When was kristen wiig at groundlings

Her surname, "Wiig", is Norwegian. She is the first actress to perform as Wonder Woman's foe, Cheetah. Announced her engagement to actor Avi Rothman after 3 years of dating on August 16, In January she and fiance Avi Rothman became parents of twins via surrogate. At parties, I'll start talking and notice everyone is looking at me and feel dumb and say, 'Forget it,' and then start eating things.

If you're creating anything at all, it's really dangerous to care about what people think. I can relate to having those people in your life that you feel are moving on to this great, big, normal life and you're like, 'What's wrong with me?

I don't rehearse a lot. I try to keep it organic. Even in movies, the less I rehearse, the better I am. For movies to get greenlit solely based on the success of other movies that have a lot of women in them? It's so ridiculous to me. Even in this day and age, if you're not married, there are people who are like, 'Awww! Don't worry, it'll happen for you someday. I don't know about the romantic comedy route, although never say never. With improv, it's a combination of listening and not trying to be funny.

When you go out of your comfort zone and it works there's nothing more satisfying. I think it's an interesting thing to watch when a person is trying to keep it together and then ultimately when they do lose it a little bit. I never think if I do an impression of someone, I'm never making fun of them.

I lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, until eighth grade, and then my high-school years were in Rochester, New York. I just like to walk around New York, just put my iPod on and walk around. I hated speaking in public. I would miss school just so I wouldn't have to do it. There's something about a Christmas sweater that will always make me laugh. The public doesn't want to hear people complaining about having their picture taken. People are always so surprised when I want to do dramatic stuff.

Mean comedy is not really something that I personally gravitate towards or something that I do. Maybe studios don't want to see women acting in a way that isn't womanly. Maybe people don't.

If I can be doing something in the arts till the day I die. She was sitting at the bar and we started talking, and she told me she wanted to go to the Groundlings, because that is where her brother got his start.

I was really fascinated by the story and after I saw a show for myself, the Groundlings was all I ever talked about at work. I had no money. But I really wanted to take classes at the Groundlings, and for my birthday the regulars at the bar and some of the wait staff chipped in and bought me my first improv class at the Groundlings.

We had rental on the building and were always trying to figure out how to pay the rent. We all paid dues. This is music to my ears. So I took notes every class, and I typed them up at the end. And it would be kind of refreshing every so often that somebody who was already very well established would take a Groundlings class—someone like Darryl Hannah, at the height of her fame, would take a Groundlings class, just to learn a different skill set.

It happens a lot. I feel like you could be a little bigger in your choices. And she made me laugh so hard at the beginning [when I was her teacher]. It took her a little while, but once everyone could hear her, she was the star of the show until she was snatched away. I really think you should look at incorporating music into your stuff because you are a really musical person. I really thought she was one of the funniest, smartest people I had ever seen.

And that was around the time she was on Mad About You , so I was a little star struck that my teacher was actually on T. And then there are some actors and comedians who know why they are funny and can articulate to you how they are doing it and Phil was one of those people.

He could tell you why he was funny and he could tell you why the scene was funny and why this character was funny. That made him an invaluable and incredible teacher. Not because you want this to be a stepping stone to Saturday Night Live. Can you cover my classes? But when I [debuted Pee-wee Herman onstage], that got a completely different reaction. This was a reaction that made me think, Wow, this means something. The very first thing I did outside of the Groundlings was put on my Pee-wee suit and answer a cattle call ad for The Dating Game.

I had been working as a messenger and some guy came in the office saying that he was going to put a computer system in. I am very gullible, but it was obvious he was lying.

He started making up all of this crap. I smuggle jewels from South Africa. My aunt taught me how. You said your name and then the audience would ask questions. I am a member of Pathological Liars Anonymous. I am the president of the organization. One was a woman and one was a creepy, odd, drooling guy. So I just played this surfer dumbs. I grew up in the Valley and went to high school with people who would get up at four and go to the beach, tick school off their to-do list, and then go back to the beach.

Not the brightest people. A trade school? I just made fun of that. Tracy Newman recommended me for a staged reading of this play by Robin Schiff, another Groundling, called Ladies Room. Then the play was produced and I was in the play. Is this stupid? Am I going to make an ass out of myself? It was based on a woman in the Burbank Target, I think. It was a little bit of her voice so I just kind of went with it and exaggerated it and created this woman.

No one had a kid. The Groundlings was my entire life, I was there seven days a week, partially as the president. I was there in workshops every single night. Here is a box of wigs. Everyone wanted to be onstage with him because he was a generous improviser. He was not scared. There are not many people who have no fear [onstage], but he was really remarkable in that way. If you were onstage with Phil, he would recognize your fear, and he would turn you into something.

And suddenly you could perform onstage when you were with Phil. He was like a big star to everybody. Everybody looked up to him.

He had a car, a house, he had an actual job [as a graphic designer]. He became like my older brother. I idolized him. He was the nicest guy in the world. And by the way, it was never directed at Phil. You kind of get what you give. Phil was always magnanimous. I remember Lorne was backstage at the Groundlings.

By then, I knew Lorne because of Laraine. I think Jon Lovitz in fact talked Lorne into taking Phil. I remember being super disappointed. I was coming off the high from Laraine Newman recommending me to Lorne Michaels. Then they picked Julia Sweeney.

Look at them now. Reubens landed a recurring role on Murphy Brown and earned critical praise for his performance in Blow. The famed Groundlings School offers improvisational classes, taught by teachers trained in the Groundlings program. Classes last six to twelve weeks, and are held at the Groundlings Theatre and G2, their training facility. New classes are posted every Monday, and registration is ongoing throughout the year.

The legendary Main Company troupe performs its shows on Fridays and Saturdays. The Sunday Company , featuring up and coming Groundlings, performs on Sundays. Search Search. Find Events Comedy. This LA institution is a cradle of world-class comedy talent. Pumpkins" Photo: NBC. Login Register. Comedy TV Theatre. Micaela Watkins Groundlings alumna Micaela Watkins is the star of Hulu's Casual , but audiences might recognize her as a character actress in several prestigious indie comedy projects like Enlightened , Transparent and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Maya Rudolph Actress and singer Maya Rudolph , daughter of legendary s singer Minnie Ripperton, was a standout member of the Groundlings starting right after college , in before joining the cast of SNL back in I learned how to write pieces and how to use my singing in performances, and I got to perform with a bunch of other weirdos, who became like family.

Kristen Wiig Photo courtesy of The Groundlings. Phil Hartman Photo courtesy of The Groundlings.