tunes Show, which premiered in 2011.
 * Wiig made her big-screen debut in Judd Apatow’s 2007 comedy Knocked Up as a passive-aggressive assistant.
 * In 2010, she appeared in the films MacGruber, the animated comedy Despicable Me, and Andrew Jarecki's All Good Things.
 * 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.[18] 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 movie grossed over $280 million worldwide.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18">[19]
 * Kristen Wiig was married to actor Hayes Hargrove from 2005 until 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19">[20]

SNL (Saturday Night Live)
Wiig debuted on Saturday Night Live shortly into its 31st season, on November 12, 2005.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-usatoday_2-1">[3] She survived an SNL budget cut,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11">[12] becoming a full member of the repertory cast at the beginning of the show's 32nd season in 2006. Her characters include Penelope, a neurotic attention-seeker; Kat, half of the musical duo Garth and Kat (frequently appearing on Weekend Update alongside Fred Armisen); Dooneese Maharelle on the Lawrence Welk show; Mindy Grayson in the Secret Word sketches, Gilly, a highly mischievous schoolgirl; Sue, who can't control her excitement over surprises; The Target Lady, a clerk at the chain store and a kitsch collector; Shanna, a sexy woman whose actions and stories gross people out; Cheryl Bryant, a TV game show host who gives away big prizes and is always more excited about the prize than the winners are; Judy Grimes, a nervous travel agent; Toni Ward, predatory host of the Cougar Den; and Aunt Linda, a hard-to-please movie critic, both frequently appearing on Weekend Update. She has also played real-life people such as Björk, Suze Orman, Lana Del Rey, Kathie Lee Gifford, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Taylor Swift, Christine O'Donnell, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and socialite Kris Jenner.

Filmography
See Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Wiig#Filmography