Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler (born September 16, 1971, Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.) is an American comedian and actress who was a cast member of Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 2001 to 2008 and starred in the popular television sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–15), which she also produced.

Early life and education

Poehler’s father, Bill, and mother, Eileen (née Milmore) Poehler, were both school teachers. She grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts. Poehler attended Boston College, where she joined an improvisational comedy group called My Mother’s Fleabag. In 1993 Poehler received a bachelor’s degree in media and communications.

Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade

That year she moved to Chicago to study improv and pursue a comedy career. She took classes at iO (then known as ImprovOlympic) and the Second City, and she began to meet other aspiring actors and improv performers who would play an important role in her future career. Among them was Tina Fey. Together they joined an improv group called Inside Vladimir and performed in the Second City’s Touring Company. Poehler also became a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), an improv troupe that included Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh.

In 1996 Poehler relocated with other members of the UCB to New York City, where the troupe performed in various venues and eventually opened its own theatre space and improv training centre. The troupe occasionally performed on the TV show Late Night with Conan O’Brien, during which Poehler made surprise appearances in the studio audience as an intense, orthodontic-headgear-wearing teenage character named Stacy, the supposed little sister of O’Brien’s on-air sideman, Andy Richter. In 1998 the UCB landed an eponymous long-form improv show on Comedy Central, which aired until 2000.

Saturday Night Live

Poehler’s work with the UCB eventually led to roles in films such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and Wet Hot American Summer (2001). In 2001 she was hired as a cast member on SNL. Among the other cast members during her first season were Fey, Rachel Dratch, and Seth Meyers, all of whom she had worked with or met through performing improv in Chicago. In 2004 she and Fey became anchors for SNL’s “Weekend Update,” the first time in the show’s then 30-year history that two women led that segment. When Fey left SNL in 2006, Poehler paired up with Meyers to anchor “Weekend Update.” Poehler remained a cast member on SNL until 2008. Some of her memorable celebrity impressions during her tenure include Hillary Clinton, Dakota Fanning, Tonya Harding, Avril Lavigne, and Kelly Ripa.

In 2003 Poehler married actor Will Arnett. During her SNL years, she appeared in several episodes of the television series Arrested Development (playing the wife of Arnett’s character) and the films Blades of Glory and Man of the Year (both 2006). She continued to work with Fey, notably in the hit film Mean Girls (2004), which Fey cowrote and in which both Poehler and Fey had acting roles. During the 2008 U.S. presidential race, Fey appeared with Poehler in an SNL sketch in which Poehler portrayed Hillary Clinton and Fey impersonated Sarah Palin. It became one of the most talked about sketches in SNL history.

Parks and Recreation and Inside Out

After leaving SNL, Poehler began work on Parks and Recreation, a “mockumentary” sitcom about mid-level bureaucrats in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Poehler played Leslie Knope, the town’s Parks and Recreation Department’s earnest and ambitious deputy director. She led a talented cast that included Nick Offerman as her grumpy libertarian-leaning boss and comic foil, Ron Swanson. Poehler also served as producer of the show, which ran until 2015.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

In 2013 Poehler hosted the Golden Globe Awards with Fey. They were so well-received as the award show’s hosts that they returned to cohost several more times in the years to come. In 2014 Poehler published a memoir, Yes Please. Two years later, her divorce from Arnett was finalized. The couple had separated in 2012. They have two sons.

In 2015 Poehler lent her voice to Pixar’s Inside Out, about a young girl whose family moves to a new city. The poignant comedy centers on her emotional struggles, and Poehler was cast as Joy. The film won an Academy Award for best animated feature, and she reprised the role for Inside Out 2 (2024).

Producing and directing

Poehler served as producer on many more projects, including the television series Welcome to Sweden (2007), The Mighty B! (2008–11), Broad City (2014–19), Russian Doll (2019–22), and Duncanville (2020–22) and the film Sisters (2015), which reunited her with Fey as well as fellow SNL alumnae Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph.

In 2019 Poehler directed her first feature film, Wine Country, about a group of friends who travel to Napa Valley in California for a 50th birthday celebration. In it Poehler starred with Dratch, Rudolph, Fey, and another SNL alumna, Ana Gasteyer, as well as Paula Pell and Emily Spivey. Poehler also directed and produced the Netflix film Moxie (2021) and the documentary Lucy and Desi (2022). In 2023 Poehler and Fey teamed up yet again, this time for a comedy tour of the United States.

Awards

Poehler has received many award nominations throughout her career. In 2010 she received a Webby Award for best actress for her role as host of Smart Girls at the Party, a web series she created with producer Meredith Walker and composer Amy Miles. Her other award wins include a Golden Globe in 2014 for her role in Parks and Recreation, a Writers Guild of America Award in 2015 for cowriting the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy in 2016 for hosting SNL with Fey. In 2015 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.