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Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees (the other being Harvard Extension School). Founded in 1636, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States^[1] and one of the most prestigious in the world.^[2]

History[link]

View of freshman dormitories in Harvard Yard

In 1636 the New College came into existence by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—though without a single building, instructor, or student. In 1639 it was renamed in honor of deceased Charlestown minister John Harvard, who had bequeathed to the school his entire library and half of his monetary estate.

Harvard's first instructor, schoolmaster Nathaniel Eaton, was also its first instructor to be dismissed—in 1639 for overstrict discipline.^[3] The school's first students were graduated in 1642. In 1665, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, "from the Wampanoag ... did graduate from Harvard, the first Indian to do so in the colonial period."^[4]

At the time of Harvard's founding (as today) the colleges of England's Oxford and Cambridge were communities within the larger university, each an association of scholars (both established and aspiring) sharing room and board; Harvard's founders may have envisioned it as the first in a series of sibling colleges which, on the English model, would eventually constitute a university. Though no further "colleges" materialized, nonetheless as Harvard began granting higher degrees in the late eighteenth century it was increasingly styled Harvard University--even as Harvard College (in keeping with emerging American usage of that word) was increasingly thought of as the university's undergraduate division in particular.^{[citations needed throughout]}

Today Harvard College is responsible for undergraduate admissions, advising, housing, student life, and athletics – generally all undergraduate matters except instruction, which is the purview of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The body known as The President and Fellows of Harvard College retains its traditional name despite having governance of the entire University.

Historically open only to men, Harvard College and Harvard University are now both fully coeducational.

Academics[link]

About 2100 students are admitted each year, representing between six and 10 percent of those applying; of those admitted approximately three-quarters choose to attend.^[5][6][7][8] These figures make Harvard one of the most selective, and most sought-after, colleges in the world.^{[citation needed]} Very few transfer applications are accepted.^{[citation needed]}

Most Harvard College graduates receive the Artium Baccalaureus (A.B.), normally completed in four years, though students completing substantial college-level coursework in high school can graduate in three. A smaller number receive the Scientiarum Baccalaureus (S.B.), normally requiring five years, and there are also special degree programs, such as a five-year program leading to both a Harvard undergraduate degree and a Master of Arts from the New England Conservatory of Music.

Midway through the second year, most undergraduates join one of fifty standard fields of concentration (what most schools call an academic major); many also declare a secondary field (called minors elsewhere). Joint concentrations (combining the requirements of two standard concentrations) and special concentrations (of the student's own design) are also possible.^{[citation needed]}

Undergraduates must also fulfill the General Education requirement of coursework in eight designated fields:

Each student's exposure (via "Gen Ed") to a range of intellectual areas, while pursuing a chosen concentration in depth, fulfills the injunction of Harvard past-president Abbott Lawrence Lowell that each graduate should "know a little of everything, and one thing well."^[9]

House system[link]

Lowell House in autumn.

Nearly all Harvard undergraduates live on campus, for the first year in dormitories in or near Harvard Yard (see List of Harvard dormitories) and later in the Houses—administrative subdivisions of the College as well as living quarters, providing a sense of community in what might otherwise be a socially incohesive and administratively daunting university environment. Each house is presided over by a senior-faculty Master, while its Allston Burr Resident Dean (usually a junior faculty member) supervises undergraduates' day-to-day academic and disciplinary well-being. The Master and Resident Dean are assisted by other members of the Senior Common Room—select graduate students, faculty, and University officials brought into association with each house. Many of these graduate students (called tutors) live in the House, as do the Master and Resident Dean. (Terms such as Tutor, Senior Common Room and Junior Common Room—the House's undergraduate members—reflect the debt to the residential college systems at Oxford and Cambridge.)^[10]

The House system was instituted by President Lowell in the 1930s to combat what he saw as pernicious social stratification engendered by the private, off-campus living arrangements of many Harvard undergraduates at that time. Lowell's solution was to provide on-campus accommodations to every student throughout his entire career in the College; Lowell also saw great benefits flowing from other features of the House system, such as the relaxed discussions (academic or otherwise) which he hoped would take place among undergraduates and members of the Senior Common Room over meals in each House's dining hall.^[11]

An important change since Lowell's time concerns the way in which students are assigned to particular Houses. Under the original "draft" system, Masters agreed privately on the assignment of upcoming freshmen considered most—or least—promising.^{[citation needed]} From the 1960s to the mid-1990s students ranked the Houses according to personal preference, with an impersonal lottery resolving the oversubscription of more popular houses. Today House assignments are essentially random.

