Kristen Schaal

Kristen Schaal
Schaal at the 2016 WonderCon in Los Angeles, California.
Born	Kristen Joy Schaal January 24, 1978 Longmont, Colorado, U.S.
Occupation	comedian, actor, voice actor, writer
Years active	2001–present
Known for	Observational comedy, satire, political satire
Notable work	Mel on Flight of the Conchords Louise Belcher on Bob's Burgers Commentator on The Daily Show Mabel Pines on Gravity Falls Amanda Simmons on The Hotwives of Orlando Carol Pilbasian on The Last Man on Earth

Kristen Schaal (/ʃɑːl/;^[1] born January 24, 1978) is an American actress, voice artist, writer, and comedian. She is best known for her roles as Mel on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, Louise Belcher on FOX animated comedy Bob's Burgers, and Mabel Pines on Gravity Falls. Other notable roles include her appearances as a commentator on The Daily Show, Amanda Simmons on The Hotwives of Orlando, Hazel Wassername on 30 Rock, Victoria Best on WordGirl, Trixie from the Toy Story franchise, and Anne on Wilfred. Since 2015, she has co-starred alongside Will Forte in the Fox comedy The Last Man on Earth, playing the role of Carol.

Early life

Schaal was born in Longmont, Colorado, to a Lutheran family of Dutch ancestry.^[2] She was raised on her family's cattle farm, in a rural area near Boulder.^[2] Her father is a construction worker and her mother is a secretary.^[3] She has a brother, David, who is three years older.^[3] She graduated from Northwestern University and then moved to New York in 2000 to pursue a comedy career. In 2005, she had her first break when she was included in New York magazine's article "The Ten Funniest New Yorkers You've Never Heard Of".^[4]

Schaal was concerned that her lisp would cause problems in her career, and it did prevent her from getting into one acting class.^[5]

Career

Schaal and comedy partner Kurt Braunohler onstage in 2010

Live comedy

In 2006, Schaal performed at the 2006 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, where she won the award for "Best Alternative Comedian". She was also the winner of the second annual Andy Kaufman Award (hosted by the New York Comedy Festival), Best Female Stand-up at the 2006 Nightlife Awards in New York, and "Best Female Stand Up Comedian" at the 2007 ECNY Awards.^[6] At the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, she won the Barry Award for her show Kristen Schaal As You Have Probably Never Seen Her Before, tying with Nina Conti.^[7] Also in 2006, Schaal appeared on the first season of the Comedy Central show Live at Gotham.^[8] She co-hosts the weekly variety show Hot Tub in Los Angeles, which was voted “Best Variety Show of 2005” by Time-Out New York’s readers poll. She also performs at the Peoples Improv Theater on the improv team, "Big Black Car", which was awarded best improv troupe of 2005 at the Emerging Comics of New York awards. She is a founding member of the theatre company The Striking Viking Story Pirates, which adapts stories by children into sketches and songs.

Schaal performed live at the Edinburgh Fringe 2007 in Scotland, where she was one of six acts (chosen from over two hundred American productions at the Fringe) requested to perform at the US Consul General-sponsored "Fringe USA" Showcase.

On her return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2008, Schaal was nominated for the If.comedy award for Kristen Schaal And Kurt Braunohler: Double Down Hearts.^[9]

Schaal has also performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, as part of The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008 in aid of Amnesty International, and at the Bonnaroo 2009 music festival. In 2010, Schaal appeared as a stand-up comic on John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show and at the Solid Sound Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Film, TV and radio

Schaal at the Brooklyn Book Festival (2010)

Schaal rose to national attention for her role on HBO's Flight of the Conchords as the stalker-fan Mel, a role which earned her an Ewwy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2009. She was also a credited consultant and writer for Season 11 of South Park, appeared on the BBC's Never Mind the Buzzcocks and played the boss in Fuse's mockumentary The Intern. She made her first appearance as a "special commentator" on Comedy Central's The Daily Show on March 13, 2008. She is often presented as The Daily Show "Senior Women's Issues Correspondent". On April 13, 2008, she made an appearance on Good News Week during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and in October 2008 she appeared in Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008.

Her other film and television credits include Kate and Leopold, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Snake 'n' Bacon, Norbit, Get Him to the Greek, Conviction, Cheap Seats, Freak Show, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Adam and Steve, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, Delirious, Australian show Good News Week, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Education of Max Bickford, Comedy Central's Contest Searchlight, Ugly Betty, How I Met Your Mother, MTV's Human Giant and Mad Men. She was also a contributor to the sketch/music series The Nighttime Clap on the Fuse music network. She also appeared on Fuse's original comedy series The P.A. Schaal appeared in two TV pilots written and directed by Jersey City comedian Dan McNamara -- The Calderons^[10] and Redeeming Rainbow,^[11] both of which were screened as official selections at the 2006 and 2007 New York Television Festivals. She was also in television commercials for Wendy's, RadioShack, and Starburst. She made an appearance, in April 2008, on the IFC sketch comedy show The Whitest Kids U' Know. On April 3, 2009 she taped an episode of Comedy Central Presents.^[12] In 2010, she added her voice to the PBS Kids GO! series WordGirl as Victoria Best, a child prodigy whose parents taught her to be the best at everything that she does.^[13] Schaal currently voices 12-year-old Mabel Pines on Disney Channel's Gravity Falls. She also voices the character Louise on the FOX Network series Bob's Burgers.

