Amy Poehler Biography / Pictures

Amy Poehler (born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian and actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 through to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls alongside Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is currently the lead star of a new NBC show titled Parks and Recreation. She was nominated for the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Biography

Amy was born in Burlington, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eileen and Bill Poehler, both teachers. A 1993 graduate of Boston College, Amy was a member of America's oldest collegiate improv comedy troupe, My Mother's Fleabag. After graduating from college, Amy moved to Chicago, where she studied improv at Second City alongside friend and future co-star Tina Fey. She also studied with Del Close at ImprovOlympic, going on to become part of the touring company as well as teaching classes at iO.

During her time at Second City, Amy studied with Matt Besser, part of the Upright Citizens Brigade. While the group initially consisted of many members (including Horatio Sanz, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, and Neil Flynn), Amy quickly became part of the group along with Matt Walsh. The two, along with Besser and Ian Roberts, performed sketch and improv around Chicago before moving to New York in 1996. Immediately after moving to New York, the group quickly scored a tv gig, appearing as sketch regulars on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In 1998, Comedy Central debuted the group's eponymous half-hour sketch comedy series. During the show's second season, the group opened an Improv theatre and training center in New York City at 161 W. 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.

Comedy Central canceled the Upright Citizens Brigade program after its third season, though the UCB theatre continues to operate. The foursome continue to work together in many projects, as well as frequently performing together in various live improv shows at their comedy theatres in NY and LA.

Amy joined the cast of SNL during the 2001–2002 season, her first episode being the first one produced after the 9/11 attacks with host Reese Witherspoon, musical guest Alicia Keys and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a special guest. Amy was promoted from featured player to full cast member in her first season on the show, making her only the third person to have ever earned this distinction (after Harry Shearer and Eddie Murphy).

Beginning with the 2004–05 season, she co-anchored "Weekend Update" with Tina Fey, replacing the newly departed Jimmy Fallon. In a TV Guide interview, Fey said that with Amy co-anchoring, there now is "double the sexual tension." When Fey left after the 2005-06 season to devote time to the sitcom she created, 30 Rock, Seth Meyers joined Amy at the anchor desk. Amy was nominated for a 2008 Emmy as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy, the first SNL cast member recognized in this category. On September 13, 2008, the SNL season premiere opened with Fey and Amy as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton doing a "joint political campaign spot." Amy plays Hillary Clinton as a highly accomplished, neurotic politician obsessed with becoming President of the United States.

It was officially announced on September 16, 2008 that Amy would be leaving in October due to the birth of her child. On the October 25, 2008 episode, it was announced by Weekend Update co-anchor Seth Meyers, who anchored the segment alone, "Amy Poehler is not here because she is having a BABY!", to wild applause from the audience. At the end of Weekend Update, special guest Maya Rudolph and current cast member Kenan Thompson sang a custom rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for Poehler, changing the words: "We love you Amy, and we just can't wait to meet your baby!" Meyers signed off: "For Weekend Update I'm Seth Meyers - we love you Amy!"

Amy returned to the show on November 3, 2008 during the "SNL Presidential Bash 08," "hosting" as Hillary Clinton. The Bash was pre-taped from bits and pieces shot between September and October. Her return to SNL after pregnancy was on December 6, 2008, where she stayed for two weeks. During "Weekend Update", on December 13, she thanked her family, friends, and fans for the continued support and announced that it would be her last show. On April 18 a Saturday Night Live special, The Best of Amy Poehler, aired.

Amy has appeared in films such as Wet Hot American Summer, Mean Girls, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, Blades of Glory, Envy, Shrek The Third, Mr. Woodcock,Hamlet 2 and the Mighty Bee. She is currently producing a digital series with two of her friends, Meredith Walker and Amy Miles, called Smart Girls at the Party available through ON Networks. The show is focused on interviews with young women who are "changing the world by being themselves". The first season of 'Smart Girls at the Party' premiered online November 17, 2008 with Mattel's Barbie signed on as the lead sponsor.

In the past, she often appeared in various comedy segments on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, often playing her recurring role as Andy Richter's little sister Stacy, and as a recurring character in two episodes of the college dramedy Undeclared. She appears in the film Southland Tales, which premiered on May 21, 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, she appeared in Horton Hears a Who!, Hamlet 2, and Baby Mama and will star in Spring Breakdown. She has also co-created an animated series for Nickelodeon called The Mighty B! about Bessie Higgenbottom, a "sweet, merit-badge-obsessed girl scout", to which she lends her vocal talents.

Amy appeared on the cover of the April 20, 2008 issue of Page Six Magazine.

Amy also appeared in the movie Mean Girls as the mother of co-star Rachel McAdams, although she is really only seven years McAdams's senior.

Variety.com reported on July 15, 2008, that she was in final negotiations to star in a series by writers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, set to air on Thursdays after The Office, starting January 2009 on NBC.

On July 21, 2008, NBC officially announced Poehler's new series, Parks and Recreation, saying the project will not be a direct spin-off of The Office, as previously speculated. Amy was featured in The Advocate for her role in the show.

Amy is married to Will Arnett, of the FOX comedy Arrested Development, and had a recurring role in the series as the nameless wife of Arnett's character George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II. Amy and Arnett also played a quasi-incestuous brother-sister ice skating team in the 2007 film Blades of Glory. The couple also appeared in Horton Hears a Who!, and will star together in the upcoming films On Broadway, Spring Breakdown, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They live in New York City and have two dogs, Puzzle and Suki. Amy was named one of People magazine's 100 most beautiful people for 2009.

On October 25, 2008, Amy gave birth to Archibald "Archie" William Emerson Arnett, 8 lbs, 1 oz, in New York City at 6 p.m., just hours before the Saturday Night Live telecast.