Kemper ’02: A Triangle, Quipfire alumna, now a star on Netflix

Before Ellie Kemper '02 starred in the title role in "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," she had an interest in writing about weirdness for Triangle Club, David Turner '02, who acted with Kemper in Triangle, said.

“She was totally unique,” Turner said. “Not like a unicorn ... But kind of like a unicorn.”

Even for an actor so accustomed to the strange,Kemper’s new role as Kimmy Schmidt in the Netflix series may represent new territory for her as an actor.

Kimmy Schmidt is a woman who has been freed from a doomsday cult that kept her in an underground bunker for fifteen years. Viewers watch as the woman from Indiana fights to make a new life for herself: finding a job, navigating relationships and learning the intricacies of a world she had been told was destroyed.

Having endured such a long absence from the outside world, Kimmy Schmidt perhaps inevitably retains the naivety of some of Kemper’s earlier roles, but there’s also a much greater depth of character. Kimmy has a far darker and more complex background than Erin Hannon of “The Office” or Becca of “Bridesmaids,” both of which are roles Kemper has played in the past.

While the show is a comedy, it does not shy away from engaging with the traumas of Kimmy’s past, Kemper said.

“[I have been] able to explore more about this character,” she said. “I know more about her than other characters I’ve played.”

Outside of her work on the show, Kemper has contributed jokes and essays to The Onion and McSweeney’s, respectively. Ultimately, she would like to host her own talk show and would consider writing a book, she said, but for the time being, she said she is focused on her role as Kimmy Schmidt.

“It’s like I won the lottery,” she said of the show. “It’s an amazing group of people to work with, and the finished product has been something that everyone has been very proud of.”

At the University, as an English major and member of Triangle Club, Kemper tried her hand at writing and acting.

Ben Markham ’02, former president of the Triangle Club, said that as an actor, Kemper had the ability to propel a scene forward by observing other actors’ styles and then adding to them.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

In her sophomore year, Kemper joined Quipfire, which she called the most influential experience she had at the University.She had been in musicals in high school, but this was her first time doing improv comedy, and she found she enjoyed it so much that she chose to pursue it after college, she said.

Kemper excelled academically as well. Her thesis advisor, English professor Susan Wolfson, said she was impressed when Kemper opted to take a challenging Anglo-Saxon class on top of an already full workload.

“[That was] not something that even a lot of grad students do,” she said.

After graduating, Kemper spent a year at Oxford. She studied English there as well, but said that as was the case at the University, her extracurriculars ultimately proved more influential.

“I got to go as part of a theater troupe to the [Edinburgh Festival] in August, which was fantastic on so many levels,” she said. “We were there for three weeks and got to see so many shows. [It was] invaluable.”

When she returned to the United States, Kemper moved to Manhattan to work with fellow former Quipfire performer Scott Eckert ’03. The two co-wrote sketches, improvised as a pair and were also members of an improv team called Big Black Car. Kemper was also a member of the comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade and the People’s Improv Theater.

“I think it’s almost unfortunate that so many of the characters she’s played are sort of ditzy because in the flesh she’s brilliant,” Eckert said. “She’s as quick on her feet as an improviser as almost anyone I’ve ever worked with.”

For Kemper's part, she admires Kimmy Schmidt perhaps more than any of her other roles and seeks to imitate her resilience and tenacity in her own life, she said.

“[It’s] been really helpful for me as a person to play someone and to try to emulate the strength that she has,” Kemper said.