page_title: Amy Poehler
section_title: Parks and Recreation
hierarchical_section_title: Amy Poehler / Career / Television / Parks and Recreation
caption_attribution_description: English: Amy Poehler at the 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon 2012.
context_page_description: Amy Meredith Poehler is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, she co-founded the improvisational-comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. The group moved to New York City in 1996 where their act became a half-hour sketch comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
  In 2001 she joined the cast of the NBC television series Saturday Night Live. She became co-anchor of SNL's Weekend Update in 2004 until she left the series in 2008 to star as Leslie Knope in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. She has also performed voice acting roles for the films Shrek the Third, Horton Hears a Who!, Inside Out and the series The Mighty B!, which she also created. Poehler is an executive producer on the televisions series Welcome to Sweden, Broad City, Difficult People, Duncanville, Three Busy Debras, and Russian Doll.
  In December 2015, Poehler received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to television.
context_section_description: Following the success of The Office, NBC ordered a new series from producers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. In July 2008, Variety reported that Poehler was in final negotiations to star in the still untitled series from Daniels and Schur. Poehler and Schur were friends from their time together at SNL where Schur worked as a writer. Signing Poehler, who was pregnant with her first child, meant the new series would have to forgo a promised post-Super Bowl debut and cut its first season short, but Daniels and Schur chose to push back the series for Poehler. On July 21, 2008, NBC announced Poehler's new series, Parks and Recreation, saying the project would not be a direct spin-off of The Office, as previously speculated.
  Parks and Recreation premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009, at 8:30 pm between two episodes of The Office. An ensemble cast including Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Paul Schneider, and Nick Offerman joined Poehler. Poehler played Deputy Director of the Parks Department, Leslie Knope, in the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana. After the first season had received a mixed reception, the show's second season received more positive reviews. One key change between seasons one and two was to distinguish the character of Leslie from Michael Scott, the central character of The Office. Parks decidedly down-played Leslie's ditziness from the first season and emphasized her intelligence, work ethic and earnest nature instead. A second-season episode, Galentine's Day, included a new holiday Leslie created celebrating female friendship on February 13. Galentine's Day has since transcended the show with real-life celebrations. Adam Scott and Rob Lowe joined the show at the end of the second season, with Scott playing Leslie's eventual love interest, Ben. At the end of filming the second season, Poehler was once again pregnant. The show began producing the first six episodes of season three without a break to accommodate her pregnancy. Poehler was nominated again for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in 2011. That same year, the show won a Peabody Award for "developing a hilarious venue to explore the good side of American democracy in an age when that side is so rarely on display." 
   By season five, the show was a success with critics, but its future was still uncertain. Two episodes were written that could serve as series finales if it was cancelled, including the mid-season episode where Leslie and Ben get married. The show was ultimately renewed for a sixth season in May 2013. Poehler was nominated for an Emmy Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in 2013 for her work in season five. Season six included the show's 100th episode, "Second Chunce", co-written by Poehler and Schur. In 2014, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series – Comedy at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, which she co-hosted with Tina Fey. In the middle of season six, Poehler and Schur decided that it felt like the right time to plan the end of the show. They met with representatives from NBC, who agreed. The show was renewed for a final thirteen-episode season. Poehler and Schur co-wrote the final episode of the series, "One Last Ride",  which aired on February 24, 2015.
  In addition to starring on Parks and Recreation, Poehler was also a producer. Behind the scenes, Poehler started a tradition of inviting the show cast and crew to a group dinner the last night of any location shoot. Poehler would start impromptu dance parties in the makeup trailer on set. Poehler wrote several episodes throughout the series, starting with the season two episode "Telethon". Other episodes she penned include "The Fight" (season three), "The Debate" (season four), "Second Chunce" (season five) and the finale "One Last Ride". Producer Dan Goor praised Poehler's writing as "exceptionally good" and theorized, "[i]f Amy Poehler submitted a blind script to any staff, she would be hired." Poehler's writing of "The Debate" was recognized with nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing f
caption: Poehler at the 2012 Peabody Awards
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