Kristen Wiig was born in Canandaigua, New York, on August 22, 1973.
She was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania when her family moved there when she was a child, before moving back to Rochester, New York.
She eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she joined the improv comedy company The Groundlings and made her television debut in 2003 as Dr. Pat on “The Joe Schmo Show.”
Wiig joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 2005, and she co-wrote and starred in the comedy film “Bridesmaids” in 2011. We’re here to help you make the most of her special day.
Kristen Wiig was born in Canandaigua, New York, United States on August 22, 1973.
She is the daughter of Jon Wiig, who managed a lake marina in Western New York, and her mother Laurie Johnston is an artist.
Erik, her older brother, is her only sibling. Her father is of Norwegian and Irish descent, while her mother is of English and Scottish origin.
The name Wiig is derived from the Norwegian town of Vik in the province of Sogn og Fjordane. Gunnar Wiig, Kristen’s paternal grandpa, immigrated to the United States as a youngster and grew up in Rochester, New York, where he became an acclaimed commentator for the Rochester Red Wings baseball club and eventually became an executive at W.H.E.C.
Wiig moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with her family when she was three years old, and she attended Nitrauer Elementary School and Manheim Township Middle School until she was in eighth grade. She and her family moved back to Rochester when she was 13, where she attended Allendale Columbia School for her ninth and 10th years and graduated from Brighton High School. She studied at Roanoke College but quickly returned to Rochester. She went to community college and participated in a three-month outdoor-living program. She had no plans to perform at that moment. She subsequently went to the University of Arizona and majored in painting. When she took an acting class there to complete a school requirement, the instructor encouraged her to keep performing.
Wiig played the role of Dr. Pat on “The Joe Schmo Show,” which is a reality television satire. From 2011 through 2014, she was the voice of Lola Bunny in the animated series “The Looney Tunes.” Wiig received four Primetime Emmy nominations for her work on “Saturday Night Live.” She starred in “Bridesmaids” in 2011, marking a watershed moment in her career. The film grossed $167 million in North America and $280 million globally. She provided voice work for characters in “Despicable Me” and “How to Train Your Dragon.”
She co-starred as the villain in “Zoolander 2” with Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in 2016. Wiig hosts the 2009 Christmas special “S.N.L. Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas,” which features a new comedy with her character Gilly as well as favorites from previous S.N.L. She was also funny as a child.
Even as a child, Kristen Wiig was charming. She subsequently reflected on her adolescence, saying she walked around the neighborhood with her father's empty guitar case because she wanted others to think she plays the guitar.
She maintains a healthy lifestyle. Despite her hectic schedule, Wiig maintained a healthy lifestyle while working on “S.N.L.” She lives between Central Park and the Hudson River, which are both fantastic areas to walk and run, and she also does yoga. She is a vegetarian who consumes a lot of tofu and soy products.
She loves making people laugh. Wiig enjoys humor and making people laugh, but her favorite part is making a baby giggle. We love this about her! She always steals the show. Kristen Wiig has stolen the show with her presenting roles at various award events during her career, even when she isn't nominated.
She is a good impressionist. Wiig has done several impressions and was extremely good at them, including Drew Barrymore, Judy Garland, Maggie Smith, Björk, Jessica Simpson, and more. She thinks she isn’t funny. Wiig has become a well-known comedian and performer over the years, yet she doesn't believe she's humorous.
She takes gum with her everywhere. Wiig travels a lot, especially for movies and television shows, and she claims she can't leave the house without bringing gum with her. She dances when she is stressed. When Wiig is agitated and wants to let off some steam, she likes to just dance it off and relax.
Who is Kristen Wiig married to? Kristen Carroll Wiig was born on August 22, 1973, in Canandaigua, New York, to Jon, who worked on a lake marina, and Laurie, an artist. She has one older brother, Erik. The family briefly lived in Pennsylvania before moving to Rochester, New York. Wiig attended Brighton High School in Rochester and graduated in 1991. While she then enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson to study art, she dropped out after a year to move to Los Angeles to try to become an actor. Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, she became fearful and unsure of herself and her chosen new career. To support herself, Wiig worked as a floral designer and as a waitress at a Universal Studios restaurant.
