Saturday Night Live Wiki
Saturday Night Live Wiki
Saturday Night Live Wiki
3,496
pages
in: 2000s Cast Members, Cast, Season 27 Cast,
and 20 more

Amy Poehler

Edit

Amy Meredith Poehler (/ˈpoʊlər/ POH-lər; born September 16, 1971) is an American actress and comedian. Known for her roles in sketch comedy, sitcoms and comedy films, she has earned acclaim and several accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award (out of 26 nominations) and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for a Peabody Award and a Grammy Award. Poehler was included on Time's "100 most influential people in the world" in 2011 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to comedy in 2015.

Poehler started her career in improvisational theatre at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, and with the Upright Citizens Brigade in 1995. The group moved to New York City in 1996, where their act became a half-hour sketch-comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2001, Poehler joined the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live as a cast member, where she also served as a Weekend Update co-anchor starting from 2004 to 2008. She went on to produce and star as Leslie Knope in the sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) for which she won a Golden Globe Award.

Poehler joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL) at the start of the 2001–2002 season, after Tina Fey had tried to recruit her for SNL for years. Poehler made her debut in the first episode produced after the 9/11 attacks. She was promoted from featured player to full cast member in her first season on the show, making her the second cast member, and first woman, to earn this distinction. Poehler's recurring characters included hyperactive ten-year old Kaitlyn, one-legged reality show contestant Amber, and Bronx Beat talk show co-host Betty Caruso. In addition to her original characters, Poehler performed a number of impressions, including Hillary Clinton, Dakota Fanning, Avril Lavigne, Michael Jackson, Kim Jong-Il, Nancy Grace, Kelly Ripa, Katie Couric, Sharon Stone, Sharon Osbourne, Julia Roberts, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Dolly Parton, Dennis Kucinich, Ann Coulter, Pamela Anderson, Christian Siriano, Rosie Perez, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Farrah Fawcett.

Beginning with the 2004-2005 season, she co-anchored Weekend Update with Tina Fey, replacing Jimmy Fallon. Fey and Poehler became the first team of female co-anchors of the longtime SNL staple. Poehler, Fey, and Maya Rudolph were among the show's biggest stars that season and contributed to a shift in the show to featuring more female driven sketches. When Fey left after the 2005–2006 season to devote time to the sitcom she created, 30 Rock, Seth Meyers joined Poehler at the Weekend Update anchor desk. In 2008, Poehler was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, the first year SNL cast members were eligible for the category.

The SNL premiere of the 2008-2009 season opened with Fey and Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, respectively discussing sexism in political campaigning. The sketch, which Poehler co-wrote with Meyers, became the biggest viral video of the year. Days after the season premiere, NBC announced Poehler, pregnant with her first child, would not return after her upcoming maternity leave. On the October 25 episode, Meyers announced during Weekend Update that Poehler was in labor. At the end of Weekend Update, special guest Maya Rudolph and cast member Kenan Thompson sang a custom rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for Poehler. Poehler had been rehearsing for that week's show until the day before the birth.

After giving birth, Poehler appeared during a pre-taped "SNL Presidential Bash '08" prime time special on November 3. Despite the prior announcement that Poehler would not return after her maternity leave, she came back for two more live episodes. During the December 13 Weekend Update Poehler announced that it was her last show. Saturday Night Live aired a special, "The Best of Amy Poehler", in April 2009. For the 2008–2009 season finale, Poehler returned to co-host Weekend Update and joined host Will Ferrell's version of the Billy Joel song "Goodnight Saigon".

She frequently collaborated with Tina Fey on SNL and later acted with her in the feature films Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008), Sisters (2015), and Wine Country (2019). Together they co-hosted the Golden Globe Awards four times in the years 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2021, as well as SNL, the later of which earned them the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award. Poehler served as an executive producer on the television series Welcome to Sweden, Broad City, Difficult People, Duncanville, Three Busy Debras, and Russian Doll. Poehler also voiced roles for the animated films Shrek the Third (2007), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), and the Inside Out franchise (2015–present).

Poehler wrote the comedic book Yes Please (2014) and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. In 2025, she started the podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler. She is also known for championing causes which advance worker's rights and women's rights.

Poehler returned to Saturday Night Live to host for the first time on September 25, 2010, which is the Season 36 premiere, with musical guest Katy Perry. This marked the first episode for then-cast members Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah.

Poehler returned to Saturday Night Live to host for the second time on December 19, 2015, the ninth episode and Christmas show of Saturday Night Live's 41st season, with her longtime friend, longtime former castmate and Weekend Update co-anchor Tina Fey, sharing her co-hosting duties with Fey for the first time, when she also returned to SNL to host for the fifth time, thus making Fey a five-time host and the third former cast member, as well as the first former female cast member to enter the Five-Timers Club on December 19, 2015, with musical guest Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band.

Poehler returned to Saturday Night Live again to host for the third time overall and her 2nd SNL individual hosting appearance, as well as her first solo hosting appearance in 15 years, 6 months, and 19 days on October 11, 2025, the second episode of Saturday Night Live's 51st season and the fifth episode to premiering on the 50th anniversary of the show premiere, with musical guest Role Model.

Personal life[]

Amy married actor Will Arnett in 2003. Arnett is well-known from the hit sitcom Arrested Development, where Amy guest-starred as Will's character (GOB)'s wife. On October 25, 2008, Poehler gave birth to their first son, Archibald "Archie" William Emerson Arnett. She had a second son on August 6, 2010 named Abel James Arnett.

In 2012, Amy and Will announced that they were ending their marriage after 9 years. Amy has subsequently dated actor Nick Kroll.

Impressions/Characters[]

Impressions[]

Characters[]

  • Amanda
  • Amber
  • Betty Caruso (Bronx Beat)
  • Cocktail waitress
  • Deidre Nicks
  • Dorothy Winkster
  • Kaitlin
  • Michelle
  • Mrs. Triggs
  • Netti Bo Dance
  • Paparazzo
  • Sally Needler
  • White Trash Wife
  • Zoe Anderton

SNL Career[]

Gallery[]

Preceded by:
Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon 		Weekend Update Anchor with Tina Fey
(October 2, 2004— May 21, 2005) 		Followed by:
Herself and Horatio Sanz as temporary anchor
Preceded by:
Herself and Tina Fey 		Weekend Update Anchor with Horatio Sanz as temporary anchor
(October 1, 2005— October 8, 2005) 		Followed by:
Herself and Tina Fey
Preceded by:
Herself and Horatio Sanz 		Weekend Update Anchor with Tina Fey
(October 22, 2005— May 20, 2006) 		Followed by:
Herself & Seth Meyers
Preceded by:
Herself and Tina Fey 		Weekend Update Anchor with Seth Meyers
(September 30, 2006— December 13, 2008) 		Followed by:
Seth Meyers
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.