As it turns out, as a kid, Evangelina Costello just wasn't very funny. If you had told her schoolteachers or her parents that she was destined to be a very funny comedian, well, they would tell you to stop joking about her like that. Evangelina just wasn't a funny kid. Sure, she was bright; she was good at her schoolwork, she barely ever put a toe out of line, she was a four year old cheerleader when cheerleading consisted of no skills outside of chanting "get the ball!" at the opportune moments. But Evangelina, otherwise, was cripplingly shy. Only when she was in a crowd of other screaming voices did she feel like she could call out. If she had any jokes in her head, she kept them to herself. And besides, everyone in Knoxville, Tennessee seemed to know her as the girl that peed her pants on the first day of kindergarten, because seriously, people never seemed to forget that kind of thing.

Luckily for herself and her reputation, Evangelina wasn't long for Knoxville, and around the age of eleven she and her parents moved to Boston with her father's need to follow the money. Evangelina, who around this age was slowly morphing into Evvy, had a rough time of Boston at first. Knoxville had been a big enough city, but Boston was an entire planet's worth of difference. She found herself getting lost in great big hallways at the middle school, deciding she would surely die one thousand deaths before she asked anyone for their help. She had giant braces on her teeth that made her extremely unattractive to any boy of the opposite gender, no matter how many times she scribbled their names in her notebooks. Evvy Costello was not the kind of girl that other girls wanted to be friends with, and with her southern twang and meek nature, she was not made for Boston.

But a time came when she made Boston her own. She still cried big fat tears every single time she had to take the T, but she landed a very cushy babysitting job and started making friends in high school. Because she desperately needed an elective she started taking speech and drama, and little Evangelina finally started to make the big transformation of her life-- from tiny baby with huge braces to fierce businesslady with a fantastic sense of humor. It didn't come immediately, though. Speech and drama was a slow process for her. She often tried her best to play the tiniest parts possible, like a tree in the background or someone's pet dog, and it wasn't until the group put together a comedic play that Evvy really came into herself. Hearing other people laugh, not at her but with her, was like music to her ears. For the first time in her entire life, she knew what she wanted to do.

When Evvy went to Boston college, she immediately acquainted herself with My Mother's Fleagbag, the oldest comedy troupe in America. When, four years later, she had graduated with her BA in Biology and above-passable grades, she had her eyes set on the gold. Despite having never set foot in Illinois, Evvy packed her bags and moved to Chicago, her pockets full of scholarship money that was quickly blown away on exorbitant rent costs and shots to celebrate all by herself. Second City improv proved to be more fruitful than Evvy could've ever hoped, when she joined the Upright Citizen's Brigade and started to make the connections that would inevitably lead to her career being blown wide open. At that point in her life, Evvy had no great aspirations of being a famous comedian. If she could make people laugh on a small scale, she'd be more than happy to do so. Still, the opportunities to grow kept presenting themselves, and she wasn't about to say no. In 1998, the crew began a sketch comedy show on Comedy Central based on their live shows. With the help of their new sitcom-- which sadly only made it two seasons-- Evvy set her eye on the next big prize: Saturday Night Live.

It was 2001, and other than her sketch show and a short bit on Sex and the City, Evvy wasn't getting work. To get her SNL spot, she was definitely going to have to knock it out of the park. Standing in front of the entire crew, knowing they refused to laugh at a single joke she told, was one of the most daunting things she had ever done. "Fuck it," she thought decisively that fateful day. "If I never make it, I tried out, and that's better than most people can say." She knocked the audition out of the park and was immediately given a spot as a guest star. Within the same season she was added on to main cast, a feat that rarely happened for SNL comedians. Despite this, few people seemed to take Evvy seriously. She was tiny, blonde, tan and southern. She smiled at strangers and was horrified of the hustle and bustle of New York. Most people who came upon her just didn't think of her as a legitimate comedian. This inevitably fueled Evvy's fire, and later shaped a persona that followed her for the rest of her life. She learned she didn't really care what anyone else thought of her, and she wanted to empower other young ladies to do the same.

As her time at SNL surged forward, her career grew right at her fingertips. Evvy suddenly had a handle on herself like she had never had before. The ability to be taken seriously as a female comedian, despite her appearance and personality, was enough to keep her going. When offers for comedies like Mean Girls and Anchorman came rolling in, she jumped at the chance. Filming a movie while still working on SNL was sometimes grueling, but Evvy had quickly turned into the kind of woman that was addicted to her work. When she was home, she wanted nothing more than to sleep all day, but when she was out, she wanted to be in front of a camera, making people laugh. Over the years, as her name-- and her brand-- grew, she worked with colleagues who had great ideas for films, threw herself into auditions with directors she had been dying to work with for years, and never once slacked on her work with SNL. Still, she was just as joyous and charming as she had always been-- and she still cried over the subway.

Around 2008, things started to take another turn. Evvy loved SNL, but she had a great interest in improving the lives of little girls everywhere. She never wanted for another little girl to feel like their braces were too big and that they were too shy to talk unless they were yelling with the crowd. She worked with Nickelodeon to create The Mighty B!, a cartoon about a very ambitious girlscout who dreams of becoming a superhero. Evvy used this platform to remind little girls everywhere that they shouldn't be ashamed of who they are, no matter how nerdy or brace-faced they might be. Around this time she also began Smart Girls at the Party, a web series where she and some of her friends interviewed young girls who were "changing the world by being themselves." Though she hated the thought of leaving Saturday Night Live, she was becoming more and more independent, and knew she needed the time to raise her voice in other ways. In 2010 she officially left SNL, with something bright and shining on the horizon.

In 2010, Evvy was offered the lead in a spin-off of The Office. While the creators had found themselves in a mess trying to find exactly what the show would be about, Evvy's agreement to play the lead role helped them shape the character of Leslie Knope, and Parks and Recreation was born. While it took a minute to get off the ground, the project was perfect for Evvy's need to portray a strong female that young girls would be able to look up to. Over the years Leslie took on more of Evvy's personality, a sort of fierceness that could only be rivaled by the softness that came along with it. Evvy was in the perfect position to make people laugh while making the kind of statements she had always dreamed of making.

By 2013, Evvy was something of a powerhouse. Along with her best friend, she was hosting the Golden Globes-- and getting rave reviews. Her sitcom was doing well, she was being sent script after script for so many films she often had to turn them down unless she was acutely interested. Her personal life always seemed to be a bit on the rocks, but Evvy never spent enough time thinking about it to care. She always had her eye set on her career, and because of that, she flourished. She had come a long way from the tiny girl who was too afraid to ask where her Spanish class was in middie school- these days, she was willing to voice any opinion she had, provided she was on the right platform.