Happy Birthday! Tina Fey is 43 on May 18
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Tina Fey: Snapshot

Name: Tina Fey
Date of Birth: May 18, 1970
Birth Place: Upper Darby, Pa.

A new funnygirl icon was born the moment Tina Fey stepped into the spotlight as co-host of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" in 2000. Often hailed as the "goddess of the geeks," Fey never imagined becoming an Emmy winner – and a movie star.

For most of her life, Fey's aspirations were to stay behind the camera as a writer. And while she's famous for her biting sense of humor (most notably her spot-on portrayal of Sarah Palin), she's fulfilled her writing dream, too, having become SNL's first female head writer and written the 2004 blockbuster Mean Girls.

Married to composer and producer Jeff Richmond, whom she met while performing with Chicago's legendary comedy troupe Second City, Fey juggles her role as writer, producer and star of 30 Rock, with her most important role as mom to daughters Alice and Penelope.

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Tina Fey: Five Fun Facts

It was Tina Fey's 8th grade teacher who first told her she should be a writer. "I thought, I don't want to be a writer, 'cause then you're just by yourself in a room all the time," she told PEOPLE. "I want to be a star!"
On Howard Stern's radio show in 2006, Tina Fey called Paris Hilton "a piece of s–" and said she was a nightmare to work with when she hosted Saturday Night Live.
After three years behind the camera for SNL, Tina Fey lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers and started appearing on the show. "I was a size 12 when I came to the show, and then I was really dealing with my stress with Krispy Kremes," she told PEOPLE.
Though her black-rimmed glasses are her trademark look, Tina Fey only needed them to read cue cards and rarely wore them away from the SNL set.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler became friends in the early 1990s while taking improv classes in Chicago. Poehler told the Los Angeles Daily News, "We met, shook hands and said, 'I'll see you in 15 years in Hollywood.'"

Tina Fey: Biography

1990s: Tina's Turn in the Windy City
After earning her drama degree from the University of Virginia, Fey moves to Chicago, where she joins Chicago's legendary comedy troupe Second City (right) in 1994. She becomes friends with future Saturday Night Live alums Rachel Dratch and Horatio Sanz and meets Jeff Richmond, a director for Second City, whom she begins dating. "I was so happy," she tells CosmoGIRL! in 2008. "I was doing comedy with the best people in the field."
1997: August
Live From New York...
After sending sample sketches to SNL's producer Lorne Michaels, Fey joins the series as a staff writer. By 1999, she becomes the first female head writer on the show. "The skill you need for it is not necessarily to be the funniest person in that group," she tells Parade of her groundbreaking position. "What you need to be is a kind of conduit between the producers and the writers." A year later, she joins Jimmy Fallon as co-anchor of "Weekend Update."
2001: June 03
Fey Marries Richmond
After seven years of dating, Fey and Jeff Richmond marry in a Greek Orthodox ceremony. "I fell in love with her very quickly," Richmond, who is 10 years Fey's senior, tells PEOPLE. "She has this caustic, biting wit that pops out occasionally, but she really does have a little-girl-from-the-suburbs kind of ambience."