South of Harvard Yard, near the Charles River, are the nine River Houses:

Construction of the first River houses began in early 1929.^[12] The land on which they were built had been assembled decades before: Edward Waldo Forbes, grandson of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was inspired by the Oxford and Cambridge systems when he studied for two years in England after graduating from Harvard in 1895. On returning to the U.S., he set out to acquire such land between Harvard Yard and the Charles River as was not already in the hands of the university or an associated entity. By 1918 that ambition had been largely fulfilled and the assembled land transferred to Harvard.^[13][14] The construction of the River houses was financed with a 1928 gift by Yale alumnus Edward Harkness. Harkness, who had been hoping to finance a similar project at Yale before school politics delayed the plan, visited Lowell in Cambridge in October 1928. He ultimately offered 11 million dollars towards the construction of the River houses.^[12][15] Two of the new houses, Dunster and Lowell, were completed in 1930.^[12]

The three Quad Houses (in the Harvard—formerly Radcliffe—Quadrangle) enjoy a residential setting half a mile (800 m) northwest of Harvard Yard. These housed Radcliffe College students until Radcliffe merged its residential system with Harvard in 1977.^[16] They are:

A thirteenth house, Dudley House, is nonresidential but fulfills, for some graduate students and the (very few) undergraduates living off campus, the administrative and social functions provided by the other twelve houses to their residents.

Harvard's residential houses are paired with Yale's residential colleges in sister relationships.

Athletics[link]

By the late 19th century critics of intercollegiate athletics, including Harvard president Charles William Eliot, believed that sports competition had become over-commercialized and took students away from their studies, and they called for reform and limitations on all sports. This opposition prompted Harvard's athletic committee to target 'minor' sports—basketball and hockey—for reform and regulation in order to deflect attention from the major sports—football, baseball, track, and crew. The committee made it difficult for the basketball team to operate by denying financial assistance and limiting the number of overnight away games in which the team could participate. Several losing seasons, negative attitudes toward the commercialization of intercollegiate sports, and the need for reform contributed to basketball's demise at Harvard in 1909.^[17]

Today, Harvard claims to be home to the largest Division I intercollegiate athletics program in the United States, with 41 varsity teams and over 1,500 student-athletes. Harvard is one of eight members of the Ivy League.

Harvard and Yale enjoy the oldest intercollegiate athletic rivalry in the United States, the Harvard-Yale Regatta, dating back to 1852, when rowing crews from each institution first met on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Harvard won that contest by two boat lengths. Since 1859, the crews have met nearly every year (except during major wars). The race is typically held in early June in New London, Connecticut.

Better known is the annual Harvard-Yale football game, known to insiders of both institutions as simply, "The Game." It was first played in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1875. Harvard won the initial contest 4-0. In recent years, The Game is always played on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, making it one of many significant games played on "Rivalry Day."

Undergraduate organizations[link]

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Harvard has hundreds of undergraduate organizations.^{[citation needed]} Every spring there is an "Arts First week," founded by John Lithgow during which arts and culture organizations show off performances, cook meals, or present other work; in 2005 over 40% of students participated in at least one Arts First event. Notable organizations include the student-run business organization Harvard Student Agencies, the daily newspaper The Harvard Crimson, the humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon, the a cappella groups the Din & Tonics and the Krokodiloes, and the public service umbrella organization the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA).

Publications and media[link]

Many Harvard undergraduate publications and productions are distributed worldwide.

