Jillian Leigh Bell (born April 25, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She was a writer for the 35th season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live between 2009 and 2010.
Since her departure from SNL, she has had starring roles in the films Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019) and I'm Totally Fine (2022). Her other film credits include 22 Jump Street (2014), Fist Fight (2017), Godmothered (2020), and Candy Cane Lane (2023). Bell is engaged to illustrator and musician Luke McGarry.
She has also acted in television, starring as Jillian Belk on Workaholics, voicing Violet Hart on Bless the Harts, and in a recurring role as Dixie on the final season of Eastbound & Down.
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Early life
Bell was born and raised in Henderson, Nevada. She began
studying improv at age eight. She graduated from Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas in 2002, moved to Los Angeles, and became a member of the comedy group The Groundlings.
Career
Bell auditioned for Saturday Night Live, and although she did not join the cast, she became a writer for the show in 2009 for its 35th season. That year she also appeared in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm as an assistant wearing revealing clothing at work.
In 2011, Bell began playing Jillian Belk on the Comedy Central series Workaholics. Film director Paul Thomas Anderson saw her in it and gave her a small role in his 2012 film The Master, then another small role in his 2014 film Inherent Vice. She had a recurring role as Dixie in the fourth and final season of Eastbound & Down. In 2014, she appeared in 22 Jump Street with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. In 2015, she co-starred in Goosebumps and The Night Before.
In January 2016, Bell portrayed the constantly misbehaving adult daughter of wealthy parents in a Comedy Central series, Idiotsitter; it had originally launched as a web series in early 2014. She starred as the Fairy Godmother in Disney's Godmothered, a film released on Disney+ in 2020 and also starring Isla Fisher.
Filmography
Accolades
In 2010, Bell was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for her work in the writers' room on Saturday Night Live. In 2015, she was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards for her work on 22 Jump Street: Best Villain and, with co-star Jonah Hill, Best Fight.
In 2019, she received the Fairbanks Award at the San Diego International Film Festival and the Next Wave Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.