About Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is a U.S born "comedienne", actress, writer, producer, and director who is featured almost ubiquitously in films but probably remains best-known for her stint on SNL co-hosting Weekend Update with her pal, Tina Fey, along with a few pretty minor skits long-since forgotten (They have also featured in a number of movies together, such as BABY MAMA, MEAN GIRLS, SISTERS, and INSIDE OUT.) She went on to star in the popular and critically acclaimed PARKS & REC, a show magnanimous enough to give jobs to such riff-raff as Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, and Rashida Jones.
By now, Amy has also produced any number of TV series, so many that I frankly gave up trying to keep track of them all. (So look it up yourself, nerds). She also has significant voiceover credits, which I'm also going to be just-plain-lazy about. Deal.
HISTORY AND BACKGROUND: The "mutt" product of Irish, German, Portuguese, and English parents (etc.), Amy has overcome her obscure origins in a nowhere New England village to hit the big time pretty-darn big time (her current net worth is estimated at 30 million dollars, so keep that lineup orderly, gentlemen).
Despite having grown ridiculously old, being tiny enough to hide in a toadstool patch, and being as wide around as a Weeble (Dress size 8!), she still commands a certain level of hotness. One of the great mysteries of life, that. (In fairness, her body type is listed as "hourglass," although... nope. Leave it there.)
Amy has achieved many awards and honors in her excessively-prolonged time on earth (how she gets about anymore without a walker is beyond me), including a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was awarded a Golden Globe in 2004 and a Critic's Choice Award in 2012. She and Fey co-won the 2016 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress for serving as co-hosts of SNL. She has also won an American Comedy Award, four Gold Derby Awards, a Gracie Award, a Primetime Emmy (which she was not ready for), and an OFTA TV Award. She has also hosted the Golden Globes ceremony four times. And, who can forget her stint cohosting the 2015 Emmy Awards with her co-Amy, Schumer? Their "We are Amy" routine remains buzzworthy today.
(But seriously, Amykins, enough with the awards, already! In fact, it's time you had a garage sale!)
In between all these accomplishments, Amy was able to squeeze out the book YES, PLEASE!, which proves a little difficult to categorize. Largely a product of improv itself, it isn't quite a biography or memoir, although it features some of that as well as rather random memories of her improv days--but mainly it's a sort of visual scrapbook of whatever grabbed her interest at a given moment. Worth a look, though her pal Tina Fey proved capable of turning out a proper biography! (Well done, BOSSYPANTS!)
Amy's continued popularity has been such that her younger brother (whom no one ever remembers) was able to ride her coat-tails to marginal fame and fortune as a producer and actor. You go, Amy, you meal-ticket, you! Amy has been married (to someone-or-other, from 2003 to 2016, practically a lifetime in SoCal terms) and has 2 kids, so let us all observe a precious moment of silence for their probable fate as "Hollywood royalty". (SNIFFFFFFFFFFF!)
Of course, Amy herself would have been nothing at all if her great-grandmother hadn't had the foresight to migrate from Nova Scotia to Boston in the late 1800s. (Good lookin' out, Grams!) Credit to our ancestors where it's due, always. (Never suggest to me that I can't find ways of cramming tidbits of research trivia into the crannies. Master of Exposition, am I!)
Amy-poo began starring in school plays from the age of 10, sparking her long-term interest in an acting career (probably from simply being patronized by one too many basically-clueless teachers.) Raised Catholic, it was likely her rebellion against all that nonsense that served as her earliest springboard to lasting success in our wildly iconoclastic culture.
Among her earliest accomplishments was studying at the ImprovOlympic, where she first met her life-partner (oh, who are you kidding, girls?), Tina Fey, in a creative match made in comedy heaven. They, along with other later SNL stars, went on to form the Upright Citizens Brigade, whose honesty-in-advertising undoubtedly left a great deal to be desired.
She joined SNL at the start of the 2001-2002 season after numerous attempts by Tina Fey to recruit her; her debut episode was the very first after the events of 9-11 (bonus trivia point: It was hosted by Anna Faris! See how widely-read I am? Nyaah.). In a rare move, Amy was promoted from a mere featured player (and part-time "canteen" waitress) to a full cast member within the first season. (All I can think is Lorne must have been starved for adequate quality entertainers.)
(To be continued if I ever get the "research" bug again, but no guarantees...)
