Amy Meredith Poehler ( 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… Amy Meredith Poehler ( 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 two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for a Peabody Award and a Grammy Award. Poehler was included on Time's list of the 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.
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 latter 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, for which she won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Podcast. She is also known for championing causes which advance worker's rights and women's rights.
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