Tina Fey

Biography: Second City, Mean Girls, Sarah Palin, and More

Tina Fey was born as Elizabeth Stamatina Fey on May 18th, 1970. Tina was a nickname, one which she carried on into her professional career. (1)

Fey grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in a two parent home. In Bossypants, Fey describes her parents as well-meaning but humorous- her mother gave her a “My First Period” kit that included a pamphlet titled “Growing Up and Liking It.” (2) Meanwhile, her loving and supportive father was once described as a “boss, bold, bladed motherfucker,” (2). Fey’s description of her childhood is largely positive, though she was slashed in the face by a stranger when she was in Kindergarten and still has the scar to prove it (2).

Pictured: Fey wearing a “kickass white denim suit” that she claimed was the catalyst for her transition into womanhood (2)

Fey’s introduction into the world of performance was at a youth theater program in her hometown. The program, called Summer Showtime, was a place for teenagers to direct children’s theater. This “haven for gay teens,” as Fey called it, provided Fey with one of her first jobs- the night box office manager (2). During her second summer at the program, Fey began directing shows with casts of “sixty twelve year olds,” (2).

After devoting time to the theater in her childhood, Fey studied drama at the University of Virginia in the early 1990’s (1, 2). After college, she took a job at a Chicago Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). This position came after a failed series of job interviews at various establishments, and Fey writes that she was “turning out to be college educated and unemployable in even the most basic way,” (2).

During her time at the YMCA, Fey started taking improvisational comedy (improv) classes in the evenings. She studied at a theater in Chicago called The Second City, which has historically been the stomping grounds of big-name comedians  such as John Belushi, Steve Carell, and Amy Poehler. She worked for the Second City Touring Company, which traveled around the country performing improv in “church basements and community centers,” (2). Fey worked on an improv team called “Blueco,” which was given “the worst gigs.” Such gigs included high school prom shows, which Fey describes as being designed to “keep kids from drinking or having sex on prom night.” (2)

Pictured: Fey during her time at Second City in Chicago

In 1997, Fey interviewed for a writing position with Saturday Night Live. By that September, she was one of the few women writing for the show (2). By 1999, Fey was SNL’s first female head writer. By 2000, she regularly appeared onscreen as one of SNL’s “Weekend Update” coanchors (1).

During her time at SNL, Fey also broke into the world of film. She wrote the script for Mean Girls, a comedy about teenage girl culture in high school. The premise was partially based on Rosalind Wiseman’s book Queen Bees and Wannabes, which discussed girls’ high school cliques and their damaging effects. Fey played the role of a teacher in the film, which also starred her longtime friend and Second City cast member Amy Poehler. The film grossed 129 million dollars worldwide after its 2004 release and is considered by many to be a cinematic classic (3). A sequel was released in 2011 on ABC Family and by March of 2018, a Broadway musical by the same name garnered Fey 12 Tony nominations (4).

“It’s not my fault that I have a heavy flow and a wide-set vagina.” – Fey’s favorite quote from Mean Girls (5)

After eight seasons at SNL, Fey was ready to move on to a new phase of her career. NBC executive and SNL creator Lorne Michaels suggested that she try to come up with a sitcom to pitch to NBC. By 2005 Fey had fleshed out the idea for 30 Rock, a sitcom where Fey would play Liz Lemon, the head writer of an SNL-style comedy show called “TGS with Tracy Jordan.” After bringing stars like Tracy Morgan,  Jane Krakowski, and Alec Baldwin on board, the show premiered in 2006.

Pictured: A promotional image for 30 Rock

“I had mixed feelings about this. I now had an eight month at home, and I wasn’t sure that this new seventy-hour-a-week job was, as disgraced politicians say, ‘in the best interest of my family at this current juncture at the present time.'” – Fey on starring in 30 Rock after the birth of her daughter (2)

As the creator and producer of 30 Rock, Fey was tasked with being the boss of the operation. In her memoir Bossypants, she writes that one of her main strategies as a boss was to hold a “no hotheads” policy. She explains that she hires “the most talented people who are the least likely to throw a punch in the workplace,” (2). Though she hired spectacular talent such as Donald Glover to write the show, its premier episode was relatively unpopular.

