Ellie Kemper makes exaggerated cheerfulness feel unforced, a useful and deceptively difficult comic skill. We like her best when the writing lets that enthusiasm belong to an adult, rather than asking us to applaud someone for being adorable.
Fi1m perspective
Ellie Kemper's wide-eyed enthusiasm rarely looks like an effort to sell a joke. Her characters may be exaggerated, but she gives them a naturalistic delivery that makes their cheerfulness easy to accept. As Erin Hannon in The Office (2005), which she joined in 2009, she puts that quality to work alongside Steve Carell's painfully needy boss. We warmed to Erin because Kemper makes her eagerness feel sincere. The performance fits a workplace comedy we like for its cast, despite the borrowed beginnings and occasional overplaying.
Playing Becca in Bridesmaids (2011) puts her among another ensemble, under Paul Feig's direction. Feig gives the cast room to misbehave, and Kemper's sweetness sits comfortably within a comedy that can be warm and rude at once. It suits an actor whose comic appeal depends on seeming pleased to be there, even when the behaviour around her is less agreeable. The film is an easy recommendation, with Kristen Wiig supplying the painfully funny business of competitive friendship. Some scenes still run too long, and the romance slows things down; an agreeable cast cannot fix the pacing by itself.
She moves from supporting player to lead in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2019), created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Kemper's ability to make an upbeat survivor likeable becomes central to a series. The bright clothes and wide-eyed enthusiasm make the character easy to recognise. They also sharpen a recurring reservation about her roles: adult women can become childlike figures whose sweetness matters more than their ability to decide anything.
A useful next step would be a role that lets her remain cheerful while making difficult choices. There is no need to ask her to become dour to prove a point. We would like to see that eager delivery applied to someone who knows more than the people around her, with the joke coming from her patience rather than her failure to understand. Her timing already does plenty of work; the scripts could trust it without leaning so often on childlike innocence. Start with Bridesmaids for the ensemble, then The Office for a longer acquaintance, allowing for its unevenness.
Biography
Ellie Kemper is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for playing Erin Hannon in the NBC series The Office (2009–2013).
Kemper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from Princeton University in 2002 with a degree in English. She performed improv comedy in New York with the Upright Citizens Brigade and contributed writing to The Onion and McSweeney's before entering television.
She joined The Office in its fifth season and became a series regular. Kemper later starred as the title character in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2019) and appeared in films including Bridesmaids (2011) and 21 Jump Street (2012).
