Jillian Bell Takes the Lead in ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRAD TORCHIA

Age: 35

Where You’ve Seen Her: Stealing scenes in Workaholics, Rough Night, and 22 Jump Street; creating and starring in Comedy Central’s Idiotsitter.

Origins: Las Vegas, where her grandmother was the first woman behind the front desk of a casino. “My nana wore leather pants to Christmas dinners and a gold dog tag that said hot lips lynn / very female / if found by a real man who can … call, and then it had her number.”

Funny Games: Bell started improv classes at age 8. “Most of the people in my class were shy—I think their parents were trying to break them out of their shells. For me, the shell was on the ground. I was at a 12 constantly.” At 18, she left for LA and spent seven years with The Groundlings before becoming a writer for Saturday Night Live in 2009.

Star Turn: This month, Bell plays the titular character in the Sundance Audience Award–winning comedy Brittany Runs a Marathon, about a party girl who tries to get in shape. “The real-life Brittany was sort of a role model for me,” admits Bell, who started running herself after reading the script. “I looked up something on Pinterest called The Couch to 5K, because I was basically at the couch part.”

Up Next: Voicing the daughter, Violet, in the Fox animated series Bless the Harts, opposite Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. “I feel like Daria and Lisa Simpson might be friends with her.”