Who is Liz Lemon in 30 Rock?

Show

30 Rock

Played by

Tina Fey

First episode

“Pilot”Season 1, Episode 1, aired October 11, 2006

Role

Lead

Network

NBC

Occupation

Head writer, TGS with Tracy Jordan

Show run

2006 to 2013

Also known as

Elizabeth Lemon, Elizabeth Miervaldis Lemon, Liz, Lemon

Liz Lemon created The Girlie Show and runs it as head writer, trying to keep a live sketch comedy series on the air while her network boss, her stars, and her own neuroses fight her at every turn. Tina Fey, who also created 30 Rock, plays Liz and won an Emmy for the role.

On 30 Rock, Liz Lemon's story runs through Jack Donaghy (Boss and Mentor), Jenna Maroney (Best Friend), Tracy Jordan (Star), Kenneth Parcell (Page), and Frank Rossitano (Writer).

Who is Liz Lemon?

Liz is the head writer of a live sketch comedy show made at NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. She and her friend Jenna Maroney built The Girlie Show from their days at Chicago's Second City into a network series, and Liz is the one responsible for getting it written, rehearsed, and on the air every week. In the pilot, new executive Jack Donaghy makes her hire erratic movie star Tracy Jordan and renames the show TGS with Tracy Jordan.

She grew up in White Haven, Pennsylvania, went to the University of Maryland, and lives alone in Manhattan for most of the series. Work is her whole life, which is both the source of her success and, as Jack loves to point out, the reason the rest of her life is a mess.

Personality and comedy

Liz is a proud nerd: a Star Wars devotee, a stress eater with a weakness for junk food, and a self-described feminist whose ideals keep colliding with her own pettiness. Her social skills are famously shaky, and much of the show's comedy comes from watching a smart, capable woman sabotage herself in small and very specific ways.

She has her own vocabulary, too. Instead of swearing she says things like "blerg" and "what the what," and her "dealbreaker" rules for men became one of the show's running jokes. Tina Fey has described Liz and Jack as somewhere between Mary Tyler Moore and Lou Grant and Han Solo and Princess Leia, and their mix of mentorship, sparring, and real friendship is the spine of the series.

Key storylines

Liz's love life runs through a long line of near misses: Dennis Duffy, the self-proclaimed beeper king; Floyd, who moves home to Cleveland; a handsome doctor named Drew; airline pilot Carol; and a running gag of boyfriends who share names with celebrities. Her fame grows briefly when a "dealbreakers" sketch turns into a book and a short-lived talk show.

In the final seasons she finds steady happiness with Criss Chros (James Marsden), a laid-back hot dog vendor. Hoping it will help them adopt, they marry in "Mazel Tov, Dummies!" (Liz wears a Princess Leia costume to the ceremony), and the adoption finally comes through just as TGS is facing cancellation, bringing home two children, Terry and Janet.

The ending and legacy

When TGS ends, Liz tries being a stay-at-home mother, quickly realizes she is far better at working, and ends up producing Grizz's new sitcom, Grizz & Herz, with her kids in tow at the office. The finale flashes forward a century to Liz's great-granddaughter pitching a show based on Liz's life to an apparently ageless Kenneth, now running NBC.

Fey won a Primetime Emmy, two Golden Globes, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards for playing Liz, and 30 Rock won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series three years running, from 2007 to 2009. Fey has acknowledged that Liz shares a lot with her own years as head writer of Saturday Night Live.

Liz Lemon: frequently asked questions

All 30 Rock charactersEssential 30 Rock episodes30 Rock triviaMore 2000s sitcom characters

All sitcom characters A to Z