Kristen Wiig

Kristen Wiig was born August 22, 1973, in Canandaigua, New York. She spent part of her childhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York, before her family moved to Roanoke, Virginia, and later to Tucson, Arizona. After studying art at the University of Arizona, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the Groundlings improvisational troupe.

Her breakout television job came on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where she was a cast member from 2005 to 2012. On the program, Wiig played recurring characters including Target clerk Dooneese, singer Gilly, and surprise-party host Sue. Her impressions included Kathie Lee Gifford, Björk, and Nancy Pelosi. She received four Primetime Emmy nominations for her SNL work.

Wiig co-wrote Bridesmaids with Annie Mumolo and starred as Annie Walker, a Milwaukee woman whose life unravels while serving as maid of honor for her friend Lillian, played by Maya Rudolph. The 2011 film was directed by Paul Feig and earned Wiig and Mumolo an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. It also received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Melissa McCarthy’s performance as Megan.

In film, Wiig voiced characters in the Despicable Me franchise, including Miss Hattie in Despicable Me and Lucy Wilde in Despicable Me 2. She played Barbara Minerva in the 2015 sequel and returned as Lucy in Despicable Me 3. Her voice roles include Ruffnut Thorston in How to Train Your Dragon and its sequels, as well as Brenda in the animated 2016 comedy Sausage Party.

Wiig portrayed journalist and photographer Cynthia Morehouse in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, opposite Ben Stiller, and played publicist Kelly Foster in The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott. She appeared in Ghostbusters as physicist Erin Gilbert, alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. In Wonder Woman 1984, she played Barbara Ann Minerva, an insecure Smithsonian gemologist who becomes the superpowered Cheetah.

On television, Wiig starred in IFC’s 2014 comedy miniseries The Spoils of Babylon, which spoofed lavish television epics and featured Tobey Maguire as narrator, with Wiig as Cynthia Morehouse. She later headlined Apple TV+’s Palm Royale, playing Maxine Simmons, an outsider trying to enter Palm Beach high society in 1969.

Wiig married actor Hayes Hargrove in 2005; they divorced in 2009. In 2020, she and actor Avi Rothman became parents of twins via surrogate. In 2024, Wiig received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for film comedy work and television.