The Harvard Lampoon's "castle" features anthropomporphic eyes, nose, mouth, and bow-tie.

• The Harvard Crimson, the United States' oldest continually published daily college newspaper.
• Harvard Yearbook Publications, Inc.,^[18] publisher of the Senior yearbook since 1950.
• The Harvard Advocate, the oldest^[where?] continuously published college literary magazine.
• The Harvard Lampoon, founded in 1876 on the model of Punch.
• The Harvard Political Review, founded in 1969 by former Vice President Al Gore.^[19]
• The Harvard International Review, which regularly carries articles by prominent scholars and policymakers.
• Radio station WHRB, noted for its periodic "Orgies" devoted to certain performers, composers, genres, and themes.
• The Harvard Interactive Media Group publishes a quarterly academic review devoted to media studies and video games.
• The Harvard Review of Philosophy, which publishes professional^{[clarification needed]} philosophy
• The Harvard Science Review, Harvard's oldest undergraduate science publication.
• The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal, which showcases peer-reviewed^{[clarification needed]} undergraduate research.
• The Harvard Independent, an alternative^{[clarification needed]} weekly with news, opinion, sports, arts, and features.
• * Harvard Undergraduate Television, producer of the comedy news program On Harvard Time and the soap opera Ivory Tower.

Service[link]

• The Phillips Brooks House Association, an umbrella community service organization operating in Phillips Brooks House of Harvard Yard, consists of 78 program committees and over 1,800 student volunteers, and serves close to 10,000 clients in the Cambridge and Boston area.
• Harvard for Haiti^[20]
• Harvard for Japan^[21]
• Harvard for Pakistan^[22]
• Harvard for the Horn^[23]

Political[link]

• The Harvard Undergraduate Council, elected by undergraduates, advocates on behalf of students, operates certain student services, and grants funds to other student organizations.
• The Harvard Institute of Politics, a non-partisan living memorial to President John F. Kennedy that promotes public service and provides political opportunities^{[clarification needed]} to undergraduates.
• The Harvard College Democrats, the largest partisan political group on campus.^{[citation needed]}
• The Harvard Republican Club,^[24]
• The Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society fields one of the top intercollegiate debate teams in the world.^{[citation needed]}
• Harvard Model Congress, in which high school students from around the world conduct simulated sessions of the United States Congress
• The Harvard International Relations Council promotes international awareness and sponsors a Model United Nations.

Performing arts[link]

Opera companies

• Lowell House Opera, the oldest continually performing opera company in New England.
• The Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players, founded in 1956, performs comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan and by others.

Choral groups

• The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, a select mixed choir formed in 1971.
• Harvard Glee Club, the oldest college chorus in America, founded in 1858.
• Radcliffe Choral Society, founded in 1898, an all-women chorus.
• The The Harvard Radcliffe Chorus, which consists of faculty, staff, community members, as well as graduate students and undergraduates.
• Harvard University Choir, formally established in 1834 but in existence since the eighteenth century.
• The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, the oldest existing Black organization at Harvard College (founded in 1970), celebrates Black creativity and spirituality.

A cappella groups

• Harvard Krokodiloes, an all-male a cappella group, Harvard's oldest
• Harvard Opportunes, Harvard's oldest mixed vocal a cappella group
• Harvard Din & Tonics, an all-male a cappella group founded in 1979
• Harvard LowKeys, mixed vocal, both male and female
• Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, mixed vocal, both male and female
• Harvard Callbacks, mixed vocal, both male and female
• Radcliffe Pitches, all-female a cappella group founded in 1975
• Harvard's Under Construction, a mixed vocal Christian music a capella group founded in the early 1980s
• Harvard Fallen Angels, an all-female a cappella group founded in 2000
• 'Cliffe Notes- the contemporary a cappella subset of the Radcliffe Choral Society (Harvard's premier women's chorus est. 1899)

Orchestras and bands

• Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, founded in 1808.
• Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, founded in 1898 as "The Musical Club of Harvard University," is Harvard's chamber orchestra.
• Harvard University Band, founded in 1919, plays university sporting events and in other community venues.
• Harvard Pops Orchestra, known for their fun performances and innovative repertoire
• Harvard Mozart Society Orchestra, founded in 1984, performs often with Robert Levin

