Biography for
Tina Fey More at IMDb Pro »

Date of Birth

18 May 1970, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA

Birth Name

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey

Height

5' 4½" (1.64 m)

Mini Biography

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, in 1970 to Donald and Jeannec Fey. Going by the name of Tina, Ms. Fey considered herself a "supernerd" during her high school and college years. She studied drama at the University of Virginia, and after graduating in 1992, she headed to Chicago, the ancestral home of American comedy. While working at a YMCA to support herself, she started Second City's first set of courses. After about nine months, a teacher told her to just skip ahead and audition for the more selective Second City Training Center. She failed but about eight weeks later, she re-auditioned and got into the year-long program. She ended up spending many years at The Second City in Chicago where many SNL cast members first started out. Then in 1995, "Saturday Night Live" (1975) came to The Second City's cast, including Fey's friend, Adam McKay, as a writer, searching for new talent. What they found was Tina Fey. When Adam was made Head writer, he suggested Fey should send a submission packet over the summer with six sketches, 10 pages each. Tina took the advice and sent them. After Lorne Michaels met her and saw her work she was offered a job a week later. She admitted that she was extremely nervous working in the legendary Studio 8H; being a foot shorter than everyone else, younger, and being one of the only female writers at the time. After a few years, Tina made history by becoming the first female head writer in the show's history. Tina also made her screen debut as a featured player during the 25th season by co-anchoring Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon. Since Tina and Jimmy have taken over Weekend Update it has been considered the best ever. This year she made it to full fledged star by becoming a regular cast member, though she is hardly on the show, besides Update. And during the past two summers, Tina and Rachel Dratch performed their two-woman show to critical acclaim in both Chicago (1999) and New York (2000) and made their Aspen Comedy Festival Debut. Tina is married to Jeff Richmond, a Second City director and currently lives in New York City.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Reece

Spouse

Jeff Richmond

(3 June 2001 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark

Black plastic-rimmed glasses

Trivia

Came out of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, where she was a writer-performer.

She is "Saturday Night Live" (1975)'s first-ever female head writer.

Was chosen by Entertainment Weekly as the #8 entertainer of the year for the year 2001

Brother: Peter, who is 8 years older than Tina

Her husband, Jeff Richmond is a Second City director. That's how they met. He is ten years older than she is.

As a head writer for "Saturday Night Live" (1975) she has written the Old French Whore, The View, Sully and Denise and the Monica Lewinsky skits, among many, many others.

Fey's mother is from Greece

Was voted one of People's 50 Most Beautiful in the World.

Her father is German/Scottish-American, and her mother is Greek.

Told "Bust" magazine in 2004 that she considers herself a feminist.

In her first session as a member of the "Saturday Night Live" (1975) writing staff, the 5'4" Tina found discovered that she was a foot shorter than the mostly male writing staff, and felt for a while as if she'd shrunk.

Attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 1992.

Graduated from Upper Darby High School.

Recorded the voices for the British and German princesses for Williams' "Medieval Madness" pinball machine.

Tina and her husband, Jeff Richmond, had a girl, Alice Zenobia Richmond, on September 10, 2005.

She is an alumna of the Famous Improv Olympic, along with actors Vince Vaughn, the late Chris Farley, Ossie Beck, Mike Myers, Amy Poehler, and Adam McKay.

Close friends with fellow "Saturday Night Live" (1975) cast member, Amy Poehler.

Is often compared to Nana Mouskouri, to whom she bears a striking resemblance. This may be due to both women's common Greek ancestry and the fact that they both have black-rimmed glasses as their trademark.

Born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, the same town in which "Saturday Night Live" (1975) alumna Cheri Oteri (a cast member when Fey was writing on SNL) was born.

In June 2008, rated the hottest woman for 2008, after having improved from last years 7th place according to Afterellen.com's "2008 Hot 100 List", a compilation of 100 Hot women voted in by the LGBTQ community.

Her hometown, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, is also where Todd Rundgren grew up. They both had the same algebra teacher, although 20 years apart.

Personal Quotes

The cover story of New York Magazine this week is "Baby Panic".  This goes perfectly with the other magazines on my coffee table - "Where Are The Babies?" (US), "Why Haven't You Had A Baby?" (People) and "For God's Sake Have A Baby" (Time). Thanks, Time magazine, this is just what I need - another article so depressing that I can actually hear my ovaries curling up.

Prostitutes in Lyons, France, sent a fax to the government to complain that they are losing business to Eastern European women who are protected by the Albanian mafia. Okay, first of all, how rough-looking are these French prostitutes that all their customers are running to the Albanians? Secondly, why did they send a fax, and from whence? Do they have a fax machine in the whorehouse, or did they all trundle down to Kinko's - "You fax these, I'll let you shave me." Thirdly, how come French whores know how to work a fax machine, but every time I try to use it, I hit Powersave, or I forget to dial 9? This just proves what my boyfriend always says - that I am dumber than a French whore.

[on her six-week maternity leave] I had to get back to work . . . NBC has me under contract; the baby and I only have a verbal agreement.

[On Matthew McConaughey] He was always taking his shirt off, he's like "Yeah, here's my deal, I'm hot." We had a meeting one day at like 11 o'clock, right before the show and he walks into the meeting shirtless wearing this like old musty sarong... He doesn't smell great, no.

[On Paris Hilton] She's a piece of shit. The people at "SNL" were like "Maybe she'll be fun, maybe she won't take herself so seriously". She takes herself so seriously! She's unbelievably dumb and so proud of how dumb she is. She looks like a tranny up close... Also, you would walk down the hall and find what just looked like nasty wads of Barbie hair on the stairs... Her hair is like a Fraggle.

On the idea of future Sarah Palin SNL skits: "I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5. So, if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me."

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