Amy Poehler Popular Books
Amy Poehler Biography & Facts
Amy Poehler ( POH-lər; born September 16, 1971) is an American actress and comedian. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. 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 (SNL) as a cast member. From 2004 until 2008, she served as co-anchor of the show's news parody segment, Weekend Update. Poehler left SNL halfway through her eighth season to star as Leslie Knope in the sitcom Parks and Recreation, which she produced and starred in until 2015. Poehler is an executive producer on the television series Welcome to Sweden, Broad City, Difficult People, Duncanville, Three Busy Debras and Russian Doll. Poehler 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). Fey and Poehler hosted the Golden Globe Awards four times in the years 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2021. Poehler also provided voice acting roles for the animated films Shrek the Third (2007), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011), Free Birds (2013) and Inside Out (2015). In 2015, Poehler received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to television. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy Series in 2014 and a Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 2012. She and Fey won the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for co-hosting SNL. Early life, family and education Poehler was born in Newton, Massachusetts to school teachers Eileen and William Poehler. Poehler credits her father with encouraging her to break social protocols and take risks. She has one younger brother, Greg, who is also a producer and actor. Poehler's ancestry is Irish, along with German, Portuguese, and English; her Irish roots originate from County Sligo and County Cork. Her great-grandmother immigrated from Nova Scotia, Canada to Boston in the late 1800s. She was raised as a Catholic. Poehler grew up in nearby Burlington, Massachusetts, which she describes as a blue-collar town. Her favorite performers and influences included sketch comedians Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner and Catherine O'Hara. When she was ten years old, Poehler played Dorothy Gale in her school's production of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. The experience inspired Poehler's love of performing. Poehler continued acting in school plays at Burlington High School. She also participated in other activities during her time in high school including student council, soccer, and softball. After graduating from high school in 1989, she enrolled at Boston College. During college, Poehler became a member of the improv comedy troupe My Mother's Fleabag. She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in media and communications in 1993. Career Improv and Upright Citizens Brigade Poehler's time studying improv in college inspired her to pursue comedy professionally. After graduating from college, she moved to Chicago, where she took her first improv class, taught by Charna Halpern at ImprovOlympic. Early on, Poehler worked as a waitress and at other jobs to earn money. Through ImprovOlympic, Poehler learned from Del Close and she was introduced to friend and frequent collaborator Tina Fey. Poehler and Fey joined a Second City touring company at the same time, and Poehler went on to join one of Second City's main companies where Fey was her eventual replacement. The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) formed as a sketch and improv group in Chicago in 1991. Early members included Horatio Sanz, Adam McKay, Ian Roberts, Neil Flynn and Matt Besser, although the membership was not static. McKay left the fledgling group in 1995 and Poehler became his replacement. In 1996, a core group of four UCB members, Poehler, Besser, Roberts and Matt Walsh, moved to New York City. The "UCB Four" began performing shows at small venues around the city which evolved into four regular live shows after a few months. To earn money outside of the shows, UCB taught improv classes. Poehler also started making appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, often playing her recurring role as Andy Richter's younger sister, Stacy. In 1998, Comedy Central debuted UCB's eponymous half-hour sketch-comedy series. During the show's second season, the group founded an improv theater/training center in New York City on West 22nd Street, occupying the space of a former strip club. The UCB Theatre held shows seven nights a week, in addition to offering classes in sketch-comedy writing and improv. In the summer of 2000, Comedy Central canceled the Upright Citizens Brigade program after its third season, although the UCB Theatre continued to operate. Poehler, Besser, Roberts and Walsh are considered the founders of UCB and have been credited with popularizing long-form improv in New York. By 2011, UCB had two theaters in New York and a theater in Los Angeles with 8,000 students taking classes per year. Saturday Night Live Cast member 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, Britney Spears, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Dolly Parton, Dennis Kucinich, Ann Coulter, Pamela Anderson, Christian Siriano, Rosie Perez, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Martha Stewart, Anna Nicole Smith, Paula Zahn, Norah O'Donnell 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 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, P.... Discover the Amy Poehler popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Amy Poehler books.
Best Seller Amy Poehler Books of 2024
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Victim
Matthew SmithSuicide? Or murder? Marilyn Monroe's death in August 1962, apparently a suicide, shocked the world. A Hollywood star, a global icon, why would she have killed herself? Yet the coro...
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Dangerously Funny
David BianculliAn unprecedented behindthescenes look at the rise and fall of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour the provocative, politically charged program that shocked the censors, outraged the...
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Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella
Cerrie Burnell & Laura Ellen AndersonOnce there was a girl named Harper who had a rare musical gift. She heard songs on the wind, rhythms on the rain, and hope in the beat of a butterfly’s wing.Harper lives in the Cit...
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When I Was Your Age
Kenan Thompson“Kenan is a master storyteller with extraordinary stories to tell. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”Leslie JonesWhen I Was Your Age is a hilarious, heartwarming and surpris...
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Improv for Actors
Dan DigglesIn this stepbystep guide, an actor and improvisational teacher brings his tested methods to the page to show how actors can take risks and gain spontaneity in all genres of scripte...
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Elizabeth
Claire GervatElizabeth Chudleigh was one of the eighteenth century's most colourful characters. Born into impoverished gentility, her beauty, wit and vitality soon earned her a place at the...
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Rage Becomes Her
Soraya ChemalyA BEST BOOK OF 2018 SELECTION NPR The Washington Post Book Riot Autostraddle Psychology Today A BEST FEMINIST BOOK SELECTION Refinery 29, Book Riot, Autostraddle, BITCH Rage Be...
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Beastie Boys Book
Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A panoramic experience that tells the story of Beastie Boys, a book as unique as the band itselfby band members ADROCK and Mike D, with contributions ...