“You know that saying ‘Dance as if no one is watching’? Well, that’s what we were doing. We were dancing with abandon, and no one was watching. Actually, about five and a half million people were watching, but that counts as nothing.” – Fey on the premier of 30 Rock (2)

Using intellectual and often surreal humor to advance its plot, 30 Rock investigated many topics related to show business and womanhood. Plots revolved around the selfishness of stars such as Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), the capitalistic interests of Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), and the often comically sad love life of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). Satire was the name of the game for 30 Rock, and the show became known for its unique sense of humor.

Though Fey admits that she and her team were trying to make a “hit show” instead of a “low-rated critical darling,” 30 Rock ended up as the latter (2). The show never achieved the Home Improvement ratings that Fey hoped for, it and its stars was the recipient of many awards- multiple Primetime Emmy awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards for Fey and Baldwin, a Television Critics Association Award, multiple Golden Globes, and a Peabody Award were all on the list.

Fey’s humor on and off 30 Rock is often self-deprecating, though she avoids jokes that make her seem weak as a leader or less than a man. She often practices physical comedy that relates to womanhood, with topics including menstrual products and “pelvic braces.” Her humor often touches on the political as well, with Fey generally holding liberal and feminist sentiments.

Pictured: Fey playing Liz Lemon in a pelvic brace

In August of 2008, presidential hopeful John McCain announced that Sarah Palin would be his vice presidential nominee. Fey’s husband noted that Palin resembled her, which Fey initially wrote off because she thought the similarity came down to “brown hair and glasses,” (2). After Palin accepted the nomination, Lorne Michaels came to Fey to discuss a possible stint on SNL. Fey would play Palin in the show’s cold open, though she was initially unsure about the idea. After Seth Myers wrote what Fey called a “very good sketch,” she decided to play the part. The sketch was wildly popular, and Fey appeared in several cold opens as Sarah Palin in the coming weeks.

During 30 Rock‘s run, Fey also worked as an actress in various films. In 2008, she starred in Baby Mama with her longtime friend Amy Poehler. In 2009, she voiced a character in the animated film Ponyo and appeared in The Invention of Lying. In 2010, she starred in Date Night alongside Steve Carell. Later that year, she voiced a character in the DreamWorks film Megamind. In 2013, she starred in Admission with Paul Rudd and in 2014, she starred in This is Where I Leave You. After 30 Rock‘s final season, she continued appearing and voicing in various films such as Monkey Kingdom and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. 

In 2015, Fey created and produced the Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The show follows Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) as she adjusts to life in New York City after being rescued from a doomsday cult. The show ran for four seasons and was nominated for 18 Primetime Emmy Awards.

While Fey continues to have a presence in the comedy world, she does not appear onscreen nearly as much as she did in her days on SNL and 30 Rock. This is largely because of her decision to spend more time with her husband and children. In an interview with David Letterman, she explains that she dimply doesn’t have it in her to work a comedian’s hours (7). Fey still appears on SNL from time to time and she appeared most recently in 2018.

Fey’s Experiences as a Woman in Comedy:

In Bossypants, Fey writes about the “institutionalized gender nonsense” she experienced at Second City in Chicago.

“A director of one of the main companies once justified cutting a scene by saying, ‘The audience doesn’t want to see a scene between two women.'” (2)

“In 1995, each cast at The Second City was made up of four men and two women. When it was suggested that they switch one of the companies to three men and three women, the producers and directors had the same panicked reaction. ‘You can’t do that. There won’t be enough parts to go around. There won’t be enough for the girls.’ This made no sense to me, probably because I speak English and have never had a head injury.” (2)

Her status as “a white woman from the suburbs” served her well when she was hired at SNL, as her placement was considered a “diversity hire” at the time (2). However, her status as a white woman did not stop her from getting hate from the Internet later in her career. In Bossypants, she shares some of the Internet comments she has received- one called her “an ugly, pear-shaped, bitchy, overrated troll” while another claimed that she “cheated” by having plastic surgery (she did not).

