Kristen Wiig
☼ Born on 22 December 1973, in Canandaigua, New York, USA
Biography
Kristen Carroll Wiig was born on August 22, 1973 in Canandaigua, New York, to Laurie J. (Johnston), an artist, and Jon J. Wiig, a lake marina manager. She is of Norwegian (from her paternal grandfather), Irish, English, and Scottish descent. The family moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, before settling in Rochester, New York. When Wiig was 9 years old, her parents divorced and she lived with her mother and older brother Erik.
After graduating from Brighton High School in Rochester, Wiig attended the University of Arizona as an art student. She took her first acting class, as an elective, and was soon encouraged by her teacher to pursue acting. Years later, she moved to Los Angeles and Wiig worked as a main company member of the Los Angeles-based improv and sketch-comedy troupe The Groundlings. As a Groundlings alumna, she joins the ranks of such SNL cast mates as Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Phil Hartman, and Jon Lovitz.
Wiig made her big-screen debut to universal high praise as Katherine Heigl's passive-aggressive boss in Judd Apatow's smash-hit comedy Knocked Up (2007). Additional film credits include Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It (2009), starring Elliot Page; Greg Mottola's Adventureland (2009), with Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg; David Koepp's Ghost Town (2008), with Ricky Gervais; and Jake Kasdan's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), another Apatow-produced film, in which she starred opposite John C. Reilly. She has also guest-starred on
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the Emmy-winning NBC series 30 Rock (2006), the HBO series Bored to Death (2009), with Jason Schwartzman, and Flight of the Conchords (2007).
Wiig joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975) in 2005, and was known for playing such memorable characters as the excitable Target clerk, Lawrence Welk singer Doonese, the hilarious one-upper Penelope, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Suze Orman, among others. Wiig earned four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show. She left the show in the spring of 2012.
In 2011, Wiig co-wrote and starred in Bridesmaids (2011), along with Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, and Rose Byrne. The film was a box office hit and won several awards, plus earned two Oscar nominations (Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay), and two Golden Globes nominations (Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and Best Actress).
Wiig also appeared in such notable films as Greg Mottola's Paul (2011), opposite Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; Andrew Jarecki's All Good Things (2010), opposite Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella; DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon (2010), with Gerard Butler and Jay Baruchel; the Universal Pictures' animated feature film Despicable Me (2010), starring Steve Carell and Jason Segel; and Jennifer Westfeldt's Friends with Kids (2011), opposite Jon Hamm, Megan Fox, Adam Scott, Maya Rudolph and Westfeldt.
In the role of actor
Despicable Me 4 (03/07/2024)
Gru and his family are forced into witness protection in Despicable Me 4. Gru (Steve Carell) is in danger when his newly caught archnemesis Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), a flamboyant human-cockroach hybrid, escapes from prison and vows revenge with his girlfriend Valentina (Sofía Vergara). Anti-Villain League head Silas Ramsbottom (Steven Coogan) relocates Gru, his […]
Wonder Woman 1984 (17/01/2021)
We revisit the Amazon princess, as she faces a new threat in 1980s American in Wonder Woman 1984. 66 years after her adventures during the First World War, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) has taken residence in Washington D.C., where she works at the Smithsonian Institution, while secretly fighting crime as Wonder Woman. At the Smithsonian, Diana […]
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (21/02/2019)
The adventures of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless conclude in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. A year after being made chieftain of Berk, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), along with Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig), and Tuffnut (Justin Rupple), have set it among themselves to rescue dragons from hunters and bring them back home […]
Downsizing (31/12/2017)
A man gets shrunk down in the hope for a better life in Downsizing. Norwegian scientist Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen (Rolf Lassgård) has discovered a method to shrink the human body down to a height of only five inches, in an effort to combat overpopulation. Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is a cash-strapped man living in Omaha, who decides […]
Wonder Woman (03/06/2017)
The best known female superhero finally hits the big screen in Wonder Woman. Diana (Gal Gadot) is princess of the island of Themyscira, home to the Amazons. Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) forbids Diana to train to become a warrior, though she ends up practicing in secret with her Aunt General Antiope (Robin Wright). One day, […]
The Martian (07/10/2015)
An astronaut finds himself stranded on the surface of Mars in The Martian. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is a botanist on the Ares III mission to Mars, lead by commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). When a storm results in an emergency evacuation, Mark is hit with debris and presumed dead. However, it turns out that Mark survived […]
Welcome to Me (27/05/2015)
A woman with borderline personality disorder becomes a talk show host in Welcome to Me. Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig) is a bi-polar woman, who only has one close friend in the form of Gina (Linda Cardellini) and Alice spends most of her time watching videotaped episodes of Oprah. Unexpectedly, Alice wins an $86 million lottery […]
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (17/06/2014)
The dragon-riding Vikings return in Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2. It has been five years since the village of Berk have made peace with the dragons that roam the land. Having come of age, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) has been asked by his father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), to succeed him as […]
Her (19/12/2013)
Spike Jonze returns as the writer and director of this very unconventional love story. Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is a socially awkward man, whose job involves writing love letters for other people. Theodore is currently in the middle of a divorce with his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara) and finds himself quite lonely, with his only real […]
Despicable Me (17/07/2010)
It may not be Pixar, but I thought that Despicable Me was a very decent animated film. It’s also the first of two animated films this year to feature a villain in the lead role (the other being Megamind). The villainous aspect is part of what makes this film fun to watch, since the character of […]
Adventureland (07/04/2009)
I have to admit that Adventureland was not the type of film that I was expecting, since I found that it was more character-driven than comedy driven. However, I opened up to the film and found it a decent coming of age story. There are still fun bits within the film, usually courtesy of Bill […]