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Sharon Osbourne Survivor
Sharon Osbourne'Vintage Sharon . . . fiery and passionate' HEAT'The formidable Mrs O is just as honest and open in this second instalment of her life story as the first . . . a real pageturner' ...
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Earth Hates Me
Ruby Karp"This book is filled with juicy young person wisdom." Amy Poehler The definitive guide to being a teen in the modern age, with sage advice from a modern teenager and appealing to ...
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The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
Margareta MagnussonThe basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout ProductionsA charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order ...
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Harper and the Night Forest
Cerrie Burnell & Laura Ellen Anderson<Harper is on a mission! Rumor tells of the mysterious Ice Raven who lives among the ebony trees, singing a magical song that can melt even the hardest of hearts.Now the Wild Co...
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British As A Second Language
David BennunDavid Bennun had lived in Africa his whole life. At the age of 18 he came to Britain, the mother country. The country he had read about in Punch magazine or seen in films like Char...
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Nina is Not OK
Shaparak KhorsandiNina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17yearold doesn’t? Nina’s mum isn’t so sure. But she’s busy with her new husband and five year old Katie. A...
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The Fix
Michelle P. KingIn the vein of #Girlboss and Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, discover how to thrive at work from the head of the Global Innovation Coalition for Change at UN Women with thi...
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My Squirrel Days
Ellie KemperComedian and star of The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and host of The Great American Baking Show Ellie Kemper delivers a hilarious, refreshing, and inspiring collection of ...
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Scrappy Little Nobody
Anna KendrickThe New York Times bestselling collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.Even before she mad...
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Harper and the Circus of Dreams
Cerrie Burnell & Laura Ellen AndersonLate one evening as the stars begin to twinkle, Harper and her friends are flying on the scarlet umbrella when they see a girl running on air, skipping along a tightrope. She leads...
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Live From New York
Tom Shales & James Andrew MillerJames Andrew Miller and Tom Shales's definitive oral history of Saturday Night Live, hailed as "incredible" (Vulture) and "required reading" (People). When first published to celeb...
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Unwifeable
Mandy StadtmillerNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK POST MARIE CLAIRE ELITE DAILY REFINERY29 ROMPER PRIDE PUREWOW“A gutsy book you need to read right now. Filled with hea...
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The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly
Margareta MagnussonFrom New York Times bestselling author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaningnow a TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productionsa book of humorous and charming advi...
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Harper and the Fire Star
Cerrie Burnell & Laura Ellen AndersonHarper and her friends want to help the Wild Conductor win back his place in the magical Circus of Dreams. They put on a wondrous show, but their plan goes horribly wrong. Instead ...
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If I Should Die Before I Wake
Eileen MunroIn her bestselling memoir As I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Eileen Munro vividly documented the abuse she experienced at the hands of her adoptive parents and, later, within the care syst...
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Not Quite a Genius
Nate Dern“Highly recommended reading for those hungry for surprise” (A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author)a rollicking collection of personal stories and essays on relationships, ...
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Fabulous
Peta MathiasWriter and broadcaster Peta Mathias is a woman who has never been afraid to embrace life with all its glorious inconsistencies, joys and heartbreaks. In Fabulous, she becomes every...
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Waiting for the Punch
Marc Maron"Public figures as you rarely if ever hear them: strikingly personal, surprisingly open, and profoundly emotional." Entertainment Weekly"I’m British, so I’m medically dead inside, ...
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Stealing the Show
Joy PressFrom a leading cultural journalist, the definitive cultural history of female showrunnersincluding exclusive interviews with such influential figures as Shonda Rhimes, Amy ShermanP...
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What Fresh Hell
Lucy Vine'Totally relatable and hilarious one of the best books I've read' Heat'Laughoutloud funny. Truly, the Bridget Jones for our generation' Louise O'NeillWhat do you get if you cros...
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The Confessions Of Robin Askwith
Robin AskwithOf all the actors and personalities thrown up by that strangest of periods. The 1970s, surely Robin Askwith was one of the most 'of his time'? As star of the infamous CONFE...
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The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Amy Schumer#1 New York Times Bestseller "Amy Schumer's book will make you love her even more. For a comedian of unbridled (and generally hilarious) causticity, Schumer has written a probing, ...
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Note to Self
Connor FrantaFrom the awardwinning and New York Times bestselling author of A Work in Progress comes a collection of Connor Franta's most intimate, raw, honest, and inspiring reflections on his...
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A.K.A. Lucy
Sarah Royal & Amy PoehlerThis stunning package offers a rich, intimate, and highly entertaining look at the remarkable life and work of the television pioneer, the First Lady of Comedy, the legend, Lucille...
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Girl Walks into a Bar . . .
Rachel DratchIn this sidesplitting memoir, the former Saturday Night Live star recounts the hilarious adventures and unexpected joy of dating and becoming a mother when she least expected itat ...
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Hard to Love
Briallen HopperA sharp and entertaining essay collection about the importance of multiple forms of love and friendship in a world designed for couples, from a laserprecise new voice. Sometimes i...
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Miss Angel
Angelica GooddenA word was coined to describe the condition of people stricken with a new kind of fever when the Swissborn artist Angelica Kauffman (17411807) came to London in 1766. 'The whole wo...
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The Myth of the Garage
Chip HeathFrom Chip and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, comes The Myth of the Garage ... and other minor surprises, a collection of the authors' best columns ...
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A Work in Progress
Connor FrantaNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST MEMOIR/AUTOBIOGRAPHY FORBES TOP 5 BREAKTHROUGH BOOK OF THE YEAR In this intimate memoir of life beyond the camera, ...
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Thin
Grace BowmanBright, popular, pretty and successful, Grace Bowman had the world at her feet. So what drove her to starve herself nearly to death at the age of 18? And what, more importantly, ma...