Tina Fey

Tina Fey (birthname: Elizabeth Stamatina Fey) was the first female lead writer of Saturday Night Live, a position in which she established herself as perhaps the leading American female comic writer-performer of her generation.

Along with her extraordinary success in a string of hit shows (largely for NBC), Fey has expanded into feature films, which began in earnest with the runaway hit, Mean Girls (2004), which she wrote (with Mark Waters directing) and played a supporting role with cast mates Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler, and Ana Gasteyer, with the $17-million production grossing $130 million, spawning a made-for-TV sequel, a 2018 Broadway musical (which Fey co-wrote with composer-husband Jeff Richmond and lyricist Nell Benjamin), and a film adaptation of the musical, Mean Girls: The Musical (date to be announced), which Fey also wrote and revives her role as Ms. Norbury.

Fey has delivered voice performances in the Adult Swim feature, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007); in the English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo (2008); in a lead role in DreamWorks Animation’s $321-million-grossing Megamind (2010) with Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt; as the narrator of Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ documentary, Monkey Kingdom (2015); in a co-lead role in writer-director Pete Docter’s acclaimed Disney animated film, Soul (2020), with Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Graham Norton, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, and Questlove; and in a cameo voice role (as Vacuuming Mom) in the live-action comedy, Free Guy (2021), starring Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, and Taika Waititi, and directed by Shawn Levy.

Tina Fey had her first starring role in a movie she didn’t write with writer-director Michael McCullers’ comedy for Universal, Baby Mama (2008), co-starring with Amy Poehler, and with Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, and Sigourney Weaver. Fey played support in Ricky Gervais’ and Matthew Robinson’s comedy, The Invention of Lying (2009), with Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., and Rob Lowe, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Fey starred in her first major box-office hit (as an actor only) in director-producer Shawn Levy’s $152-million-grossing crime comedy, Date Night (2010), co-starring Steve Carell, Taraji P. Henson, Common, and Mark Wahlberg, and released by 20^th Century Fox.

Fey expanded her range as co-star opposite Paul Rudd in the drama-tinged Admission (2013), produced and directed by Paul Weitz, with Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen, and Wallace Shawn. After appearing with Ricky Gervais and Ty Burrell and The Muppets in Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Fey co-starred in her second drama-inflected movie, and her second movie with director-producer Shawn Levy, the $41.3-million-grossing This is Where I Leave You (2014), with Jason Bateman, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, and Jane Fonda. Tina Fey (also producing) reunited on the big screen with her longtime comedy collaborator, Amy Poehler, as co-stars of the Paula Pell-written comedy, Sisters (2015), grossing a solid $105 million for Universal Pictures.

Fey continued as star-producer of the fact-based war comedy-drama, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), with Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton, though it received indifferent critical response and box office. Tina Fey co-starred with Jon Hamm in the little-seen black comedy, Maggie Moore(s) (2023), directed and produced by John Slattery, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Fey then took on a very different kind of role in Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation, A Haunting in Venice (2023), opposite Branagh (as Poirot), Kelly Reilly, and Michelle Yeoh.

Tina Fey has played herself in three features—first in a cameo in director-writer Barry Levinson’s political satire, Man of the Year (2006), starring Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Jeff Goldblum, Lewis Black; then in the documentary portrait, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (2013), directed and produced by Chiemi Karasawa; and in another tribute feature to another funny lady, Betty White: A Celebration (2022), released by Fathom Events.