Kristen Wiig

Kristen Wiig

Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She was born in Canandaigua, New York, and raised in both Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She later relocated to Los Angeles, where she broke into comedy as a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, and made her television debut in 2003. Wiig joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2005, and the following year, she appeared in the Christmas comedy film Unaccompanied Minors. After appearing in a series of supporting roles in comedy films such as Knocked Up (2007), Adventureland (2009), Whip It (2009), and Paul (2011), she starred in, and co-wrote the screenplay for the comedy film Bridesmaids (2011), which was both critically and commercially successful. The film earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy, as well as nominations for the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. Wiig provided her voice for the animated franchises Despicable Me (2010–17) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010–19), and was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role as Cynthia Morehouse in the comedy miniseries The Spoils of Babylon (2014). Wiig's other notable films include Girl Most Likely (2012), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), The Skeleton Twins (2014), Welcome to Me (2014), The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), The Martian (2015), Ghostbusters (2016), Downsizing (2017), Mother! (2017), and Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019).

Update this biography »
Complete biography of Kristen Wiig »