50 interesting facts about Tina Fey: How she got that scar on her face, what she thinks are the two funniest words

Tina Fey is a talented and hilarious American actress, comedian, writer and producer best known for her roles on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. mutual

1. Tina Fey was born Elizabeth Stamatina Fey on May 18, 1970, in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, to parents Donald and Jeannec Fay.

2. Jeannec Fey worked in a brokerage firm and Donald Fey wrote grants for the University of Pennsylvania.

3. She is half German (her dad's side) and half Greek (her mom's side).

4. She had a tragic encounter at the age of five. Fey was in her front yard when a stranger approached her and slashed her face with a knife, leaving her with the signature scar she still carries today.

5. Tina attended Beverly Hills Middle School, which is in Upper Darby, a township outside of Philadelphia. There, she did an independent-study project on comedy in the 8th grade where she read up on guys like Joe E. Brown.

6. She was funny from a young age. "I knew I wanted to be funny around seventh or eighth grade," says Fey. "Mostly I wanted attention, and being funny was the most possible way for me to get it."

7. As a kid, Fey was not allowed to watch The Flinstones because her dad said it was a rip off of The Honeymooners.

8. It was Tina Fey's 8th grade teacher who first told her she should be a writer. "I thought, I don't want to be a writer, 'cause then you're just by yourself in a room all the time," she told PEOPLE. "I want to be a star!"

9. Tina didn't really date in high school. "I really didn't have very many dates at all. And that's not an exaggeration. But also, I don't think we should discount the fact that unplucked eyebrows and short hair with a perm may not have been the best offering, either," she has said.

10. Fey played Frenchie in the Upper Darby High School production of Grease.

11. Her first writing gig was an anonymous column for her high school newspaper, The Acorn, under the alias "The Colonel."

12. She went on to study drama at the University of Virginia.

13. After graduating from college in 1992, Tina Fey moved to Chicago to pursue a career in comedy.

14. Tina has said that she "remained a virgin well into my 20s."

15. She enrolled in the comedy training ground Second City, a renowned program where many Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedians got their start.

16. Tina paid for her classes at Second City by working at the Evanston YMCA, working at the front desk. "I was always fascinated by the guys who lived there. They were these discarded men; some had been kicked out of the house by their wives, some were old men who didn't have a family to stay with anymore. A few of them were obviously mentally disturbed," she has said.

17. She filmed a commercial for Mutual Savings Bank.

18. Adam McKay, who directed Anchorman, taught Fey's first improv class at Second City in Chicago.

19. She is Saturday Night Live's first-ever female head writer.

20. Tina's first sketch to air starred Chris Farley in a Sally Jessy Raphael satire where he played a giant baby.

21. After three years behind the camera for SNL, Tina Fey lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers and started appearing on the show. "I was a size 12 when I came to the show, and then I was really dealing with my stress with Krispy Kremes," she told PEOPLE.

22. Before Fey became a featured player, the writer would appear as an extra, often as an audience member.

23. It was during the show's 25th season when Fey was able to transform her image and establish a fan base.

24. Fey was cast as a news reporter on the regular "Weekend Update" sketch with Jimmy Fallon, where she wrote many of the segments' most popular biting jokes.

25. Though her black-rimmed glasses are her trademark look, Tina Fey only needed them to read cue cards and rarely wore them away from the SNL set.

26. After seven years of dating, Fey and Jeff Richmond marry in a Greek Orthodox ceremony in 2001. "I fell in love with her very quickly," Richmond, who is 10 years Fey's senior said in an interview. "She has this caustic, biting wit that pops out occasionally, but she really does have a little-girl-from-the-suburbs kind of ambience."

27. In 2004, she made her screenwriting and movie-acting debut with Mean Girls.

28. She drew some inspiration from her own high school career for Mean Girls and relates to "art-freak" Janis Ian the most. Janis Ian, the musician, was on the first episode of SNL ever.

29. On Howard Stern's radio show in 2006, Tina Fey called Paris Hilton "a piece of s-" and said she was a nightmare to work with when she hosted Saturday Night Live.

30. Beginning in 2006, she served as creator, writer and star of her own series, 30 Rock, a behind-the-scenes comedy about an SNL-type show.

31. Fey's husband Jeff Richmond composed the 30 Rock theme music.

32. She voiced the British and German princesses for the Medieval Madness pinball machine

33. Named one of Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year in 2001 and one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People of 2003.

34. Before Lohan hosted SNL in 2005, Fey and Lorne Michaels held an intervention to try and curb the actress' hard-partying ways.

35. In 2007, the Writers Guild of America goes on strike, and Fey joins the picketing writers. Although Fey is contractually obligated to continue acting on 30 Rock, she says, "My staff and I are wholeheartedly supporting the strike...I hope they realize we're quite serious. I think they need to know we're very united." After 100 days on the picket lines, members of the WGA accept a deal with producers in February.

36. In 2008, Tina Fey and longtime pal Amy Poehler star in Baby Mama. The comedy, about a businesswoman (Fey) who uses a surrogate (Poehler) to have her baby, opens at No. 1 and grosses $17.4 million in its opening weekend.

37. Impersonated then-vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in recurring guest turns on Saturday Night Live, earning an Emmy for her on-target portrayal of the politician. Her multiple appearances through the campaign season raise her profile and increase ratings for 30 Rock.

38. While Oprah Winfrey was filming her guest-starring role on 30 Rock, Fey would be watching YouTube clips of Sarah Palin between takes in preparation for its live taping on SNL that same night. Noticing this, Oprah told her: "You may be overextending yourself."

39. She is also the youngest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, receiving the award back in 2010.

40. Fey made her rap debut in June of 2012, when she appeared on Childish Gambino's song, "Real Estate". Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, used to write for 30 Rock.

41. Fey has won seven Emmys for her work on 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live.

42. Tina has a nude photo of '30s burlesque icon Blaze Starr hanging in her office.

43. Tina enjoys singing songs from Annie and has the entire soundtrack on her iPod.

44. She was voted one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007, and again in 2009.

45. She has two daughters, Alice and Penelope.

46. Fey is developing a musical for Mean Girls with her husband.

47. She believes the two funniest words are "hamburger sandwich."

48. Leni Riefenstahl's autobiography - which chronicles her time as Hitler's favorite filmmaker - is one of Fey's favorite (cautionary) books.

49. Tina has never taken drugs and finds her husband's smoking habit "disgusting."

50. She speaks what she calls "less than first-grade" German.