Do we like Kristen Wiig?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, and she has been decent to colleagues, but the public record on causes is thin.
Kristen Wiig was born in Canandaigua, New York, and grew up mostly around Rochester. Her parents divorced when she was nine, and she was raised by her mum and an older brother. She studied art at the University of Arizona, where she took her first acting class, then moved to Los Angeles and did odd jobs before joining the Groundlings improv troupe.
The Groundlings got her to Saturday Night Live, where she debuted in November 2005 and became the most senior woman in the cast after Amy Poehler left. She filmed her last episode in 2012. In between came Bridesmaids (2011), which she co-wrote and starred in, earning a Golden Globe nomination and an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.
The harm check is quiet. Searches on her and LGBTQ+ people, women, climate, migrants and politics turned up no harmful statements, no campaigning against anyone and no slide into conspiracy land. On Ghostbusters she said it was surprising that there was so much controversy because the cast were women, adding “It didn’t make me mad, it just really bummed me out.”
On the company she keeps, her recent work looks fine. Palm Royale has her opposite Ricky Martin, and in an Advocate interview she called his character the “safe place” of hers. Her next film, Cut Off, is a Warner Bros. sibling comedy directed by Jonah Hill. We found nothing new on her lately beyond that, apart from tabloid chatter about her looks, which is not news.
On the good-person side, no court cases, lawsuits or credible allegations against her turned up. The tabloid-territory stuff is about her appearance, which isn't a story. In interviews she comes across as generous about colleagues: of Carol Burnett she said she still couldn't believe they work together. Honestly, that's about all the record gives us.
So the verdict is a comfortable yes. She hasn't made a big public show of causes we could verify, so she doesn't hit the top of the scale, but a long career with no sign of harm and plenty of warmth towards the people she works with is a solid pass on both tests.