Jenny Slate Bio
Jenny Slate (born March 25, 1982) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer known for her work across film, television, and voice acting. She first drew attention through her live variety shows in New York City and through co-creating the popular short-film and book series Marcel the Shell with Shoes On with filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp. Over the course of her career, Slate has built a reputation for blending sharp comedic timing with emotionally honest dramatic performances.
Born and raised in Milton, Massachusetts, Slate graduated from Milton Academy before attending Columbia University, where she studied literature and helped form an improv group. She began performing stand-up and sketch comedy in New York shortly after college and has since become a familiar presence in both independent films and major studio releases.
Early Life and Background
Jenny Slate was born on March 25, 1982, in Milton, Massachusetts, to Nancy Gilson Slate and Ronald “Ron” Slate. She grew up in the same Milton home that later inspired a book she co-wrote with her father. Slate has two sisters, and her family is Jewish, a background she has referenced in interviews and in some of her creative work.
She attended Milton Academy, where she graduated as valedictorian. After high school, Slate enrolled at Columbia University, majoring in literature. While at Columbia, she became active in campus comedy, helping to form the improv group Fruit Paunch and performing in the annual Varsity Show. It was during these years that she met Gabe Liedman, who would later become her comedy partner.
Slate graduated from Columbia University in 2004. Her college years gave her both an academic foundation in literature and an early community of collaborators who would remain important as her comedy career took shape.
Path to Acting
After graduating from Columbia, Jenny Slate moved into the New York comedy scene, forming the duo Gabe and Jenny with Gabe Liedman. Together with fellow comedian Max Silvestri, they launched the live variety show Big Terrific, which Time Out New York named the best new variety show of 2008. Slate also developed her own one-woman show, Jenny Slate: Dead Millionaire, which she performed regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre throughout 2008 and 2009.
Television work soon followed. Slate appeared as a recurring talking head on VH1 programs and joined the recurring Late Night with Jimmy Fallon sketch “7th Floor West,” playing an NBC page who is later promoted to assistant. She also landed recurring roles on Bored to Death and made guest appearances on several other series, building the résumé that led to her casting on Saturday Night Live.
In 2009, Slate joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for its 35th season, becoming a household name. She is also widely recognized for voicing characters in major animated films and for her starring turn in the independent comedy Obvious Child, which cemented her reputation as a leading comedic actress.
Jenny Slate Career
Early Career (2005–2011)
Jenny Slate began her professional career around 2005, performing stand-up and sketch comedy across New York City. Her early work with Big Terrific earned her a dedicated following, and in 2009 she was cast as a featured player on the 35th season of Saturday Night Live. Her debut sketch became notable when an unscripted profanity aired on the live broadcast, and she became known for impressions including the infomercial character Tina-Tina Cheneuse.
In August 2010, Slate co-wrote and voiced the animated short Marcel the Shell with Shoes On with Dean Fleischer Camp, sparking a franchise that included sequels and a related children’s book released in November 2011. During this same period she took her first live film role in Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and voiced Ted’s mother in the animated hit The Lorax (2012).
Breakthrough (2012–2016)
Slate’s profile grew steadily through the early 2010s. She joined the voice cast of Bob’s Burgers in 2012 and appeared on Parks and Recreation beginning in 2013 as Mona-Lisa Saperstein. She also recurred on House of Lies and Kroll Show, where her portrayal of Liz B. in the “PubLIZity” sketches became a fan favorite. In 2013, she released the YouTube mini-series Catherine, a playful nod to late 1980s and early 1990s soap operas.
Her true breakout arrived in 2014 with the leading role in Gillian Robespierre’s comedy-drama Obvious Child, in which she played a young stand-up comic navigating an unplanned pregnancy. The performance earned her the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy, along with honors from the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the Women Film Critics Circle.
By 2016, Slate had become a prominent voice in major animated films, voicing Dawn Bellwether in Disney’s Zootopia and Gidget in The Secret Life of Pets. That same year she co-wrote About the House with her father, a memoir about their years living in the family home in Milton, Massachusetts.
Notable Works and Milestones
Slate’s signature projects include the Marcel the Shell with Shoes On franchise, the voice role of Missy Foreman-Greenwald on the Netflix animated series Big Mouth from 2017 to 2019, and her supporting dramatic performance in the film Gifted (2017). Her work on the stand-up special Stage Fright, released on Netflix in October 2019, and her 2019 book Little Weirds further showcased her range as a writer and performer.
Jenny Slate Award Nominations
Jenny Slate has earned recognition from critics and industry organizations across her career in film, television, and voice acting. Her performance in Obvious Child brought multiple honors from film critics’ groups, and her ensemble work in major studio productions has added to her list of nominations. Detailed nomination totals are not fully verified, so a complete summary is not provided here.
Jenny Slate Awards Won
Jenny Slate has won several awards across her career. In 2015, she received the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy for her leading role in Obvious Child. In 2023, she shared in the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture as part of the ensemble of Everything Everywhere All at Once.
| Award | Wins | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy | 1 | 2015 |
| Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | 1 | 2023 |
Jenny Slate Family
Jenny Slate was born to Nancy Gilson Slate and Ronald “Ron” Slate and has two sisters. Her family is Jewish, and she and her father later co-wrote About the House, a book reflecting on their years living in the family home in Milton, Massachusetts. Slate married filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp in September 2012, and the couple announced their separation in May 2016. She began a relationship with actor Chris Evans a few months later.
Personal Life
In September 2019, Slate announced her engagement to art curator and author Ben Shattuck, owner of the Davolls General Store in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. On February 3, 2021, she shared that she had welcomed a daughter in late 2020. After three wedding attempts were postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Slate and Shattuck married in their living room on New Year’s Eve 2021. The couple had been living in Shattuck’s childhood home in Dartmouth, with plans to move back to Brooklyn in the fall of 2025. Slate has described herself as agnostic.