# Tina Fey
**Tina Fey** (born Elizabeth Stamatina Fey, 1970, in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer best known for her work on *Saturday Night Live* and the sitcom *30 Rock*.[1](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey) She became *Saturday Night Live*'s first female head writer, created and starred in the Emmy-winning workplace comedy *30 Rock*, and wrote the 2004 film *Mean Girls*, later adapted into a Broadway musical and a movie musical.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/tina-fey/) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Elizabeth Stamatina Fey; born 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania[1](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey) |
| Training | Drama major at the University of Virginia (graduated 1992); The Second City improv troupe in Chicago[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275486/bio/) • [2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/tina-fey/) |
| SNL record | Joined the writing staff in 1997; first female head writer in the show's history (1999); co-anchor of "Weekend Update"[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/tina-fey/) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) |
| Signature series | *30 Rock*, NBC, 2006–2013; won Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and drew a record 22 Emmy nominations for a comedy series in a single season (2009)[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) |
| Film work | Wrote and co-starred in *Mean Girls* (2004), nominated for a Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; starred in *Date Night* (2010)[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) |
| Memoir | *Bossypants* (2011), a New York Times best-seller for 39 consecutive weeks, over 1.5 million copies sold[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) |
| Honors | Youngest-ever recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2010)[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) |
| Recent work | Co-created and stars in the Netflix series *The Four Seasons* (2025), with a second season released in 2026[5](https://time.com/7281530/the-four-seasons-netflix-tina-fey/) • [6](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-four-seasons-season-2-news-photos-release-date) |
## Early life and Chicago training
Fey grew up in Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia, where her mother worked at a brokerage firm and her father wrote grants for the University of Pennsylvania.[1](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey) When she was five years old, an unknown attacker came up to her in the front yard of her home and cut her face with a knife, and the resulting scar remains with her.[1](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey)
She studied drama at the [University of Virginia](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-virginia), graduating in 1992, and then moved to Chicago, where she trained and performed with the improvisational companies iO and [The Second City](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-second-city).[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275486/bio/) • [7](https://improvarchive.org/people/tina-fey) By 1994 she had been invited to join The Second City's mainstage cast.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/tina-fey/) While performing there in the mid-1990s she began dating her director, [Jeff Richmond](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeff-richmond), whom she later married; she decided to leave the ensemble and pursue a writing job at *Saturday Night Live*.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/11/what-we-can-learn-from-tina-fey-workplace-comedies) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) She also performed a two-woman show with Rachel Dratch to critical acclaim in Chicago in 1999 and New York in 2000.[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275486/bio/)
## Saturday Night Live
Fey joined *Saturday Night Live*'s writing staff in 1997.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/tina-fey-from-spoofer-to-movie-stardom-1923552.html) In 1999 she was promoted to head writer, the first woman to hold the position in the show's history.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/tina-fey/) Her success in the writers room led to performing: she emerged to appear in sketches and became co-anchor of the "Weekend Update" news parody segment, a persona described by one scholar of her comedy as a no-nonsense feminist making acidic jokes about institutionalized sexism.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) • [10](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63135/1/Havas_thesis_March_2017.pdf) She spent nine seasons at the show in the roles of head writer, cast member, and "Weekend Update" co-anchor, winning an Emmy and two Writers Guild Awards for her writing.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey)
In the 2008 presidential campaign her impersonations of the Republican vice-presidential nominee [Sarah Palin](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-palin) made her internationally famous, and she won the 2009 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for the portrayal.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/tina-fey-from-spoofer-to-movie-stardom-1923552.html) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) In a 2026 interview she defended the Palin sketches as a "fair hit," while acknowledging that some of her other jokes over the years had been "on the wrong side."[11](https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/culture/tina-fey-saturday-night-live-b2960945.html)
## 30 Rock
Fey's experience as *SNL*'s head writer became the basis of *30 Rock*, the NBC workplace comedy she created, wrote, produced, and starred in as [Liz Lemon](https://www.edgepedia.org/liz-lemon), the head writer of a sketch show behind the scenes of a live variety program.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/11/what-we-can-learn-from-tina-fey-workplace-comedies) • [12](https://time.com/archive/6678515/do-not-adjust-your-set/) The show won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series three times, in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and in 2009 it received a record 22 Emmy nominations, the most ever for a comedy series in a single season; it ended its seventh and final season in 2013.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) Unlike earlier three-camera sitcoms, *30 Rock* used a more intimate single-camera approach filmed without a live studio audience.[13](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/tina-fey/)
The character of Liz Lemon, harried and unglamorous, both drew on Fey's own life and diverged from it, a dissonance scholars have read as part of the show's treatment of women's workplace authority; Fey herself has said, "I wouldn't want her to do anything that I wouldn't do."[14](https://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FOCUS2014final.pdf) • [10](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63135/1/Havas_thesis_March_2017.pdf) In 2020, Fey apologized for episodes of *30 Rock* that featured white performers in blackface, even though the jokes had targeted racist characters, and had those episodes pulled from streaming services.[5](https://time.com/7281530/the-four-seasons-netflix-tina-fey/)