Theater and dance

• The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club is an organization that connects smaller campus theater groups and supports all campus productions. The HRDC directly oversees productions within the Loeb Theater, which it shares with the nationally acclaimed American Repertory Theater. The HRDC also organizes seminars and workshops to connect students with professionals in the field.
• Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque musicals. They present original student-written and -composed musicals with near-professional production values. Formed in 1795 as a fraternity, the Pudding has performed a production every year since 1891, except during World Wars I and II. Each production is entirely student-written. Although the cast remains all-male (with female parts performed by actors in drag), women participate in the productions as members of the business staff, orchestra, and tech crew.
• The Immediate Gratification Players (IGP), On Thin Ice (OTI), and Three Letter Acronym (TLA) are Harvard's three undergraduate improvisational comedy groups. The Immediate Gratification Players and On Thin Ice are among the oldest and most prestigious collegiate improv groups in the nation. Unlike many college troupes, all three groups' constitutions require they present all campus shows free of charge. Formed last year, Three Letter Acronym utilizes the "Harold" long-form format.
• Harvard blackC.A.S.T. (Community and Student Theater) is Harvard's theater group dedicated to black theatrical production and fostering a black theater community on campus. Past productions include Amen Corner, Before it Hits Home, and The Colored Museum.
• The Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Company
• The Harvard Ballet Company
• The Harvard Ballroom Team, one of the largest national collegiate ballroom teams
• The Harvard Ballet Folklórico de Aztlán
• Harvard Deepam performs Bharatanatyam
• The Harvard Intertribal Indian Dance Troupe performs Native American powwow dances.
• The Harvard Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble is dedicated to raising awareness of the depth and diversity of African expressive culture through the performance of dance and music from all over the continent.
• The Harvard Crimson Dance Team

Other

• THUD (The Harvard Undergraduate Drummers), founded in 1999, known for their creative percussion performance with plastic SOLO cups, brooms, and traditional instruments
• The Noteables, a non-audition group that performs revue-style musical theater

Academic organizations[link]

• Dynamo^[25]
• Harvard College Engineering Society^[26]
• Harvard College Stem Cell Society A student group dedicated to raising awareness about the ethics, politics, and science of stem cell research.
• Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe

Pre-professional organizations[link]

• Harvard Student Agencies, a $6 million non-profit company—students gain practical business experience while running divisions as varied as linen service, advertisement distribution, and computer programming.
• Harvard College Consulting Group provides businesses with trained student analysts with term-time consulting projects.^[27]
• Veritas Financial Group helps prepare students for careers in finance
• Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business
• Harvard Financial Analysts Club^[28] uses management of its own investment funds as a teaching vehicle.^[29]
• Harvard Investment Associatio' educates on investing and financial markets and provides opportunitiesTemplate:C;arify for investing experience.
• The Harvard College Business Club uses online social networks to connect^{[clarification needed]} undergraduates with business leaders and potential employers.
• The Leadership Institute at Harvard College provides leadership training
• Harvard College Engineering Society participates in competitions and promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration.^[30]

Unrecognized student groups[link]

• Final Clubs: A.D., Delphic, Fly, Fox, Owl, Phoenix-SK, Porcellian, Spee, Oak
• Fraternities: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Phi Iota Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi
• Female social clubs: Bee, Isis, The Seneca, La Vie, Pleiades, Sabliere Society
• Sororities: Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Pi Omega
• Other social groups: Hasty Pudding, Oak Club, Signet

Religious life[link]

Chabad House

The Chabad House at Harvard is a community center for Jewish students operated by the Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement. Presently headed by Rabbi and Mrs. Hirsch and Rabbi and Mrs. Zarchi, it was founded in 1997.^[31] According to Professor Ruth Wisse, its success is due to the personality and energy of Rabbi Zarchi.^[32] The rabbis live at the Chabad House with their young children, which contributes to a warm family atmosphere at their Friday evening Shabbat dinners for students.^[33] In April 2010 it placed a bid of $6 million to purchase the building of the former DU Club located at 45 Dunster Street from the Fly Club. The bid was reportedly more than twice the tax-assessed value of the building and land.^[34]

