- Born
- Birth nameElizabeth Stamatina Fey
- Height5′ 4½″ (1.64 m)
- Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, to Xenobia "Jeanne" (Xenakes), a brokerage employee, and Donald Henry Fey, who wrote grant proposals for universities. Her mother is Greek, born in Piraeus, while her father had German, Northern Irish, and English ancestry. Going by the name of Tina, 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 lives in New York City.- IMDb mini biography by: Rod Reece
- SpouseJeff Richmond(June 3, 2001 - present) (2 children)
- Children
- ParentsZenobia Xenakes
- RelativesPeter Fey(Sibling)
- Black plastic-rimmed glasses
- Characters with embarrassing addictions to junk food
- Characters with unsuccessful or embarrassing relationships
- Frequent references to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
- Her Sarah Palin impression
- Regarding the scar on Fey's left cheek, in an interview in Vanity Fair, husband Jeff Richmond says a stranger slashed Fey's face when she was five years old. He says the incident occurred in the front yard of her house.
- Is the first-ever female head writer of Saturday Night Live (1975).
- Revealed in an interview that she did not lose her virginity until she was 24 years old. She also revealed that she was a virgin when she met her husband, and that he is the only man she has ever been intimate with.
- Came out of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, where she was a writer-performer.
- Was the youngest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize.
- 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 [Saturday Night Live (1975)] 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.
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