Kristen Schaal

Kristen Schaal (born January 24, 1978) is an American actress, model, writer, and comedian, best known for her role as Mel in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, as Louise in Bob's Burgers and as a contributor on The Daily Show. She stars as the lead female character Mabel Pines in Gravity Falls.

Early life
Schaal was born in Longmont, Colorado, to a Lutheran family of Dutch descent. She was raised on her family's cattle farm, in a rural area near Boulder. Her father is a construction worker and her mother is a secretary. Schaal also has a brother who is three years older. She graduated from Northwestern University, then moved to New York to pursue a comedy career. Five years later in 2005, she had her first break when she was included in New York Magazine's The Ten Funniest New Yorkers You've Never Heard

Live comedy
In 2006, Schaal was invited to perform at the 2006 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, which is where she won the award for "Best Alternative Comedian." She was also the winner of the second annual Andy Kaufman Award (hosted by the New York Comedy Festival), Best Female Stand-up at the 2006 Nightlife Awards in New York, and "Best Female Stand Up Comedian" at the 2007 ECNY Awards. At the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, she won the Barry Award for her show Kristen Schaal As You Have Probably Never Seen Her Before, tying with Nina Conti. Also in 2006, Schaal appeared on the first season of the Comedy Central show, Live at Gotham.

Film, TV and radio
Schaal is best known for her role on HBO's Flight of the Conchords as the stalker-fan Mel, a role which earned her an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2009. She was also a credited consultant and writer for Season 11 of South Park, appeared on the BBC's Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a contestant on Noel Fielding's Team, and played the boss in Fuse's mockumentary The Intern. She made her first appearance as a "special commentator" on Comedy Central's The Daily Show on March 13, 2008. She is often presented as the Daily Show's "Senior Women's Issues Correspondent". On April 13, 2008, she made an appearance on Good News Week during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and in October 2008 she appeared in Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008.

Books
Schaal wrote a book, titled Sexy Book of Sexy Sex, with her boyfriend, Daily Show writer Rich Blomquist. It was published in July 2010 by Chronicle Books. They originally intended to write the book under pseudonyms, "because I don't want anyone to imagine me doing those things," but soon realized that it would be harder to sell the book without using their own names.

Trivia

 * Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch has commented that Kristen was his first choice for Mabel from the very beginning, and that if they couldn't get her in the role he may have stopped production of the show.