Notable alumni[link]

For more information see List of Harvard University people

Architecture

• Buckminster Fuller (expelled)
• Philip Johnson

Art

• Waldo Peirce
• Ellen Harvey
• Alex Kahn
• Marina Rosenfeld

Astronomy

• Andrew Fraknoi

Athletics

• Ryan Fitzpatrick
• Eddie Grant
• Bobby Jones
• Christopher Nowinski
• Jeremy Lin

Business

• Steve Ballmer
• Lloyd Blankfein
• Jim Cramer
• Bill Gates (did not graduate)
• James Halperin (did not graduate)
• Trip Hawkins
• William Randolph Hearst (rusticated)
• Scott Mead
• Sumner Redstone
• Mark Zuckerberg (did not graduate)

Economics

• Ben Bernanke
• Martin Feldstein
• Steven Levitt
• Merton Miller
• Robert M. Solow
• James Tobin

Education

• Edwin H Baker Pratt

Journalism

• Nicholas D. Kristof
• Anthony Lewis
• Walter Lippmann

Law

• Harry Blackmun
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• John Roberts
• David Souter

Literature

• James Agee
• William S. Burroughs
• Michael Crichton
• E. E. Cummings
• John Dos Passos
• W. E. B. Du Bois
• T. S. Eliot
• Jean Kwok
• Norman Mailer
• Edmund Pearson
• Erich Segal
• Wallace Stevens
• John Updike

Mathematics

• Theodore Kaczynski
• Tom Lehrer

Performance arts - music, theater and film

• Darren Aronofsky
• Paris Barclay
• Leonard Bernstein
• Andy Borowitz
• Amy Brenneman
• Carter Burwell
• Nestor Carbonell
• Rivers Cuomo
• Matt Damon (did not graduate)
• Fred Gwynne
• Hao Huang
• Rashida Jones
• Tommy Lee Jones
• Jack Lemmon
• Ryan Leslie
• John Lithgow
• Donal Logue
• Yo-Yo Ma
• Terrence Malick
• Tom Morello
• Conan O'Brien
• Natalie Portman
• Joshua Redman
• Elisabeth Shue
• Mira Sorvino
• Michael Stern

Philosophy

• Donald Davidson
• Daniel Dennett
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Charles Sanders Peirce
• W.V.O. Quine
• George Santayana
• Henry David Thoreau

Physics

• Philip Warren Anderson
• Theodore Hall
• J. Robert Oppenheimer

Politics

• John Adams
• John Quincy Adams
• Samuel Adams
• Benazir Bhutto
• Sir George Downing
• Al Franken
• Elbridge Gerry
• Al Gore
• John Hancock
• Edward M. Kennedy
• John F. Kennedy
• Robert F. Kennedy
• Henry Kissinger
• Deval Patrick
• Tom Ridge
• Franklin Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Jay Rockefeller
• Chuck Schumer
• Meshech Weare
• John Weston

Religion

• Joseph Stevens Buckminster
• Aga Khan IV
• Cotton Mather
• Increase Mather
• Theodore Parker

Fictional alumni

• A.J. (The Fairly OddParents) (one episode)
• Oliver Barrett IV
• Patrick Bateman
• Quentin Compson (did not graduate)
• Frasier Crane
• Denzel Crocker of The Fairly Oddparents {one episode}
• Ari Gold
• Thurston Howell III
• Montgomery (Monty) Kessler (With Honors)
• Method Man (movie: How High)
• Reverend Samuel Parris as a character in The Crucible
• Herb Powell
• Redman (movie: How High)
• James "Toofer" Spurlock
• Charles Emerson Winchester III

Footnotes[link]

General references[link]