She also stars in A. D. Miles' MyDamnChannel.com series Horrible People. In October 2008, Schaal appeared in an episode of Spicks and Specks. On June 10, 2009, Schaal broadcast her first radio show, High Five!!, on Sirius XM Radio's 'RawDog' channel with co-host Kurt Braunohler.^[14] She played Gertha Teeth in the 2009 movie The Vampire's Assistant. Schaal stars in her own web series, Penelope Princess of Pets, one episode of which doubled as the video for the New Pornographers' "Mutiny, I Promise You".^[15] She voiced Trixie the Triceratops in Toy Story 3 and Pumpkin Witch and Palace Witch in Shrek Forever After.^[16] She was also in the music video for Joey Ramone's "New York City". She also guest starred in the Modern Family episode "Fifteen Percent", as well as the music video for "Conversation 16" by The National. Schaal guest starred on the MC Frontalot album Solved. She was featured with Kurt Braunohler on the Radiolab episode "Loops".^[17] Schaal was in a commercial for the Xperia Play version of Minecraft.

Schaal guest starred on The Simpsons May 8, 2011 episode "Homer Scissorhands" in which she plays Taffy, a love interest of Milhouse. She is incorrectly listed in the credits as "Kristen Schall". This prompted Simpsons writers to issue her a unique apology on the next week's episode in which Bart's chalkboard gag in the intro to the show states "It’s Kristen Schaal, not Kristen Schall." Schaal also appeared in a music video for Weird Al Yankovic's 2014 song "Tacky", a parody of Pharrell Williams's "Happy".

In 2014, Schaal co-starred alongside Casey Wilson, Danielle Schneider, Tymberlee Hill, Andrea Savage, and Angela Kinsey in the first season of the Hulu original series The Hotwives of Orlando. She is currently co-starring alongside Will Forte in the FOX comedy The Last Man on Earth, which premiered on March 1, 2015.

Schaal also voices a character Sarah Lynn in a 2014 Netflix original animated series BoJack Horseman.^[18]

Schaal appears in A Walk in the Woods (2015) as hiker Mary Ellen.

