Tracey Wigfield has spent her career writing jokes for Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling.
Wigfield joined the writing staff at The Mindy Project while the show was still in development and now serves as its co-executive producer. The 31-year-old from Wayne, New Jersey, shares her journey from novice childhood sketch comic to one of the most promising female voices in television comedy today.
I grew up in a house that was the best. My mother is a loud, crazy person, as are me and my sister, and we had a feisty female dog. It was a constant girl slumber party, but it must have been hard for my father. He was definitely outnumbered.
We were all funny, but my mom is just a really funny character. She is obsessed with show business. My sister is an actress and I write for TV, so my mom will visit us both in LA and make us take her to the Hollywood events and parties. She'll just walk up to famous people and go, "Hi, I'm Kathy, I bet it's nice to meet me!" She met Bela Bajaria (the executive vice president of Universal Television) once, and now whenever she sees her, she'll say, "Bela, look who it is!"
When my sister and I were in dance school as kids, we were approached by a manager who convinced my mother to take us to auditions in New York City. My sister, who was and is really beautiful, booked a lot of commercials. She made enough money to use some for college. I was a super gawky child who had to grow into her long arms. I only booked a few jobs. The height of my success was a weirdo toy commercial for a product called The Glitterator, which was a machine you put glue-covered jewelry in and it puts glitter on it. We started auditioning when I was about 9 or 10 and my sister was 6 or 7. We'd go to school, then dance class, then auditions. We stopped doing it once each of us got to high school.
I always loved performing and making people laugh. My best friend and I started making comedy videos when we were 9 or 10. They were like Saturday Night Live sketches. In one skit, I was a talk show host who had very recently undergone a transgender reassignment surgery. I was still sort of dealing with it and was trying to host a talk show at the same time. They were all super weird and maybe even a little offensive. In another one, we were super Catholic cheerleaders who had been hired by the Pope to come up with positive, pro-Vatican cheers for young people to enjoy. There was a twist at the end that revealed that we were both terrible drunks and drug addicts. What's so winning about this is that we were fifth graders. We went to a Catholic school, so I don't know if we were making fun of religion or just writing from our experience. But our families didn't seem to mind.
I went to Boston College, and was an English and theater major. I thought I probably wanted to have a job working in TV, but I didn't know in what capacity. I took an internship at CNN during my junior year and thought maybe I could be interested in news and become a journalist. Most of that internship was spent doing PR for CNN, but I worked on Lou Dobbs Tonight for a few weeks and a few [weeks] with Paula Zahn. A lot of the job was sort of observing how a show was put together, answering phones, doing office work, and also watching old shows and pulling clips. And it was a really cool gig — I used to see Anderson Cooper in the commissary!
I remember feeling frustrated that I wasn't obsessed with news like some of the other interns were. I remember thinking, Am I stupid? Why aren't I more interested in what Lou Dobbs is saying about border control? I think I just wanted journalism to be my thing, but I was figuring out that it wasn't. Internships are great, not just because they show you what jobs are out there, but also because they can help you cross off ones which may not be for you.
After graduation, I applied to the NBC Page Program, and I thought I would work for SNL or something. I went in for a one-on-one interview, and then a month later, I had a really scary roundtable interview where a few NBC people interview, like, five page candidates at the same time. It was like The Apprentice. I had to prepare a minute-long creative presentation about why I should be a page. I gave a speech themed like I was running for office and handed out little "Vote for Me" pins that I made. Then the next guy pulled out a guitar and started singing, and I knew it was all over. I got a rejection letter in the mail. I was so heartbroken. I had pinned all my dreams to it a little bit. I thought, Now what do I do? How do you get a job in TV?
I started applying to every random entry-level job in TV that I could find. I didn't really have any contacts coming out of school except my supervisor from my CNN internship, who could have taken out a restraining order against me with the number of emails I sent her asking for job-search help. I remember interviewing for script-reader jobs at film companies and PR jobs and production assistant (PA) jobs on, like, every show that shot in New York at the time.
I was living at home with my poor, sweet parents, who were letting me figure it out. I was very lucky that once I started working, I was able to move from job to job, which is very rare in this industry.
I eventually got a job as a page on Late Show With David Letterman. My job was to stand downstairs by the ladies' room, and when people came down to use the restroom, I would say, "The ladies' room is here." My job could have been done by a sign.
I felt like I was just floundering there and it would not help me at all. But I was still really excited to be working in TV. One cool part of the job was after the audience was all seated, I would get to stand in the back and watch Letterman tape the show. He is such an iconic comedy god that I felt really lucky getting to watch him do his thing every night.
