Kristen Schaal

Kristen Joy Schaal (; born January 24, 1978) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for her voice roles as Louise Belcher on ''Bob's Burgers'' and Mabel Pines on ''Gravity Falls''. She's also known for playing Mel on '' Flight of the Conchords'', Hurshe Heartshe on '' The Heart, She Holler'', and Carol Pilbasian on '' The Last Man on Earth''. She provided several voices for ''BoJack Horseman'', most notably for the character of Sarah Lynn, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance. Other roles include Amanda Simmons on ''The Hotwives of Orlando'', Hazel Wassername on ''30 Rock'', Victoria Best on '' WordGirl'', Trixie in the ''Toy Story'' franchise, and Anne on '' Wilfred''. She was an occasional commentator on ''The Daily Show'' from 2008 to 2016. She voiced Sayrna in the 2019 EA video game ''Anthem''.

Early life

Schaal was born in Longmont, Colorado, to a Lutheran family of Dutch ancestry. She was raised on her family's cattle ranch, in a rural area near Boulder, Colorado. Her father is a construction worker and her mother a secretary.

Schaal attended Skyline High School where she graduated in 1996. She has a brother, David, who is three years her elder. She attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for a year and graduated from Northwestern University. She then moved to New York in 2000 to pursue a comedy career. In 2005, she had her first break when she was included in the ''New York'' 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 City, 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 in Los Angeles, which was voted "Best Variety Show of 2005" by a Time-Out New York's readers poll. She also performs at the Peoples Improv Theater on the improv team, "Big Black Car". 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 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

In 2001, Schaal had a bit role in the film '' Kate & Leopold''. Schaal appeared 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''.

She made her first appearance as a "special commentator" on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' on March 13, 2008, often presented in recurring appearances as its news team's "Senior Women's Issues Correspondent". In 2008, she made an appearance on ''Good News Week'' during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In October 2008 she appeared in Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008. She also appeared on an episode of ''Last Week Tonight'' with John Oliver about sexual education, talking about abstinence and non-abstinence only education.

Other film and television credits include '' Kate & 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'', ''Good News Week'' (Australia), '' 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 a contributor to the sketch/music series ''The Nighttime Clap'' on the Fuse music network.

She appeared on Fuse's original comedy series ''The P.A.''. She appeared in two TV pilots written and directed by Jersey City

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