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Casey Wilson
Casey Wilson on New Year's 2008
Born	Cathryn Rose Wilson October 24, 1980 (1980-10-24) (age 29) Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Occupation	Actress, comedienne, screenwriter
Years active	2003–present

Casey Rose Wilson (born October 24, 1980) is an American actress, comedienne, and screenwriter known for her time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.

Early life and background

Wilson was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, along with her younger brother Fletcher Todd Wilson, an engineer. She graduated from T. C. Williams High School in 1998 and studied theater at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.^[1] Her father, Paul O. Wilson, is a political consultant who runs campaigns for moderate Republicans.

Her late mother, Kathy Wilson, was chair of the National Women's Political Caucus, and attended her last Republican National Convention in 1980, while pregnant with Casey. Under her leadership, the NWPC endorsed Walter Mondale in the 1984 election, and Kathy eventually became a Democrat.^[2] After retiring from politics, Kathy became involved in early childhood education, serving for 11 years as director of the "Abracadabra Child Care and Development Center", a non-sectarian preschool operated by the Baptist Temple Church of Alexandria. Kathy died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 54 in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on September 1, 2005.^[2]

Career

After graduating from New York University, Wilson started her comedy career writing and performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCBT) in New York and later in Los Angeles.^[1] At UCBT, she was a member of the Harold improv teams "Sentimental Lady" and "Hey, Uncle Gary!", and continues to perform regularly in shows such as "Worst Laid Plans" and Comedy Death-Ray. But perhaps her best known work at UCBT was the long running two-woman sketch show "Rode Hard and Put Away Wet", written and performed alongside her comedy partner and best friend June Raphael. The successful stage show was also a hit with audiences when it was showcased as an official selection at HBO's 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado and was listed as a "Critic's Pick" in Time Out New York magazine and won Wilson & Raphael the ECNY Award for "Best Comedy Duo" in 2005. After the success of "Rode Hard", the duo was hired by New Regency Studios to help co-write the screenplay for the 2009 film Bride Wars,^[3] starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway.^[4] Wilson and Raphael also appeared in the film with supporting roles.

Casey & June filming comedy sketches at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater

As a film actress, Wilson appeared with supporting roles in films such as Julie & Julia, The Brothers Solomon, The Great Buck Howard, and the upcoming Five Killers, as well as in the Bob Odenkirk directed short film Derek & Simon: A Bee and a Cigarette, and had a small role as an acting student in the final scene of the 2006 Christopher Guest film For Your Consideration. In early 2007, Wilson and June Raphael worked as writers and story editors on the Americanized version of Creature Comforts on CBS. Wilson is a frequent contributor to the popular humor website Funny or Die, where she has written and starred in a number of viral videos. Shortly after joining the cast of Saturday Night Live, she made Variety magazine's "Ten Comics to Watch in 2008" list.

In 2008, Wilson mentioned that she and writing partner June Raphael had been working on a script for a "lady buddy-comedy", in which they would also star. In September 2009, during an interview on Indie 103.1's Comedy Death-Ray Radio program, Wilson stated that filming for the movie (working title: "Ass Backwards") was expected to begin in late 2009 and would likely finish filming in early 2010. Variety has reported that along with Wilson & Raphael, the film will also feature appearances by Amy Sedaris, Kate Hudson, Kristen Wiig, Paul Scheer and David Cross. In addition, Wilson and Raphael were recently hired to work on script rewrites for upcoming comedic films starring Anna Faris and America Ferrera.^[5]

In 2010, Wilson will join the cast of the Off-Broadway play "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" (written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron), throughout the month of January at Manhattan's Westside Theatre.^[6] She was also recently added to the cast of Retired at 35, a new sitcom pilot for the TV Land channel starring George Segal.

Saturday Night Live

After auditioning in December 2007, Wilson was hired in January to join the cast of Saturday Night Live to replace departing cast member Maya Rudolph, but because of the the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, did not make her first appearance as a cast member until the show returned from the strike in February 2008; she was the first new addition to the cast in over two years, and was also the first SNL cast member to have been born in the 1980s. Early on, Wilson debuted memorable impressions of Rachael Ray, Katy Perry, and Jennifer Aniston, as well as memorable characters such as Dusty Velvet the paralyzed stripper and Toni Ward, co-host of The Cougar Den.

After spending two seasons as a cast member on SNL, the news broke in early September 2009 (while SNL was on summer hiatus) that Wilson, along with fellow castmate Michaela Watkins, were both let go from the show and would not be returning for the upcoming 2009-2010 season. When asked how she felt about her recent SNL departure in an October 2009 interview, Wilson said: "My mindset is good. I did it for a year and a half. I don’t think it will ultimately define my career. And it wasn't the best fit for me."^[7]

Impressions on Saturday Night Live

• Rachael Ray
• Kristy Joe Muller
• Mariam Budia (as one of the "Dakota Fanning Show" writers)
• Scarlett Johansson (as Mary Boleyn from The Other Boleyn Girl)
• Snow White (from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
• Chelsea Clinton (dress rehearsal cold opening sketch on April, 5 2008)
• Debralee Scott (as a loosely-based caricature of her, in a Match Game parody)
• One of the Deal or No Deal models
• Daughter from the "Hot Friends" T-Mobile commercial
• Judge Jackie Glass
• Marion Sandler
• Karen Dotrice (as Jane Banks from Mary Poppins)
• Katy Perry
• Sara Quin (as a Tegan and Sara parody)
• Christina Hendricks (as Joan Holloway from Mad Men)
• Jennifer Aniston
• Carolyn Maloney
• Elizabeth Dole
• Roxie Hart (from Chicago on Broadway)
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Ginnifer Goodwin (as Margene Heffman from Big Love)
• Helga the Horrible
• Alyson Reed (as Ms. Darbus from High School Musical)

Notable characters on Saturday Night Live

• Dusty Velvet, a paralyzed strip club dancer who is only able to perform her "erotic moves" with the assistance of Donnie (played by Ashton Kutcher) the strip club emcee. Before joining SNL, Wilson often performed this act at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and other "alt-comedy" venues under the name Mandy De'tour.^[8] She had also performed the sketch after being cast as an ensemble player on the 2007 FOX late-night sketch comedy pilot The Right Now! Show, as well as eventually showcasing the character as part of her SNL audition.
• Nora Merryll, part of the singing sisterly quartet The Merryll Sisters who are regularly featured on The Lawrence Welk Show. Their otherwise flawless performances are always ruined by 4th sister Dooneese, (played by Kristen Wiig) because of her off-key singing and freakish appearance.
• Toni Ward, one of the cougars who co-hosts The Cougar Den talk-show sketches.

Personal life

Wilson currently resides in Los Angeles with her boyfriend, comedian Paul Rust. In April 2009, they appeared together in a sketch called "The Pie Sniffer" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which they also wrote. Wilson played a Southern neighbor woman who baked a pie and wanted to cool it off on Fallon's window, and Rust was "Pie Sniffer Bill", a cartoonish villain who goes from windowsill to windowsill "sniffing out the flavor" of all the town's cooling pies. The sketch was full of double entendres and sexual innuendo. They also currently host the monthly variety show "Audition!" together at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.

Film and television credits

References

External links

• Casey Wilson at the Internet Movie Database
• Casey on MySpace
• Casey on FunnyOrDie
• Interview with Defamer
• Interview with WickedInfo.com
• Casey Wilson on Variety's 2008 "Ten Comics to Watch" List