Wiig grew up in Rochester, New York, then went to the University of Arizona for college. She was an art major, but, after taking an acting class to fulfill a major requirement, a teacher pointed out that she might be pretty good at this acting thing. Wiig took the comment to heart, dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles.
It was the kind of brilliant life choice that usually ends with you moving back into your parent’s basement at age 30 and living your days out as the sad girl in the back of community college courses. Unless you’re Kristen Wiig, in this case it leads to awesomeness.
Wiig joined Los Angeles’ famous comedy troupe, the Groundlings, and worked a series of day jobs so diverse that she’s notorious among her cast mates for having done just about every job there is to do. 
In an interview with V Magazine about the effect Wiig has had on comedy, SNL co-star, Jason Sudeikis, commented:
She had about thirty lives before she showed up at SNL. She’s had a bunch of crazy jobs and crazy haircuts and has lived in about a dozen cities. And there’s always a time when she’ll say, ‘Well, when I was a florist,’ or ‘When I sold peaches on the street,’ or ‘When I went to massage school…’ Kristen’s a journeyman who can start a sentence from any number of non sequiturs.
Anyone struggling to make their way in the creative lifestyle can relate to the crazy things a girl will do to pay the rent without having to reveal various body parts that are better reserved for cute boys who buy you flowers. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to love Wiig, because she feels like someone with whom we can relate. One look at the trailers for Bridesmaids will tell you that being relatable is a big part of the film’s appeal. Judd Apatow, who produced the picture, has had great success in creating comic everymen, but never much success with really believable female characters. Hopefully Wiig’s influence will change that in Bridesmaids because if there’s one thing every girl knows, it’s the love/hate ordeal of walking down the aisle in a friend’s wedding.
Wiig is hoping her film career continues to grow, but she’s not running away from SNL any time soon. When questioned, she told Movieline.com, “I still have some time left at SNL. And hopefully I’ll be making movies for a really long time … I’m very happy. I hope to be able to do more dramatic things and direct sometime. But, right now, I feel extremely grateful to have the situation that I have doing SNL and then on the hiatus, hopefully, working on films. I couldn’t be happier.”
The response seems typical of Wiig, who hasn’t lost the sense of wonder that accompanies her success. When Movieline.com asked her about Bridesmaids she had this to say:
We started writing it almost five years ago for Judd [Apatow], which, on its own, to me, was just an amazing opportunity to go through that whole process with him and rewrite the notes and learning how to write a movie. Neither one of us had any experience at all. And then to have it actually happen and have Paul Feig direct it — who is one of the best people I’ve ever known. I still pinch myself, I can’t even believe it’s going to be in theaters. And it’s real. I’m so excited.
This is what every comediva can learn from Wiig:
Don’t let success, whether you’ve got a deficit of it or a surplus, leave you jaded. No day job is so bad that you can’t make a funny story out of it later, and even the most amazing career won’t be any fun if you can’t see how freakin’ amazing it is to be where you are, doing what you’re doing.
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Kristen Wiig’s a natural. Can’t wait to see the film!
I have like a mental hard on for Kristen. (Who doesn’t) Ever since she appeared on SNL she has always been my favorite. I cannot wait to see more from her in the future.