• Gookin, Daniel, Historical Collections, 53: Railton, "Vineyard's First Harvard Men," 91-112.
• King, Moses, Harvard and its surroundings, Cambridge, Massachusetts : Moses King, 1884
• Monaghan, E. J. (2005). Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America University of Massachusetts Press. Boston: MA
• Sibley's Harvard Graduates

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harvard University

• Harvard College
• Harvard University
• List of Harvard BA Graduates Class from 1642 to 1782
• List of Harvard BA Graduates Class from 1783 to 1886

Coordinates: 42°22′26″N 71°07′01″W / 42.374°N 71.117°W / 42.374; -71.117

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Amy Poehler
Poehler at the 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon 2012.
Born	Amy Meredith Poehler (1971-09-16) September 16, 1971 (age 40) Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, comedian, writer, producer
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Will Arnett (2003–present; 2 children)

Amy Meredith Poehler  /ˈpoʊlər/ (born September 16, 1971) is an American actress, comedienne, producer and writer. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she had a minor role in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is currently the lead of NBC's comedy Parks and Recreation. She has been nominated twice for both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance on Saturday Night Live, and for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in Parks & Recreation. For the latter series she also received a 2012 Golden Globe Award nomination.

Early life[link]

Poehler was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Eileen Frances (née Milmore) and William Grinstead Poehler, both teachers.^[1] She is a distant cousin of author Stephen King and U.S. senator Scott Brown, through shared New England ancestry.^[2][3][4] Poehler was raised Catholic.^[1]

A 1993 graduate of Boston College, Poehler was a member of America's oldest collegiate improv comedy troupe, "My Mother's Fleabag."^[1] After graduating from college, Poehler moved to Chicago, where she studied improvisational theatre at Second City, with friend and future co-star Tina Fey.^[1] She also studied with Del Close at ImprovOlympic, going on to become part of the touring company as well as teaching classes at IO.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

[edit] Upright Citizens Brigade

During her time at Second City and Improv Olympic in Chicago, Poehler studied under Del Close and Charna Halpern along with Matt Besser, where they were part of the original improv team called the Upright Citizens Brigade.^{[citation needed]} While the group initially consisted of many members (including Horatio Sanz, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, and Neil Flynn), Poehler quickly became part of the group along with Matt Walsh. The two, along with Besser and Ian Roberts, performed sketch and improv around Chicago before moving to New York in 1996.^[1] Immediately after moving to New York, the group quickly scored a TV gig,^{[citation needed]} appearing as sketch regulars on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In 1998, Comedy Central debuted the group's eponymous half-hour sketch comedy series.^{[citation needed]} During the show's second season, the group opened an Improv theatre and training center in New York City at 161 W. 22nd Street, occupying the space of a former strip club.^{[citation needed]} The UCB theatre held shows seven nights a week in addition to offering classes in sketch comedy writing and improv.^[1]

In the summer of 2000, Comedy Central canceled the Upright Citizens Brigade program after its third season, though the UCB Theatre continues to operate.^{[citation needed]} The foursome continue to work together in many projects, and frequently perform together in live improv shows at their comedy theatres in NY and LA.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Saturday Night Live

Poehler joined the cast of SNL during the 2001–02 season, her debut episode being the first one produced after the 9/11 attacks – with host Reese Witherspoon, musical guest Alicia Keys, and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a special guest.^{[citation needed]} Poehler was promoted from featured player to full cast member in her first season on the show, making her only the third person to have earned this distinction (after Harry Shearer and Eddie Murphy).^[5]

Beginning with the 2004–05 season, she co-anchored "Weekend Update" with Tina Fey, replacing the newly departed Jimmy Fallon. In a TV Guide interview, Fey said that with Poehler co-anchoring, there now is "double the sexual tension." When Fey left after the 2005–06 season to devote time to the sitcom she created, 30 Rock, Seth Meyers joined Poehler at the anchor desk. Poehler was nominated for a 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series,^[6] the first SNL cast member recognized in this category.^{[citation needed]} She was heavily favored to win by many critics, but ultimately lost to Jean Smart. She was nominated once again in 2009, but lost to Kristin Chenoweth. On September 13, 2008, the SNL season premiere opened with Fey and Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, respectively, performing a "joint political campaign spot."

