Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American actress and comedian. Known for her roles in sketch comedy, sitcoms and comedy films, she has earned acclaim and several accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for a Peabody Award and a Grammy Award. Poehler was included on Times list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to comedy in 2015.
Poehler started her career in improvisational theatre at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, and with the Upright Citizens Brigade in 1995. The group moved to New York City in 1996, where their act became a half-hour sketch-comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2001, Poehler joined the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live as a cast member, where she also served as a Weekend Update co-anchor starting from 2004 to 2008. She went on to produce and star as Leslie Knope in the sitcom Parks and Recreation for which she won a Golden Globe Award.
She frequently collaborated with Tina Fey on SNL and later acted with her in the feature films Mean Girls, Baby Mama, Sisters, and Wine Country. Together they co-hosted the Golden Globe Awards four times in the years 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2021, as well as SNL, the latter of which earned them the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award. Poehler served as an executive producer on the television series Welcome to Sweden, Broad City, Difficult People, Duncanville, Three Busy Debras, and Russian Doll. Poehler also voiced roles for the animated films Shrek the Third, Horton Hears a Who!, Monsters vs. Aliens, and the Inside Out franchise.
Poehler wrote the comedic book Yes Please and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. In 2025, she started the podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler, for which she won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Podcast. She is also known for championing causes which advance worker's rights and women's rights.
Early life, family and education
Poehler was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to school teachers Eileen and William Poehler. Poehler credits her father with encouraging her to break social protocols and take risks. She has one younger brother, Greg, who is also a producer and actor. Poehler's ancestry is Irish, along with German, Portuguese, and English; her Irish roots originate from County Sligo and County Cork. Her great-grandmother emigrated from Nova Scotia, Canada to Boston in the late 1800s. She was raised as a Catholic.Poehler grew up in nearby Burlington, Massachusetts, which she describes as a blue-collar town. Her favorite performers and influences included sketch comedians Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner, and Catherine O'Hara. When she was ten years old, Poehler played Dorothy Gale in her school's production of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. The experience inspired Poehler's love of performing. Poehler continued acting in school plays at Burlington High School. She also participated in other activities during her time in high school including student council, soccer, and softball.
After graduating from high school in 1989, she enrolled at Boston College. During college, Poehler became a member of the improv comedy troupe My Mother's Fleabag. She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in media and communications in 1993.
Career
1995–2000: Career beginnings in Improv comedy
Poehler's time studying improv in college inspired her to pursue comedy professionally. After graduating from college, she moved to Chicago, where she took her first improv class, taught by Charna Halpern at ImprovOlympic. Early on, Poehler worked as a waitress and at other jobs to earn money. Through ImprovOlympic, Poehler learned from Del Close, and she was introduced to friend and frequent collaborator Tina Fey. Poehler and Fey joined a Second City touring company at the same time, and Poehler went on to join one of Second City's main companies where Fey was her eventual replacement.File:Matt Walsh, Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts 2015.jpg|alt=|left|thumb|Matt Walsh, Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, and Ian Roberts at the Del Close Marathon in New York City in 2015
The Upright Citizens Brigade formed as a sketch and improv group in Chicago in 1991. Early members included Horatio Sanz, Adam McKay, Ian Roberts, Neil Flynn, and Matt Besser, although the membership was not static. McKay left the fledgling group in 1995 and Poehler became his replacement. In 1996, a core group of four UCB members, Poehler, Besser, Roberts, and Matt Walsh, moved to New York City. The "UCB Four" began performing shows at small venues around the city which evolved into four regular live shows after a few months. To earn money outside of the shows, UCB taught improv classes. Poehler also started making appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, often playing her recurring role as Andy Richter's younger sister, Stacy.