Fey has responded to sexist criticism with humor, deftly shooting down sexists with witty commentary. In this video, she reclaims the word “bitch.”

Fey even went on David Letterman’s show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction and called him out for not hiring more women, which this blogger considers to be pretty badass. (6)

Impacts and Influences:

As the first female head writer for SNL, Fey paved the way for female comedians and comedy writers on television. While there were female comedy writers on television before her, she was one of the first to write and star in her own show (8). On My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, she discusses how women’s presence on the SNL cast and crew created a diversity of comedy never seen on the show before. She gives the example of the Kotex Classic commercial parody, which she argues would never have gotten on the air without the presence of female crewmembers (7).

Fey’s use of a “single-camera” approach to filming 30 Rock was also seen as an innovation in the sitcom world, as a “three-camera” approach was common prior to the show’s creation (9).

Tina Fey and Feminism:

By paving the way for female comedy writers on television, Tina Fey had already solidified herself as a feminist icon. By performing physical comedy about touchy subjects such as menstruation, she helped to normalize taboo subjects on television. By not reducing her agency even when she is self deprecating, she shows us that women can be powerful and funny. She has also been outspoken about her feminism throughout her career. In Bossypants, she writes about the feminism behind the first Sarah Palin SNL cold open:

“What Seth and Amy wrote, however, was two women speaking out against sexism in the campaign. In real life these women experienced different sides of the same sexist coin. People who didn’t like Hillary called her a ballbuster. People who didn’t like Sarah called her Caribou Barbie. People attempted to marginalize these women based on their gender. Amy’s line ‘Although it is never sexist to question female politicians’ credentials’ was basically the thesis statement for everything we did over the next six weeks. Not that anyone noticed. You all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn’t even realize it because of all the jokes…. That night’s show was watched by ten million people, so I guess the director at The Second City who said the audience ‘didn’t want to see a sketch with two women’ can go shit in his hat.” (2)

Fey speaks about feminism in many of her interviews and speeches, as a quick Youtube search can tell you. In this “Women are not Cappuccino Machines” speech, she explains why a single woman’s presence in any field simply isn’t enough:

Works Cited

(1) Whitney, Barbara. “Tina Fey.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 Jan. 2019, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Tina-Fey.

(2) Fey, Tina. Bossypants. Little, Brown and Company, 2013.

(3) Brody, Richard. “Why ‘Mean Girls’ Is a Classic.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2018, http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/why-mean-girls-is-a-classic.

(4) Minton, Melissa. “So Fetch: The ‘Mean Girls’ Musical Is Leading the 2018 Tony Award Nominations.” Glamour, Glamour, 1 May 2018, http://www.glamour.com/story/mean-girls-2018-tony-awards-nominations.

(5) Keaney, Quinn. “14 Years Later, Tina Fey Reveals Her Favorite (NSFW) Quote From Mean Girls.” POPSUGAR Entertainment, 16 Apr. 2018, http://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Tina-Fey-Favorite-Line-Mean-Girls-44734933.

(6) “Tina Fey Calls out David Letterman – CNN Video.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 May 2018, http://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/05/05/tina-fey-calls-out-david-letterman-orig-tc-2.cnn.

(7) Bonfiglio, Michael. “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.” Season 1, episode 5, Netflix, 2018.

(8) Stanley, Alessandra. “Tina Fey Signs Off, Broken Barriers Behind Her.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/arts/television/tina-fey-signs-off-30-rock-broken-barriers-behind-her.html.

(9) “Tina Fey.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/tina-fey/.

(Photo One Credit: http://splitsider.com/2014/11/saturday-nights-children-tina-fey-2000-2006/)

(Photo Two Credit: Bossypants)

(Photo Three Credit: https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/June-2014/Inside-the-Second-City-Circa-1997/)

(Photo Four Credit: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/arts/television/tina-fey-signs-off-30-rock-broken-barriers-behind-her.html)