Another good thing about being assigned to tell women where to pee is that the bathroom was near the control room. I got to know one of the executive producers, Rob Burnett. He went on to create his own show, Knights of Prosperity, and he gave me a job as a production assistant. I'm not sure why he hired me. I told him I wanted to be a comedy writer, and I think he just thought I was sort of funny and a nice weirdo to have around the office.
I was a PA on the pilot episode, which is the equivalent of a gopher — get coffee, pick up papers, whatever grunt work they needed done. Then Rob promoted me to be the writers' PA. It's a job where you basically get lunch for the writers. Rob was my first mentor, and I think he saw something in me. He would give me opportunities to write content for the show's website and pitch little jokes here and there.
When that show got canceled after one season, Rob really helped me out again. He said if I could write up a packet to apply for a writing job at Letterman, he would submit it for me. A packet is basically a set of sample jokes for each segment of a variety show. So I wrote a few Top 10 Lists, a couple of desk jokes, and things like that. I was 23 and really green. I had never applied for a writing job before. But I did get an interview, because of Rob, and I didn't get it.
So Rob stepped in again and helped me get hired at 30 Rock, which happened to film in the same studios as Knights of Prosperity. They were looking for a writers' assistant, so Rob gave them my résumé.
You'll meet certain people in your career who are just helpers. That was Rob. He used to say, "When you win an Emmy, you have to thank me." And when I did win an Emmy, I had to thank the people who gave me that shot, like Tina Fey, and I didn't thank him. I texted him right away and said, "I'm sorry, I failed."
I had a phone interview with the head writer of 30 Rock, Robert Carlock, and I remember it was a very quick interview. He asked me how fast I could type. I remember telling him, "I don't know, but do you need me to take a test or something?" I was so unprofessional. He told me they had someone in LA they were going to fly in for the job, but if I wanted to come in for a couple of weeks, it was fine. So I got hired for a two-week trial to be one of the writers' assistants. Maybe that was an easy way for them to fire me if it didn't work out.
The bulk of that job is to sit in the writers' room and take notes while the writers are pitching story ideas. You really have to be a great typist and also think like a writer and make sure you're recording the most useful kernels of ideas.
When I started, it was during the time when Tina Fey was filming Baby Mama. We were working in a trailer on her set so that, between takes, she could come in and work in the room for 20 minutes, and then go back to set. One time, we were all working in the trailer, and it started moving. I think the teamster didn't know we were in there and just started driving away.
The writers' room at 30 Rock is very intimidating. It's Tina Fey, who I love and looked up to, and the head writer, Robert Carlock, who, to this day, is the smartest writer I've ever met. I was still figuring out how a TV show worked. For the first couple of months, I didn't talk. I just sat there like a sponge. No one ever told me that I still had the job after two weeks. I think they just forgot about me and let me stay.
I had an interview to be a writers' assistant on Cashmere Mafia, so I asked Robert if I should go on it. He was like, "No, it's fine, you can stay." So I stayed for the next six years.
I had it in my mind that if I wanted them to know I could write and that I was funny, I was going to have to start pitching jokes. That was the scariest part of my career so far. Taking that leap to come up with something and have the confidence to say it — especially since that wasn't really my job. But I felt that every day was an opportunity I could show people that I was good. I would come up with a joke, talk myself out of it, then one of the writers would say something similar and I would second-guess myself. Then I would finally say it and one person would politely laugh.
I was an assistant for two years. Little by little, I gained more confidence pitching jokes that would get more laughs, and some of the jokes would get in. An early joke that made it to air was one where Kenneth, played by Jack McBrayer, while having an allergic reaction and thinking he's dying, admits, "My real name is Dick Whitman!" This was a reference to Don Draper's real identity on Mad Men. I guess the implication was that Kenneth was secretly really old and had stolen another man's identity during the Korean War? An early joke I remember making it to the script but then getting cut was one where Kenneth was at home wearing a shower cap and brushing a wig that looked just like his hair on a wig block. It was cut for being too crazy.
A couple things happened my second year. One friend gave me very good advice to pitch writers in November, when they get really swamped and can use the help. I wrote up a packet of jokes and ideas, and gave it to the head writer. I don't know if he ever read it, but making moves like that put in their mind that I was serious and willing to go the extra mile.
Later that year, they were looking for new staff writers. They asked me to submit a spec script, which is an original draft of a full TV episode. I had one I had started of The Office — there's a weird rule that shows don't read specs of their own shows — but it was hardly finished. So I lied and said I just needed a week to polish it up a bit. I went to my crummy, railroaded, fifth-floor walkup apartment that I shared with a roommate and locked myself in for the week to write the script. You get a couple of make-it-or-break-it moments in your career, and I knew this was going to be one of them.
