Inside Tina Fey And Amy Poehler's Relationship

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are not just award-winning comedians, actors, and producers, they're also besties. The two will host the 2021 Golden Globes, though they won't be side by side; according to Rolling Stone, Poehler will be in Los Angeles while Fey will be in New York, but despite the distance, there's no doubt that the two will still be able to keep us laughing. While this is their latest collaboration, the two have a long history.

The friendship started in 1993 at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, and co-founder of the theater Charna Halpern told Vulture, "They were just instantly brilliant. They were not the typical women who get steamrolled by men. [...] They were bold and ballsy and fearless."

In August 1994, the two of them auditioned the same day for Chicago's Second City and were both in the touring company (via The Second City). Then in 1996, Fey got to the main stage in Chicago and Poehler headed to New York with the Upright Citizen Brigade as one of its co-creators. Fey credits Poehler's departure for her own promotion, writing in her autobiography Bossypants, "However, I must say, as a point of pride, that I didn't get the job because I was a woman. I got the job because Amy Poehler moved to New York with the Upright Citizens Brigade and I was the next best thing" (via Vulture).

And while Tina Fey would join Amy Poehler in the Big Apple in 1997 to work as a writer on Saturday Night Live, they didn't work together again until Poehler joined the SNL cast in 2001 after years of Fey asking her to (via Elle). In Bossypants, Fey wrote about the relief she felt having her friend nearby, "Even though things had been going great for me at the show, with Amy there, I felt less alone."

The two worked together on their first film in 2002, along with other improv friends. In Martin & Orloff, the two were cast as Southern belles (via Variety). Then in 2004, they were in a little movie you may have heard of: Mean Girls with Poehler as the "cool mom" and Fey — who also wrote the movie — as Mrs. Norbury.

2004 was a big year for the pair when they were both made co-anchors of the "Weekend Update" segment of Saturday Night Live, the first time, and only time thus far, that two women were in those chairs (via EW). From Saturday Night Live, in 2006, Fey went on to create and star in the sitcom 30 Rock and in 2008, Poehler started work as Leslie Knope on Parks & Recreation. They may have been on different shows, but the comedy duo got back together to make Baby Mama, released in 2008 (via Elle).

Fast forward to 2013: Tina Fey and Amy Poeler hosted the Golden Globes for the first time and kept the audience laughing (via USA Today). They did such a good job, they were asked to host the Globes two more times, and on the stage, their bond as friends and status as comedy geniuses just kept being reaffirmed. Fey really confirmed it for the world at the 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards when both she and Poehler were up for Best Actress in a Comedy Series (via The Atlantic). When Fey won, during her speech, she said, "I also want to share this with my sweet friend Amy Poehler, who I've known for so long."

Their next professional project together was the R-rated comedy Sisters that came out in 2015. When talking to The New York Times, Poehler brought up a skill that many best friends can probably recognize, saying, "Tina and I are very good at very quickly mumbling to each other something, usually about someone else in the room." And she also said about making movies together that, "We both have a very similar work ethic. We like to do a lot of hard work. We're not big complainers."

In an interview with EW, the duo revealed a touching detail about their connection; Poehler said, "[...] when we're next to each other we like to hug each other a lot, like we're in the womb."

The connection may someday go beyond besties and colleagues for Fey and Poehler. Tina Fey has two daughters and Amy Poehler has two sons, and they told EW they've got a secret plan to get their kids married. About that plot, Fey said, "I feel like if we push it, they're going to sense that, so we're keeping them at opposite sides of the country to create a mystery." Poehler followed up, "We've learned to undersell that idea until they're of the perfect age, but if we do have a wedding at any point, Tina and I are going to insist that we write and perform a song that we sing to our children." They also apparently both plan to wear peach to the wedding.

While they wait to maybe someday become related, Fey and Poehler collaborated on film again, not too long ago. In 2019, Poehler directed and starred in Wine Country, which was based on an actual trip she went on with her friends — many of which also starred in the movie. And of course, Fey's in it. Poehler was stoked over the experience, saying, "I'm lucky to have some of the funniest people in the world be my actual friends. And so I tried to quickly exploit that as fast as I could" (via NPR).

With a bond that just seems to be getting better with age, here's hoping we keep seeing the comedic duo together in more projects in the future.