After several years, she discovered improv comedy as a possible source of acting work and income. She attended a performance of the Groundlings, the famous Los Angeles comedy troupe that has produced such successes as Lisa Kudrow and Phil Hartman. After acquiring sufficient training with the Groundlings, Wiig was accepted into the group and began performing as various characters that she created. Wiig continued to workday jobs into the early 2000s, and it was not until 2003-after she had lived in Los Angeles for eleven years-that she landed a spot in the first season of the Spike TV fictional comedic reality show The Joe Schmo Show. In 2005, Wiig discovered that the producers of Saturday Night Live (SNL) would be in New York casting for the show’s new season. Seeing an opportunity to use her comedic talents to establish her acting career, she flew to New York to audition. There, during the stand-up comedy-styled tryouts, she exhibited her roster of comedic characters for series creator Lorne Michaels and head writer Tina Fey. Wiig would spend the next seven years as a main cast member on Saturday Night Live. She became a popular actor on the show, with producer Michaels using her more than anyone else in numerous sketches. The great success that Wiig enjoyed from SNL over the next few years made her a highly sought-after comedic actor, and she began appearing in supporting roles in comedy films such as Knocked Up, The Brothers Solomon, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, all released in 2007.
She also received guest spots on various popular comedy series, including 30 Rock (2007), Flight of the Conchords (2007), and Bored to Death (2009-10). Meanwhile, Wiig’s performances on SNL continued to receive rave reviews, and from 2009 to 2012, she was nominated for four consecutive Emmy Awards for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series. She was nominated for another Emmy in 2013, this time for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series, for hosting an episode of SNL in May 2013. In 2011, after several more roles in films and television, including several voice roles, Wiig cowrote and starred in the comedy film Bridesmaids, which features Wiig as the maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding. Wiig made her final appearance on SNL as a cast member in May 2012.
Following her departure, she continued to appear in comedy films, most notably in Girl Most Likely (2012), Despicable Me 2 (2013), and Anchorman: The Legend Continues (2013). Though Wiig continued to have roles in comedies and other genres that often have a comedic twist, she also proved her increasing versatility by appearing in films outside of comedy as well. Remaining in demand, she had either supporting or starring roles in the films The Skeleton Twins (2014), The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), Nasty Baby (2015), The Martian (2015), Zoolander 2 (2016), and Masterminds (2016). One of her next biggest roles came when she was cast as part of the ensemble helming the rebooted version of the classic comedic fantasy-action film Ghostbusters (1984). While the original film had a predominantly male cast that included such actors as Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, the new version, also titled Ghostbusters (2016), received mixed reviews but was noted for its departure in casting all women in the lead roles. Wiig, acting alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, portrayed paranormal enthusiast Erin Gilbert. She followed up this performance with Despicable Me 3 (2017), in which she once again lent her voice to the character of Lucy; the drama Downsizing (2017); the horror film Mother! (2017); and the comedic drama Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019).
The beginning of the 2020s saw Wiig enter the popular superhero film genre when she prominently appeared as the villain Barbara Minerva in 2020's Wonder Woman 1984. In addition to costarring in and cowriting the comedy film Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021), she reprised her role as Vicki from the 2010 action-comedy film MacGruber for the television series continuation of the same name. Her next part on television would earn her further critical acclaim. Portraying the lead character, Maxine Simmons, in the Apple TV+ darkly comedic period drama Palm Royale, she earned Emmy nods both for her performance in and involvement as an executive producer of the first season, which aired in 2024. That same year, she continued to voice Lucy, this time for Despicable Me 4. Wiig’s comedic talents rest in her unique powers of improvisational comedy and the creation of wacky characters.
She has invented dozens of humorous, foolish, and surreal personas that first made her a star on Saturday Night Live. Wiig was married to actor Hayes Hargrove for several years before divorcing him in 2009. She was then romantically linked with actor-producer Brian Petsos before dating musician Fabrizio Moretti, drummer for the indie rock band the Strokes, from early 2012 to mid-2013.
As of today, Kristen Wiig was born in 1973, so her age can be calculated by subtracting 1973 from the current year. For a precise age on any given date, consider whether August 22 has passed that year.