The show was on hiatus between seasons three and four, so I was just hanging out, waiting to hear back. I finally got a call a few months later and was asked to join the team as a staff writer. When Robert called me, I was so excited. As things happen in your career that are crazy and exciting, nothing beats that first thing.
My job now was to sit at the table with the other writers and come up with stories together all week. Once we broke a story — deciding on the plot and outline — and selected someone to write the episode, the script would go up on a screen and we would go through line by line to pitch jokes. We would add new jokes to the existing script or suggest ways to make any detail funnier. We wrote together, aloud, as a group.
Everything they teach you in school about writing has no bearing on this style. It was so scary. I would keep track of how many of my ideas people would laugh at. It's a little bit more akin to improv. That skill is something I had to get practice at.
A bunch of the writers had improv backgrounds — Kay Cannon and Tina came from the Second City in Chicago. Donald Glover was at Upright Citizens Brigade. So I started taking classes at UCB in an attempt to get better at writing. But I also loved performing, which I would do with a UCB group on the weekends the whole time I was at 30 Rock.
It worked out that I would write about two episodes a year. I loved writing the episode where Liz Lemon gets married, and I cowrote the second half of the two-part series finale with Tina. I was so honored to be asked to do that with her. When we won an Emmy for that episode, it felt like a meaningful, symbolic end to my journey there. I started as someone who was very insecure and nervous. I'd ask myself, like a lot of girls do, Am I good enough to do this, or am I a fraud? Maybe I shouldn't be aiming so high? Then I gained confidence and came into my own on that show.
As 30 Rock was ending, Jack Burditt, who was an executive producer on 30 Rock, was going to go work on a new show called The Mindy Project in LA. He was kind of like, "I think you'd be good on this show. Do you want to come?" I never talked to Mindy Kaling. Jack talked to her for me, and I think they were just so desperate for people she said, "Fine, let her come."
We shot 30 Rock until Dec. 20. I was supposed to be in LA on Jan. 2 to start work on Mindy. I was on set and simultaneously on the phone trying to find an apartment, figuring out how to buy a car. I don't know why I did it. My family, my boyfriend, and my friends were all in New York. I was in a state of panic for not having a job, and I was really sad about 30 Rock ending.
Mindy sent me an email over Christmas that was just, "Hi, I heard you're coming, I'm so excited! Let me know if you need a hair salon!" I knew it would be fine. Jack Burditt and his family let me live in their guest room for two weeks while I looked for an apartment and got my act together.
My job title was producer, but titles don't mean much in terms of job responsibilities. I was still breaking stories and pitching jokes with all the other writers. The same is the case today as the co-executive producer of the show.
On my first day of work, I was so nervous, but it was a good day. As I was leaving, I went into the bathroom and Mindy was just sitting on the toilet. So, I saw her peeing at the end of my first day of work.
During the second season at Mindy, we had written a character named Lauren as a love interest for Peter. I read the part at the table read, and I guess it had gone well because Mindy asked me if I wanted to audition for it. She knew I did improv and that I had an interest in performing. She is so generous and open to giving me this opportunity because she got her start as a writer and an improv actor as well. She really pushed for me and made it happen.
It's such a blessing to be able to act on such a great show because I know it's so hard to do this as a living. I see my sister, Ashley, who is a fantastic actress, struggle with it all the time. As much as I love performing, I do not feel as confident in acting as I do with writing, but it's something I hope I can continue to do.
Like any creative job, writing takes a lot of focus and mental energy. And the hours can be long. If we have a deadline like a table read the next day, we can sometimes stay after midnight. I remember one February when I worked on 30 Rock, I realized that I had worked every single day that month. I was running out of toilet paper at my apartment and every night I would be like, Surely tonight, we will get out early enough that I can get to CVS before it closes to buy toilet paper. But it never happened. Eventually I just stole one of those industrial-size toilet paper rolls from the studio and used that.
My favorite part of my job is when someone pitches something that makes me laugh so hard that I cry and have to leave the room. This usually happens around 11 p.m. when everyone's a little punchy. It's the closest thing to being a kid that you can feel as an adult.
I think the dream is to one day create my own show. I'd love to star in it, but I also understand that it is incredibly difficult to get a show on the air. So if Lupita Nyong'o wants to play Tracey in The Tracey Project, I'm perfectly happy to be behind the scenes. Or to play Tracey's wacky neighbor, Gert.
Get That Life is a weekly series that reveals how successful, talented, creative women got to where they are now. Check back each Monday for the latest interview.
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