It was officially announced on September 16, 2008 that Poehler would be leaving SNL in October due to the birth of her child.^{[citation needed]} On the October 25, 2008 episode, it was announced by "Weekend Update" co-anchor Seth Meyers, who anchored the segment alone, "Amy Poehler is not here because she is having a baby", to wild applause from the audience. At the end of "Weekend Update", special guest Maya Rudolph and current cast member Kenan Thompson sang a custom rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for Poehler, changing the words: "We love you Amy, and we just can't wait to meet your baby!" Meyers signed off: "For Weekend Update, I'm Seth Meyers — we love you Amy!"^{[citation needed]}

Poehler returned to the show on November 3, 2008, during the "SNL Presidential Bash '08", "hosting" as Hillary Clinton. The Bash was pre-taped from scenes shot between September and October. Her return to SNL after her pregnancy was on December 6, 2008, where she stayed for two weeks.^{[citation needed]} During "Weekend Update", on December 13, she thanked her family, friends, and fans for the continued support and announced that it would be her last show.^{[citation needed]} On April 18, 2009, a Saturday Night Live special, "The Best of Amy Poehler", aired.^{[citation needed]} Poehler returned for "Weekend Update" (signing off with "...and he's Seth Meyers") and joined the "chorus" for Will Ferrell's "Goodnight Saigon" (along with the SNL cast and Tom Hanks, Maya Rudolph, Norm Macdonald, Artie Lange, Anne Hathaway, and Green Day) on the SNL season finale on May 16, 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Poehler returned to the "Weekend Update" desk in the fall of 2009 with Meyers, for two "WU" Thursday episodes, which led directly into Parks and Recreation.^{[citation needed]} Poehler also returned to Saturday Night Live for a special Mother's Day episode on May 8, 2010, hosted by Betty White.^[7]

Poehler returned to Saturday Night Live on September 25, 2010 to host the Season 36 opening episode with performer Katy Perry.^{[citation needed]} She returned once again for the Saturday Night Live special, "The Women of SNL". The special aired on November 1, 2010.^{[citation needed]} Between the time she left and the time she hosted, she also returned several times to join Seth Meyers in their "Really!?! With Seth and Amy" segment on Weekend Update. The "Really!?!" segment has aired since with Meyers speaking doing the segment alone, although he was once accompanied by special guest Kermit the Frog. Poehler appeared as a guest in the December 18, 2011 Jimmy-Fallon-hosted episode, starring in the opening sketch and a Weekend Update joke-off with Fallon, Meyers and Tina Fey. She appeared once again on the February 18, 2012 Maya Rudolph-hosted episode, reprising her role as Betty Caruso in the Bronx Beat sketch (with co-host Maya Rudolph), co-anchoring Weekend Update as well as a segment of "Really!?! With Seth and Amy", and appearing briefly as Hillary Clinton at the end of the "The Obama Show" sketch.

[edit] Parks and Recreation

Poehler with Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza at the 2012 Time 100 gala

In July 2008, Variety reported that Poehler was in final negotiations to star in a series by writers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, set to air on Thursdays before The Office, starting January 2009 on NBC.^[8] On July 21, 2008, NBC officially announced Poehler's new series, Parks and Recreation, saying the project would not be a direct spin-off of The Office, as previously speculated.^[9]

Poehler joined an ensemble cast including Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Paul Schneider, Nick Offerman, and starting with the third season, Adam Scott, and Rob Lowe. Poehler plays Deputy Director of the Parks Department, Leslie Knope, in the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana. After a rough first season, the show's second season and third season have been well received by critics, and Poehler received an Emmy nomination for her role. NBC has since renewed Parks and Recreation for a fourth season. Poehler was featured in The Advocate for her role in the show.^{[citation needed]}

Amy Poehler has also written three episodes of the series, the first being Telethon in season 2, which was the episode Poehler sent in as her Emmy Awards submission in 2010. The second one is the episode entitled The Fight, which aired on May 12, 2011. She both wrote and directed the 4th season episode "The Debate".^[10]

Poehler was once again nominated for an Emmy Award - Oustanding Actress in a Comedy in 2011. She sent the episode Flu Season as her submission.^{[citation needed]}

Film career and other work[link]

Tina Fey and Poehler at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York.

