Rise to Fame
She didn't have a plan. An art major at the University of Arizona, she took an acting class as an elective and ended up at The Groundlings in Los Angeles, where Lorne Michaels eventually spotted her. She joined SNL midway through Season 31 in 2005, and spent seven years building some of the most committed character work the show had seen: Dooneese with her tiny hands, Penelope the one-upper, Gilly the mischievous schoolgirl. When Judd Apatow cast her in Knocked Up, he liked her enough to immediately ask her to write a screenplay. She did. Bridesmaids came out in 2011, earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and she walked off SNL before the show could outlast her.
In the Spotlight
Her film career after Bridesmaids was uneven. She was fine in The Martian and the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, less fine as the villain Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984. The turnaround came with Palm Royale, an Apple TV+ comedy where she starred and executive produced and earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2024. Time named her to their 100 Most Influential People list for the second time in 2025 (the first was in 2012). She's now attached to Cut Off alongside Jonah Hill and Bette Midler (Warner Bros., 2026) and a Bill Murray comedy called Epiphany. Prestige TV fixed what Hollywood couldn't.
Side Notes
She has described herself as shy, which doesn't explain Dooneese or Penelope except to say the characters are nothing like her. She still paints and draws. Her grandfather emigrated from Norway and became a broadcaster in Rochester, where she grew up. She had twins via surrogacy in January 2020 and married actor Avi Rothman around the same time. She keeps that part of her life almost completely off the record.