Early life
Wiig was born in Canandaigua, New York. Her family moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when she was around three years old before returning to Rochester, New York, during her teens. She attended the University of Arizona, where she initially studied art before an acting class instructor encouraged her to pursue performance. She moved to Los Angeles and supported herself through a string of odd jobs, including floral design and catering work, before discovering improvisational comedy. She trained with and was accepted into the Groundlings, the Los Angeles improv troupe that has fed cast members to Saturday Night Live for decades.13
Career
Saturday Night Live
Wiig joined Saturday Night Live in 2005 and became a full repertory cast member in 2006, remaining on the show through the 2011 to 2012 season. Over seven seasons she became one of the program's most prominent performers, building a large catalog of recurring characters such as Target Lady and Gilly. Her SNL work brought multiple Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.1
Film and television
Wiig's film profile grew steadily through supporting roles, including Knocked Up (2007), before her breakout with Bridesmaids (2011). She co-wrote the screenplay with Annie Mumolo and starred in the film, which was directed by Paul Feig and also featured Melissa McCarthy; both would later join Wiig in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. Bridesmaids earned Wiig and Mumolo an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and Wiig further recognition including a Golden Globe nomination.13
Her subsequent work spans comedy and drama. Notable credits include the dramedy The Skeleton Twins (2014), The Martian (2015), and the villain role of Barbara Minerva / Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). She reunited with Mumolo to co-write and co-star in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021). Her voice work includes Lucy Wilde in the Despicable Me franchise and roles in the How to Train Your Dragon animated films.1 On television, she starred as Maxine Dellacorte in the Apple TV period comedy Palm Royale (2024), an outsider attempting to break into 1970s Palm Beach high society, a performance that earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.4 She was named to Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in 2012 and again in 2025.5
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call
Role
Wiig plays Erin Gilbert, a physicist seeking tenure at Columbia University who years earlier co-authored a paranormal research book with Abby Yates and has since tried to distance herself from that work. Her arc moves from reluctant re-engagement with the paranormal to full commitment to the new Ghostbusters team. Erin anchors the group alongside Abby as a scientist-believer, in contrast to the more eccentric Jillian Holtzmann and the streetwise Patty Tolan.2
Casting
Wiig came to the project through a personal connection to the director. She is close friends with Paul Feig's wife, Laurie, and reached out to Feig through her about a role in the film. Her prior collaboration with Feig on Bridesmaids made her a natural fit. Reports of her involvement were confirmed by late January 2015.6 She appeared in early set photographs that emerged on June 18, 2015, taken outside the former Everett High School location near Boston that the production used as a filming site.
Production
Wiig's stunt double on the production was Jessi Fisher. During filming, Wiig accidentally punched actor Chris Gethard in one take. She is thanked by name on page 215 of the acknowledgment section of Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal (Three Rivers Press), the in-universe tie-in book published alongside the film.7
Comic nods
The IDW Publishing series Ghostbusters 101 includes two visual nods to Wiig in issue 2, page 16, panel 2. A sign on the left of the panel advertises Cholodecki's Jewelry Store, a reference to the jewelry store where Wiig's character worked in Bridesmaids. A sign on the right reads "Wiig's Hair Design," with the listed phone number 555-WIIG.8
Personal life
Wiig was married to actor Hayes Hargrove from 2005 to 2009. She later married actor Avi Rothman; the couple have twins born via surrogacy in 2020.1
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Kristen Wiig," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Wiig.
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Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Theatrical feature; Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert.
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"Kristen Wiig," Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kristen-Wiig.
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"Palm Royale," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Royale. Wiig received a 2024 Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the role of Maxine Dellacorte.
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"Kristen Wiig: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025," Time, accessed 2026-06-13, https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273821/kristen-wiig/. Profile notes this as her second appearance on the list, following 2012.
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Eliana Dockterman, "Meet the New Women 'Ghostbusters' Cast: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy" (January 27, 2015), Time, accessed 2026-06-13, https://time.com/3685000/ghostbusters-reboot-kristen-wiig-melissa-mccarthy/.
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Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal (Three Rivers Press, 2016), p. 215. Wiig is named in the acknowledgments of the in-universe tie-in book.
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Ghostbusters 101 #2 (IDW Publishing, 2017), p. 16, panel 2. Background signage for "Cholodecki's Jewelry Store" (the Bridesmaids jewelry shop) and "Wiig's Hair Design" (phone 555-WIIG) nod to Kristen Wiig.