Books

Schaal wrote a book of humor, The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex, with her husband, former Daily Show writer Rich Blomquist. It was published in July 2010 by Chronicle Books.^[19] She originally intended for them to write the book under pseudonyms, "because I don't want anyone to imagine me doing those things,"^[20] but she realized it would be harder to promote the book without using their real names.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Kate & Leopold	Miss Tree	Film debut
2004	Poster Boy	Bookstore Lady #14
2005	Adam & Steve	Ruth
2006	Delirious	Joelle
2007	Norbit	Event Organizer
2009	The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard	Stewardess Stacey
	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	Gertha Teeth
2010	When in Rome	Ilona
	Valentine's Day	Ms. Gilroy
	Shrek Forever After	Pumpkin/ Palace Witch	Voice
	Get Him to the Greek	Today Show Production Assistant
	Toy Story 3	Trixie	Voice
	Dinner for Schmucks	Susana
	Going the Distance	Female Bartender
2011	Butter	Carol Ann
	Hawaiian Vacation	Trixie	Voice
	The Muppets	Moderator
2012	Sleepwalk with Me	Cynthia
2013	Despicable Me 2	Shannon	Voice
	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Barb	Voice
	Welcome to the Jungle	Brenda
2015	A Walk in the Woods	Mary Ellen
2016	Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie	Gloria, Donald Trump's receptionist	Voice
	The Boss	Sandy
	The Runaround	Roberta	Filming
2017	Boundaries		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001–2002	The Education of Max Bickford	Valerie Holmes	3 episodes
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Abby	Episode: "Brotherhood"
2005	Cheap Seats: Without Ron Parker	Emily	Episode: "Dog Show/World Beard and Mustache Championship"
2006	Conviction	Allie Rubinoff	Episode: "Madness"
	Ugly Betty	Nancy	Episode: "Pilot"
	Six Degrees	Gail	2 episodes
	Freak Show	Various	Voice, 7 episodes
2007	Scott Bateman Presents	Earth's New Robot Overlord Trixie Tangway	Voice, 2 episodes
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Alana Binder	Episode: "30"
	Human Giant	Girl in Doritos Commercial	Episode: "Lil 9-11"
	Mad Men	Nannette	Episode: "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
	How I Met Your Mother	Laura Girard	Episode: "The Platinum Rule"
2007–2009	Flight of the Conchords	Mel	21 episodes
2008	Aqua Teen Hunger Force	Tammy Tangerine (voice)	As Frannie Hood, Episode: "Bible Fruit"
	The Whitest Kids U'Know	Homeless Woman	Episode: "2.9"
	Never Mind The Buzzcocks	Herself	Series 21, Episode 4
2009	Xavier: Renegade Angel	Frantic Spectator / Old Ryan's Wife (voice)	Episode: "Going Normal"
	Comedy Central Presents	Herself	Season 13, Episode 24
	Snake 'n' Bacon	The Green Fairy	TV movie
	Comedy Showcase	Tourist	Episode: "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret"
2010	Modern Family	Whitney	Episode: "Fifteen Percent"
	Comedy Lab	Penelope	Episode: "Penelope Princess of Pets"
	Fact Checkers Unit	Paula	Episode: "One Groundhog Day Dog"
	WordGirl	Victoria Best (voice)	Episode: "Victoria Is the Best ... WordGirl?"
	Scared Shrekless	Sugar the Gingerbread Girl	Voice
2011	The Simpsons	Taffy	Voice, Episode: "Homer Scissorhands"; credited as "Kristen Schall"[21]
	The Penguins of Madagascar	Muffy, Bluffy, and Fluffy the bunny rabbits	Voice, Episode: "Operation: Neighbor Swap"
	Soul Quest Overdrive	Tammy	Voice
	The Heart, She Holler	Hershe Heartshe	6 episodes
2011–2012	American Dad!	Librarian / Girl	Voice, 2 episodes
2011–present	Bob's Burgers	Louise Belcher	Voice, series regular
2012–2013	30 Rock	Hazel Wassername	11 episodes
2012–2014	Adventure Time	Jake Jr.	Voice, 4 episodes
2012–2016	Gravity Falls	Mabel Pines	Voice, Lead role
2013	Archer	Tiffy	Voice, 2 episodes
	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	Herself	Series 27, Episode 5
	Wilfred	Anne	4 episodes
	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Deborah	Episode: "Trading Faces"
	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Gina Guppies	Episode: "Jessica Alba Wears a Jacket with Patent Leather Pumps"
	Toy Story of Terror	Trixie	Voice
	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	Herself	Panelist
2013–2014	@midnight	Herself	2 episodes
2014	The Hotwives of Orlando	Amanda Simmons	Series regular
	Glee	Mary Halloran	Episode: "The Untitled Rachel Berry Project"
	Toy Story That Time Forgot	Trixie	Voice
2014–2015	BoJack Horseman	Sarah Lynn / Various	Voice; 7 episodes
2015	Axe Cop	God	Voice; episode: "Axe Cop Saves God"
	The Hotwives of Las Vegas	Amanda Simmons	Episode: "Old Friends, New Enemies"
2015–present	Last Man on Earth	Carol Pilbasian	Main role (23 episodes)
2016	Wander Over Yonder	Mavis	Voice; episode: "The Cartoon"

References

1. StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson: "The Science of Sex". 2013. Accessed 12 August 2013. The original Dutch pronunciation would be /sxaːl/.
2. Patterson, John (2010-10-15). "Kristen Schaal: The toast of American comedy". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
3. "The Kooky Monster". Melbourne: The Age. 2008-03-23. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
4. Todd, Charlie (2005-09-26). "The Ten Funniest New Yorkers You've Never Heard Of". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
5. Thomlison, Adam. "Q&A". TV Media. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
6. "4th Annual ECNY Award Winners". ECNY Awards. 2011-02-10. Archived from the original on 2012-05-01. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
7. Kent, Melissa (2008-04-13). "Top comics grin and share the main prize". The Age. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
8. Strachan, Alex (2009-10-17). "Live at Gotham a Prerequisite for the Big Time". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
9. "Edinburgh Festival If.comedy award shortlist announced". The List. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
10. The Calderons at the Internet Movie Database
11. Redeeming Rainbow at the Internet Movie Database
12. "COMEDY CENTRAL(R) Gets the New Year Rolling with Laughter!". PR Newswire. Bloomberg. 2009-01-05. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
13. Liu, Ed (2009-06-10). "Scholastic Media Renews "WordGirl" for 26 More Episodes". toonzone.net. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
14. Brophy-Warren, Jamin (2009-06-10). ""Flight of the Conchords" Meets "South Park" on Satellite Radio". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
15. "Kristen Schaal (COMEDIAN)". The Believer. June 2008. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
16. Chen, David (2009-10-12). "Lee Unkrich Announces Kristen Schaal and Blake Clark Cast in Toy Story 3; Toy Story 3D Double Feature To Stay in Theaters". slashfilm.com. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
17. "Kristen Schaal". Radiolab. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
18. Paskin, Willa (August 22, 2014). "The Longest Face". Slate. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
19. Schaal, Kristen; Blomquist, Rich (2010-07-28). The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0811871266.
20. Powers, Nicole (2008-12-10). "Kristen Schaal: Confessions of a Disappointed Hillary Supporter". SuicideGirls. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
21. Itzkoff, Dave (2011-05-16). "Credit Where It’s Due: A ‘Simpsons’ Spelling Lesson". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-06-06.

External links

• Kristen Schaal at the Internet Movie Database