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Tina Fey (born May 18, 1970) is an American writer, comedian, and
actress. She is the  current head writer of
Saturday Night Live.

==Early years==
She was born Elizabeth Stamatina Fey in Upper
Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania|Philadelphia, in what was a
predominantly Greek-American and Italian American
neighborhood.  Her brother Peter remembers a
drawing she did when she was about seven: it
showed people holding hands, walking down the
street with wedges of Swiss cheese.  The caption
read, "What a friend we have in cheeses!"
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031103fa_fa
ct  

Fey was exposed to comedy early, saying:
:"I remember my parents sneaking me in to see
Young Frankenstein. We would also watch Saturday
Night Live, or Monty Python or old Marx Brothers
movies. My dad would let us stay up late to watch
The Honeymooners.   We were not allowed to watch
The Flintstones, though, which my dad hated
because it ripped off The Honeymooners. I actually
have a very low level of Flintstones knowledge for
someone my age."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/
entertainment/2539354

She studied drama at the University of Virginia,
graduating in 1992.  After graduation, she moved
to Chicago, Illinois|Chicago getting a job at a
residential YMCA by day so she could take classes
at The Second City by night. She learned that the
key to improvisation was to "focus entirely on
your partner. You take what they're giving you and
use it to build a scene."
http://www.believermag.com/issues/november_2003/ti
na_fey.htm By 1994 she was invited to join Second
City; she is also a veteran of  ImprovOlympic.

==Saturday Night Live==
With then head writer Adam McKay's help, Fey
became a writer for NBC's Saturday Night Live
(SNL) in 1997. In 1999, Fey became SNL's first
female head writer, a milestone she downplays
pointing out how few head writers the show has
had.   Now co-head writer, she won a 2001 Writers'
Guild of America Award for the show's Silver
Jubilee|25th anniversary special; she and the rest
of the writing staff won an Emmy in 2002 for their
work on the show.

===SNL sketches===
Some recurring sketch comedy|sketches written by
Fey include:
* Parody|Parodies of Live with Regis and Kelly and
The View
* Parodies of the Sharon Osbourne Show, cowritten
by Amy Poehler
* The Girl with No Gaydar, cowritten by Rachel
Dratch
* Boston Teens, cowritten by Rachel Dratch
She is also credited with:
* Colonel Angus, portrayed by Christopher Walken
in a sketch filled with word play on
cunnilingus|the colonel's name
* Mom Jeans commercial
* "Talkin 'Bout 'Ginas" (Parody of The Vagina
Monologues)

===Weekend Update===
In 2000 Fey and Jimmy Fallon became news
anchor|co-anchors of Weekend Update (sketch)|SNL's
Weekend Update, a pairing that ended in May 2004
when Fallon made his last appearance as a Saturday
Night Live cast|cast member. She now helms the
satirical newscast with Amy Poehler.

Fey's primary role on Weekend Update is as
performer, since most of the writing for the
segment is done by three or four writers dedicated
to the task.

==Other work==
She partnered with fellow cast member Rachel
Dratch in the critically acclaimed two-woman show
Dratch & Fey at the Upright Citizens Brigade
Theater in New York City, the U.S. Comedy Arts
Festival in Aspen, Colorado, and the Chicago
Improv Festival.  Lorne Michaels saw her at one of
the performances, which led to her becoming the
co-anchor of #Weekend Update|SNL's Weekend Update.


She also appeared in Martin & Orloff, a surreal
comedy which premiered at Austin, Texas|Austin's
South by Southwest Festival|SXSW.

Fey wrote the script and co-stars in the 2004 in
film|2004 movie Mean Girls.  Characters and
behaviors in the movie are based on Fey's high
school life at Upper Darby High School
(UDHS)|Upper Darby High School and on the
non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping
Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends,
and Other Realities of Adolescence (ISBN
0609609459) by Rosalind Wiseman.  The cast
includes other present and past cast members of
SNL including Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy
Poehler.

She is also developing a Situation comedy|sitcom
for NBC.

== External links ==

* http://imdb.com/name/nm0275486/ Tina Fey at
Internet Movie Database
*
http://www.alumni.virginia.edu/alumninews/fey.asp
University of Virginia Alumni Association article
*
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=18549
50 April 2004 interview on Fresh Air
* http://www.fallonfey.com/ Fan website for Jimmy
Fallon and Tina Fey