Kristen Schaal Biography

Kristen Schaal (pronounced /?"?l/; born January 24, 1978) is an American actress, voice artist, writer, and comedian, best known for her roles as Mel in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords and as a contributor on The Daily Show. She has also appeared as Louise in Bob's Burgers, Hazel Wassername in 30 Rock, Mabel Pines in Gravity Falls, and Anne in Wilfred.

Early life

Schaal was born in Longmont, Colorado, to a Lutheran family of Dutch and German descent. She was raised on her family's cattle farm, in a rural area near Boulder. Her father is a construction worker and her mother is a secretary. Schaal has a brother, David, who is three years older. She graduated from Northwestern University, then moved to New York to pursue a comedy career. Five years later 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".

Career

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. 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. Also in 2006, Schaal appeared on the first season of the Comedy Central show, Live at Gotham. She co-hosts the weekly variety show Hot Tub at Comix comedy club, 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.

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 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 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 as a contestant on Noel Fielding's Team, 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 has appeared in two recent TV pilots written and directed by Jersey City comedian Dan McNamara -- The Calderons and Redeeming Rainbow, 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. 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. Kristen 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. 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". She voiced Trixie the Triceratops in Toy Story 3 and Pumpkin Witch and Palace Witch in Shrek Forever After. She also in the music video for Joey Ramone's "New York City". She also guest starred on the Modern Family thirteenth 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". 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 Millhouse. 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."

Books

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

Personal life

Schaal married former Daily Show writer Rich Blomquist in September 2012.

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Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Kate & Leopold	Miss Tree	Film debut
2001"2002	The Education of Max Bickford	Valerie Holmes	3 episodes
2002"present	That's Our Joe	Skinner Frankheimer (voice)	Co-Protagonist, Vision 8 Series
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Abby	Episode: "Brotherhood"
	Poster Boy	Bookstore Lady #14
2005	Adam & Steve	Ruth
	Cheap Seats: Without Ron Parker	Emily	Episode: "Dog Show/World Beard and Mustache Championship"
2006	Conviction	Allie Rubinoff	Episode: "Madness"
	The Calderons	Barbara	TV movie
	Delirious	Joelle
	Ugly Betty	Nancy	Episode: "Pilot"
	Six Degrees	Gail	Episode: "Pilot" Episode: "The Puncher"
	Freak Show	Various (voice)	7 episodes
2007	Scott Bateman Presents	Earth's New Robot Overlord (voice) Trixie Tangway	Episode: "Two" Episode: "Three"
	Norbit	Event Organizer
	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"
	Redeeming Rainbow	Nameless Drifter	TV movie
	Comedy: Shuffle	Penelope / Princess of Pets	Episode: "Jocelyn Jee Esien"
	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)	Episode: "Bible Fruit"
	The Whitest Kids U'Know	Homeless Woman	Episode: "2.9"
	Horrible People	Margaret	10 episodes
	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
	The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard	Stewardess Stacey
	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	Gertha Teeth
	Comedy Showcase	Tourist	Episode: "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret"
2010	Modern Family	Whitney	Episode: "Fifteen Percent"
	When in Rome	Ilona
	Valentine's Day	Ms. Gilroy
	Comedy Lab	Penelope	Episode: "Penelope Princess of Pets"
	Shrek Forever After	Pumpkin Witch / 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
	FCU: Fact Checkers Unit	Paula	Episode: "One Groundhog Day Dog"
	WordGirl	Victoria Best
	Scared Shrekless	Gingerbread Girl (voice)
2011	Butter	Carol Ann	Post-production
	The Simpsons	Taffy (voice)	Episode: "Homer Scissorhands"; credited as "Kristen Schall"
	The Penguins of Madagascar	Muffy, Bluffy, and Fluffy the bunny rabbits (guest voice)	Episode: "Operation: Neighbor Swap"
	Hawaiian Vacation	Trixie (voice)
	Soul Quest Overdrive	Tammy (voice)
	The Muppets	Anger Management group moderator
	The Heart, She Holler	Hershe Heartshe	Episodes: All 6 episodes
	American Dad!	Girl (voice)	Episode: Hurricane!
2011-present	Bob's Burgers	Louise Belcher (voice)
2012	American Dad!	Librarian (voice)	Episode: "Stan Best Friend"
	Sleepwalk with Me	Cynthia
2012-2013	30 Rock	Hazel Wassername	Recurring seasons six and seven (11 episodes total)
	Adventure Time	Jake Jr. (voice)	Episode: "Jake the Dad" Episodes: "One Last Job" Episodes: "Another 5 Short Graybles"
2012-present	Gravity Falls	Mabel Pines (voice)
2013	Archer	Tiffy	Episode: "Sea Tunt Parts 1 & 2"
	Despicable Me 2	Shannon (voice)
	Wilfred	Anne	Episode: "Shame" Episode: "Intuition" Episode: "Stagnation"
	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Barb (voice)	Post-production