## Mean Girls and film career
Fey expanded to feature films in spring 2004 as both screenwriter and actress in *Mean Girls*, a satire of in-fighting among a clique of popular high school girls that drew on her own experience of feeling like an outsider; it earned her a Writers Guild Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) • [15](https://parade.com/911986/debrawallace/tina-fey-mean-girls/) Critics praised it as a "sociological" take on "girl world," and it has had a long afterlife: a 2018 Broadway musical, and a 2024 movie musical with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin, with Fey again writing the script.[10](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63135/1/Havas_thesis_March_2017.pdf) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/11/what-we-can-learn-from-tina-fey-workplace-comedies) • [16](https://apnews.com/article/75de59c6152887645f83977b296ad3bd)
Her subsequent films included *Baby Mama* with [Amy Poehler](https://www.edgepedia.org/amy-poehler), which exceeded $50 million at the U.S. box office, *Date Night* opposite [Steve Carell](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-carell) and a voice role in DreamWorks' *Megamind* (both 2010), *Admission* (2013), *Muppets Most Wanted* (2014), *This Is Where I Leave You* (2014), *[Sisters](https://www.edgepedia.org/sisters-2015-film)* with Poehler (2015), and *Whiskey Tango Foxtrot* (2016).[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) • [1](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey)
## Books, awards, and later television
In April 2011 Fey published her first book, the memoir *Bossypants*, which topped the New York Times best-seller list for 39 consecutive weeks and had sold over 1.5 million copies by its paperback release in January 2012.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) In 2010 she became the youngest recipient of the [Mark Twain Prize for American Humor](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-twain-prize-for-american-humor); she has also won two Gracie Awards and a Made in New York Award.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey) She and Amy Poehler hosted the Golden Globes together in 2013 and again for the pandemic-era 2021 ceremony held over video links, where they opened by mocking the [Hollywood Foreign Press Association](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-foreign-press-association).[17](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-xpm-2013-oct-15-la-et-mn-globes-fey-poehler-oscars-20131015-story.html) • [18](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-02-28/golden-globes-2021-tina-fey-amy-poehler-monologue)
Fey co-created the Netflix comedy *Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt* and later produced the workplace sitcom *Great News*; her series *Girls5eva* and *Mr. Mayor* continued the ensemble comedy style she developed in Chicago.[1](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey) • [7](https://improvarchive.org/people/tina-fey) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/11/what-we-can-learn-from-tina-fey-workplace-comedies)
## The Four Seasons and a turn toward warmth
In 2025 Fey co-created and starred in *The Four Seasons*, a Netflix dramedy following three middle-aged couples through a year of seasonal vacations, based on [Alan Alda](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-alda)'s 1981 film of the same name; her co-creators were Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield.[5](https://time.com/7281530/the-four-seasons-netflix-tina-fey/) • [19](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/the-four-seasons-cast/) The series marked a deliberate departure from the joke-a-minute style of her earlier shows, replacing rapid-fire satire with what one critic called a moving depiction of marriage and friendship among Gen X empty nesters; Fey told *The Hollywood Reporter* in 2025 that it came at a moment when she was living the midlife pressures the series explores, including caring for an aging parent and raising children.[5](https://time.com/7281530/the-four-seasons-netflix-tina-fey/) • [20](https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/celebrities/tina-fey-aging-caregiving/) A second season began streaming on Netflix in June 2026, reuniting Fey with [Will Forte](https://www.edgepedia.org/will-forte), Kerri Kenney-Silver, Colman Domingo, Marco Calvani, and [Erika Henningsen](https://www.edgepedia.org/erika-henningsen).[6](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-four-seasons-season-2-news-photos-release-date)
## Personal life
Fey lives in New York with her husband, Jeff Richmond, a composer, and their two daughters.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey)
## References
1. [Tina Fey – Movies, Husband & Book, Biography.com](https://www.biography.com/actors/tina-fey)
2. [Tina Fey, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/tina-fey/)
3. [Tina Fey – Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/tina-fey)
4. [Tina Fey – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275486/bio/)
5. [The Four Seasons Reveals a Side of Tina Fey That's Been Hiding in Plain Sight, TIME](https://time.com/7281530/the-four-seasons-netflix-tina-fey/)
6. [The Four Seasons Season 2 Is Now Streaming, Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-four-seasons-season-2-news-photos-release-date)
7. [Tina Fey, The Improv Archive](https://improvarchive.org/people/tina-fey)
8. ['Suck it monkeys, I'm going corporate': what we can learn from Tina Fey's workplace comedies, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/11/what-we-can-learn-from-tina-fey-workplace-comedies)
9. [Tina Fey – From spoofer to movie stardom, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/tina-fey-from-spoofer-to-movie-stardom-1923552.html)
10. [Sofia Havas (2017), thesis on Tina Fey's comedy, University of East Anglia](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63135/1/Havas_thesis_March_2017.pdf)
11. [Tina Fey opens up on SNL regrets and the joke she still defends, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/culture/tina-fey-saturday-night-live-b2960945.html)
12. [Do Not Adjust Your Set, TIME](https://time.com/archive/6678515/do-not-adjust-your-set/)
13. [Tina Fey, Pioneers of Television, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/tina-fey/)
14. [FOCUS Media Journal (2013–14), UC Santa Barbara Film and Media Studies](https://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FOCUS2014final.pdf)
15. [Tina Fey Opens up About the Inspiration Behind Mean Girls, Parade](https://parade.com/911986/debrawallace/tina-fey-mean-girls/)
16. [Mean Girls gets a musical update, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/75de59c6152887645f83977b296ad3bd)
17. [Tina Fey believes Golden Globes is a much easier gig than the Oscars, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-xpm-2013-oct-15-la-et-mn-globes-fey-poehler-oscars-20131015-story.html)
18. [Tina Fey, Amy Poehler lampoon HFPA in Golden Globes monologue, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-02-28/golden-globes-2021-tina-fey-amy-poehler-monologue)
19. [Meet the Cast of Netflix's The Four Seasons, Marie Claire](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/the-four-seasons-cast/)
20. [Tina Fey Says Aging Feels Like 'Reverse Puberty', AARP](https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/celebrities/tina-fey-aging-caregiving/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen people overview*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license