Who

Poehler was Saturday Night Live's resident quirky blonde from 2001 to 2008. She currently stars in Parks & Recreation on NBC.

Backstory

Massachusetts native Poehler honed her chops on the improv circuit, performing with comedy troupes Second City and Improv Olympic before moving to New York to co-found the Upright Citizens Brigade in the mid-1990s with Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. UCB later earned a slot on Comedy Central and Poehler also had roles on several other TV shows (Spin City, Late Night with Conan O'Brien) and movies (Deuce Bigalow, Wet Hot American Summer) but her big break came when pal Tina Fey recruited her to join the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2001. The show's head writer, Fey made sure Poehler got plenty of camera time, and when Jimmy Fallon relinquished his "Weekend Update" chair in 2004, Fey picked Poehler to be her new co-anchor.

Although Fey left the show in 2006, Poehler stayed on, making tame jokes about current events alongside co-anchor Seth Meyers and doing spazzed-out impressions of everything from little kids to Nancy Grace. At the same time, Poehler began branching out into movies, picking up roles in Fey's Mean Girls and Baby Mama, as well as Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, the third installment of Shrek, and the figure skating comedy Blades of Glory. She eventually left SNL in late 2008 to begin working on the new NBC Office spinoff, Parks & Recreation.

Personal

The petite Poehler married actor Will Arnett, of Arrested Development fame, in 2003. She made frequent guest appearances on the show, playing the insane and abrasive wife of Arnett's character. In 2008, they had their first child, a son named Archie. The family now lives in a three-bedroom condo at 1 Morton Square. They reportedly paid around $5 million for the pad, and also have a second home in Los Angeles.