In 1998, Comedy Central debuted UCB's eponymous half-hour sketch-comedy series. During the show's second season, the group founded an improv theater/training center in New York City on West 22nd Street, occupying the space of a former strip club. The UCB Theatre held shows seven nights a week, in addition to offering classes in sketch-comedy writing and improv. In the summer of 2000, Comedy Central canceled the Upright Citizens Brigade program after its third season, although the UCB Theatre continued to operate. Poehler, Besser, Roberts, and Walsh are considered the founders of UCB and have been credited with popularizing long-form improv in New York. By 2011, UCB had two theaters in New York and a theater in Los Angeles with 8,000 students taking classes per year.
In 1999, Poehler and Tina Fey provided voices for the video game Deer Avenger 2: Deer in the City. In 2000, still unknown at the time, she appeared on the cover of the single "You Can Have It All" by American indie rock band Yo La Tengo. In 1999, Poehler had a small role in the film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. The following year, she was cast in the film Wet Hot American Summer. Wet Hot American Summer was the first film from David Wain, who cast Poehler based on her work with Upright Citizen's Brigade. The film, which cost only $1.8 million to make, was not a success initially when it was released in 2001. It gained a following after its release on DVD.
2001–present: ''Saturday Night Live'' and film work
Cast member (2001–2008)
Poehler joined the cast of Saturday Night Live at the start of the 2001–2002 season, after Tina Fey had tried to recruit her for SNL for years. Poehler made her debut in the first episode produced after the 9/11 attacks. She was promoted from featured player to full cast member in her first season on the show, making her the second cast member, and first woman, to earn this distinction. Poehler's recurring characters included hyperactive ten-year old Kaitlyn, one-legged reality show contestant Amber, and Bronx Beat talk show co-host Betty Caruso. In addition to her original characters, Poehler performed a number of impressions, including Hillary Clinton, Dakota Fanning, Avril Lavigne, Michael Jackson, Kim Jong-Il, Nancy Grace, Kelly Ripa, Katie Couric, Sharon Stone, Sharon Osbourne, Julia Roberts, Britney Spears, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Dolly Parton, Dennis Kucinich, Ann Coulter, Pamela Anderson, Christian Siriano, Rosie Perez, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Farrah Fawcett.Beginning with the 2004–2005 season, she co-anchored Weekend Update with Tina Fey, replacing Jimmy Fallon. Fey and Poehler became the first team of female co-anchors of the longtime SNL staple. Poehler, Fey, and Maya Rudolph were among the show's biggest stars that season and contributed to a shift in the show to featuring more female driven sketches. When Fey left after the 2005–2006 season to devote time to the sitcom she created, 30 Rock, Seth Meyers joined Poehler at the Weekend Update anchor desk. In 2008, Poehler was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, the first year SNL cast members were eligible for the category.
The SNL premiere of the 2008–2009 season opened with Fey and Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, respectively discussing sexism in political campaigning. The sketch, which Poehler co-wrote with Meyers, became the biggest viral video of the year. Days after the season premiere, NBC announced Poehler, pregnant with her first child, would not return after her upcoming maternity leave. On the October 25 episode, Meyers announced during Weekend Update that Poehler was in labor. At the end of Weekend Update, special guest Maya Rudolph and cast member Kenan Thompson sang a custom rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for Poehler. Poehler had been rehearsing for that week's show until the day before the birth.
After giving birth, Poehler appeared during a pre-taped "SNL Presidential Bash '08" prime time special on November 3. Despite the prior announcement that Poehler would not return after her maternity leave, she came back for two more live episodes. During the December 13 Weekend Update Poehler announced that it was her last show. Saturday Night Live aired a special, "The Best of Amy Poehler", in April 2009. For the 2008–2009 season finale, Poehler returned to co-host Weekend Update and joined host Will Ferrell's version of the Billy Joel song "Goodnight Saigon".
Off camera, Poehler was a prolific writer. She often collaborated with writer Emily Spivey. Meyers described Poehler as "the most generous laugher" during sketch read-throughs. Poehler would also take it upon herself to welcome guest hosts during rehearsals and try to make them feel comfortable during their stint on SNL.