Poehler has appeared in the films Wet Hot American Summer, Mean Girls, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, Blades of Glory, Envy, Shrek the Third, Mr. Woodcock, and Hamlet 2. She is^[when?] producing a digital series with two of her friends, Meredith Walker and Amy Miles, Smart Girls at the Party, available through ON Networks.^[11][12] The show is focused on interviews with young women who are "changing the world by being themselves".^[13] The first season of 'Smart Girls at the Party' premiered online November 17, 2008, with Mattel's Barbie signed on as the lead sponsor. Smart Girls at the Party is returning to production in 2012 as part of Google's 100 Channel YouTube initiative to create new content. The new Smart Girls at the Party YouTube Channel will go live on July 2, 2012 and include new episodes of Smart Girls at the Party along with additional shows by Amy, Meredith, and Amy.^[14]

She appeared in various comedy segments on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, often playing her recurring role as Andy Richter's little sister Stacy, and as a recurring character in two episodes of the college dramedy Undeclared. She appears in the film Southland Tales, which premiered on May 21, 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, she appeared in Horton Hears a Who!, Hamlet 2, Baby Mama, and Spring Breakdown. She has also co-created an animated series for Nickelodeon called The Mighty B!, about Bessie Higgenbottom, a "sweet, merit-badge-obsessed girl scout", to which she lends her vocal talents.^[15] In 2009, Poehler earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Series.^[16]

In 2011 Poehler received the honor of being named one of TIME magazine's "100 most influential people in the world".^[17] She also delivered the Class Day address to Harvard University's class of 2011.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Poehler married Will Arnett of the Fox comedy Arrested Development on August 29, 2003, and had a recurring role in the series as the nameless wife of Arnett's character George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II.^{[citation needed]} Poehler and Arnett also played a quasi-incestuous brother-sister ice skating team in the 2007 film Blades of Glory, and appeared together in Horton Hears a Who!, On Broadway, Spring Breakdown, and Monsters vs. Aliens, along with Arnett having a guest appearance on Poehler's NBC comedy Parks and Recreation and both did voice acting on The Secret World of Arrietty. On October 25, 2008, Poehler gave birth to her first child, son Archibald William Emerson "Archie" Arnett, just hours before the Saturday Night Live telecast.^[19] Poehler gave birth to her second son, Abel James Arnett, on August 6, 2010.^[20] She is a supporter of Planned Parenthood.^[21][22]

Filmography[link]

[edit] Notable characters on SNL

• Amber, a one-legged hypoglycemic reality show contestant.
• Betty Caruso, Bronx Beat co-host (opposite Maya Rudolph).
• Kaitlin, the excitable preteen titular character of Kaitlin and Rick (opposite Horatio Sanz).
• Netti Bo Dance, a frequent patient at the Appalachian Emergency Room.
• Sally Needler, half of The Needlers, "the couple that should be divorced" (opposite Seth Meyers).
• Zoe Anderton, the pun loving, David Beckham-obsessed Spy Glass co-host (opposite Seth Meyers).

Impressions[link]

Poehler has impersonated Dakota Fanning, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Sharon Osbourne, Britney Spears, Paula Abdul, Rosie O'Donnell, Kelly Ripa, Ann Coulter, Madonna, Avril Lavigne, Sharon Stone, Nancy Grace, Michael Jackson, Lindsay Lohan, Christian Siriano, Peter Ostrum, David Spade, Mr. Six, Tonya Harding, Dennis Kucinich, Fergie, Judy Garland, J. K. Rowling, Kim Jong-il, Jenna Bush, Katie Couric, Tinker Bell, and Rosie Perez.

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]