Yet with her work on Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls, 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina has done more to make "nerdy" the new "sexy" than almost anyone else. "If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: Who cares?" And that self-assurance has served her well, not only in her 20-year marriage to husband Jeff Richmond, but also in raising daughters Alice and Penelope, who have "made me so happy." Now Tina, who turns 52 on May 18, says she's happy to play it cool even if she may not feel that way. "I feel like I am at an age where all the things I ever thought I wanted to do, I did them. And so like I'm kind of trying to be quiet and take things in. I'm waiting for something inside me to tell me what the next thing is I want to do."

"Confidence is 10 percent hard work and 90 percent delusion." -Tina Fey

1 1994 FIRST ACT "You have to go wherever you need to go to study what interests you," shared Tina of starting out with the comedy troupe Second City. "In Chicago, I worked a cruddy job folding towels at a YMCA from 5:30 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. I'd nap, then go to improv class all night. I made, like, $7 an hour, and it was freezing in Chicago but I was so happy."

2 2000 ANCHORS AWEIGH After joining SNL as a writer in 1997, Tina began co-anchoring Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon. "You never have that fear and disappointment that sketch players have. And it's the only segment where you tell America your name. So it's career-changing."