Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler (birthname: Amy Meredith Poehler) is one of the defining comic voices of her generation across many media, including the movies, in which she has transitioned from pure performer to creator, often in collaboration with fellow comedy performer/creator, Tina Fey.

Poehler made her feature debut in director/writer/producer/actor Louis C.K.’s comedy, Tomorrow Night (1998), with an ensemble including Chuck Sklar, Martha Greenhouse, J.B. Smoove, Heather Morgan, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, and Conan O’Brien, and in the cult comedy, Wet Hot American Summer (2001), and then rode the wave of her phenomenal breakout success as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008 with feature film appearances in the smash hit comedy ($130 million gross), Mean Girls (2004), starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Fey under Mark Waters’ direction; and opposite leads Ben Stiller and Jack Black in the Barry Levinson-directed Envy (2004), with Rachel Weisz and Christopher Walken, and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia TriStar International.

Poehler joined another colorful ensemble in filmmaker Richard Kelly’s surrealist Los Angeles black comedy, Southland Tales (2006), with Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Geller, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, and Bai Ling, and which premiered at the Cannes film festival before dissolving in theatrical via Samuel Goldwyn Films/Destination Films/Universal Pictures/Wild Bunch.

Poehler reunited with Black in a supporting role in Black’s and Kyle Gass’s musical comedy, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006), and then landed a major supporting role in the Jesse Peretz-directed comedy, The Ex (2006), starring Zack Braff, Amanda Peet, Jason Bateman, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow, Donal Logue, Amy Adams, and Fred Armisen, and delivered over $5 million grosses for MGM and The Weinstein Company.

Amy Poehler joined the cast of the figure-skating comedy, Blades of Glory (2007), with Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Jenna Fischer, and Craig T. Nelson under the co-direction of Will Speck and Josh Gordon, and grossing a good $145.7 million for Paramount Pictures. Poehler then played wife to real-life husband Arnett in filmmaker Dave McLaughlin’s little-seen indie, On Broadway (2006).

Poehler then began a steady eight-year run doing voice roles in animated movies, starting with DreamWorks Animation’s hit ($813.4 million grossing) sequel, Shrek the Third (2007), with Mike Myers, Justin Timberlake, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Eric Idle, and Cameron Diaz; followed by Blue Sky Studios/20^th Century Fox Animation’s successful $300-million-grossing Dr. Seuss adaptation, Horton Hears a Who! (2008), with Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill; the franchise-launching Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) from DreamWorks Animation/Paramount, with Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Stephen Colbert, earning $381 million; 20^th Century Fox’s animated/live-action musical, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), with the voices of Justin Long, Christina Applegate, Matthew Gray Gubler, Anna Faris, and Jesse McCartney joining Poehler, under Betty Thomas’ direction, and taking in a strong $443 million; the U.S. English-language dub of Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki-written anime fantasy, Arriety (2010), with fellow dub cast members Arnett and Burnett, and grossing $146 million for Toho; the Weinstein Company-released sequel, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011), with voice cast members Hayden Panettiere, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton, Joan Cusack, Bill Hader, Martin Short, Andy Dick, David Ogden Stiers; Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011), with new cast mates Jason Lee and Jenny Slate, and earning a super $342.7 million; a co-starring role with Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson in Relativity Media/Reel FX Animation Studios’ poorly-received Free Birds (2013); and in Poehler’s most acclaimed vocal performance, as Joy, in Disney/Pixar’s smash hit, Inside Out (2015), directed and co-written by Pete Docter and with Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan, and grossing a huge $859 million.

Poehler during this period appeared in a few live-action features as co-lead or supporting, including the little-seen bomb, Shortcut to Happiness (shot in 2001 and released in 2007); New Line Cinema’s poorly-received comedy directed by Craig Gillespie, Mr. Woodcock (2007), starring Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, and Susan Sarandon; director-writer Michael McCullers’ rom-com, Baby Mama (2008), starring Tina Fey, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, and Sigourney Weaver, earning $64 million for Universal Pictures; co-writer/director Andrew Fleming’s comedy, Hamlet 2 (2008), co-starring Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, David Arquette, and Elisabeth Shue, and released by Focus Features after premiering at the Sundance film festival; a reunion with Poehler’s buddies at the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe, Freak Dance (2011), released in limited pattern by Image Entertainment and UCB Comedy; the little-seen comedy, A.C.O.D. (2013), with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O’Hara, Clark Duke, Jessica Alba, and Jane Lynch; another little-seen comedy-drama premiering at the Toronto film festival, Are You Here (2013), from director-writer Matthew Weiner and co-starring Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis; another poor-grossing feature, They Came Together (2014), from filmmaking partners David Wain and Michael Shwalter and co-starring Paul Rudd, and which premiered at the Sundance film festival.

Amy Poehler began to take on theatrical projects on which she acted and produced, beginning with Universal Pictures’ comedy, Sisters (2015), co-produced by Poehler’s co-star, Tina Fey, with Maya Rudolph, John Cena, John Leguizamo, and Dianne Weist, and grossing a solid $105 million. Poehler co-starred with Will Ferrell (who also produced with writer-director Andrew Jay Cohen and longtime collaborator Adam McKay) in Warner Bros./New Line Pictures’ widely dismissed comedy, The House (2017).

Poehler had her debut as feature director of Wine Country (2019), for which she also co-starred, wrote the story, and executive-produced, and which received a week-long theatrical release by Netflix, with a cast including SNL veterans Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, and Tina Fey. Poehler continued with Netflix (albeit without a theatrical release) as director, producer, and co-star of the comedy-drama, Moxie! (2021).

Amy Poehler was a producer and cast member of indie filmmaker Chelsea Peretti’s debut feature, First Time Female Director (2023), with Peretti, Megan Mullally, Andy Richter, Jordan Peele, Adam Scott, and Nick Kroll, which premiered at the Tribeca film festival and released by Roku. Poehler then returned to her voice role as Joy in Disney/Pixar’s long-awaited $200-million sequel, Inside Out 2 (2024), with new cast members Tony Hale, Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adele Exarchopoulos, and `Hauser.