Tina Fey

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Date of Birth : May 18th 1970

Emmy-winning American writer, comedian and actress. Fey currently co-produces, writes and stars in the television program 30 Rock, a sitcom loosely based on her experiences at Saturday Night Live.

Fey was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, daughter of Jeanne, a brokerage employee, and Donald Fey, a university grant-proposal writer. Fey’s father has German and Scottish ancestry and her mother is Greek American. 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!”

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.”

Fey attended Cardington Elementary School and Beverly Hills Middle School. By middle school she knew she was interested in comedy, even doing an independent study project on the subject in eighth grade. She graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1988.

As co-head writer of SNL’s 25th anniversary special, Fey won a 2001 Writers Guild of America Award. She and the writing staff also won a 2002 Emmy Award for their work on the show.

In September 2005, she went on maternity leave after giving birth to a daughter, Alice Zenobia Richmond. Her Weekend Update role was covered by Horatio Sanz for several weeks before her return to the show on October 22, 2005, at which time she noted:”I had to get back to work. NBC has me under contract; the baby and I only have a verbal agreement.”

Fey confirmed during a July 2006 Tonight Show appearance that she would not be returning to SNL for its 2006-7 season.