Born and raised in Cohasset, Massachusetts, Nancy (Walls) Carell got her start in comedy while attending Boston College, where she performed with the improv group “My Mother’s Fleabag.” After moving to to further pursue her career in comedy, she began taking classes at the Second City, where she met Steve Carell, whom she married in 1995.

After joining The Second City Touring Company and touring with castmates Adam McKay, Miriam Tolan, Brian Stack, Theresa Mulligan, and Todd Stashwick, Carell was hired by Second City Northwest in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, where she appeared in their 15th revue, The Madness of Curious George.

Saturday Night Live cast Carell in 1995 along with fellow Second City alum David Koechner. Carell spent one season at SNL, where she was best known for her impersonation of CNN anchor Bobbie Battista.

In 1996, The Second City took its critically acclaimed (and format-smashing) revue, Pinata Full of Bees, to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. for an East Coast run. Although the show’s D.C. reviews suggested that Second City was clearly no longer the place to find the next generation of great comic talent, the future told otherwise. The cast was comprised of Nancy Walls, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Tim Meadows, Adam McKay, Jon Glaser, and Theresa Mulligan.

Carell went on to be correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for three years, covering the 2000 presidential election in the show’s “Indecision 2000” segments. From there, she went on to voice the character of “Helen Goode” in the Mike Judge animated series, The Goode Family. Carell also had a recurring role opposite her husband Steve Carell on The Office and appeared in the films Anger Management, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Bridesmaids.

TBS’s Angie Tribeca, starring Rashida Jones in the title role, is a joint venture between the two Carell co-creators, and it’s 25-hour marathon was a television first. The show’s fourth season premieres in 2018.