Casey Wilson is an American actress, comedian, director, screenwriter, and podcaster. She portrayed Penny Hartz in the first, second and third seasons of the ABC comedy series Happy Endings.
Originally known for her performances with the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe in New York, Wilson's first major television appearances came during her two-season stint as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2009. Following SNL, she starred as Penny Hartz in the ABC comedy series Happy Endings for which she was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and has since starred in comedies such as Showtime's Black Monday, Apple TV's The Shrink Next Door, Hulu's The Hotwives and Marry Me on NBC.
Early Life[]
Casey Wilson was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. She graduated from T. C. Williams High School in 1998 and studied theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, where she was a recipient of NYU's "Excellence in Acting" award when graduating in 2002.
She is of Irish and Italian heritage, and was raised Baptist. Her parents worked in politics, and she credits her politically opposed parents (her mother was a Democrat, her father a Republican) in shaping her sense of humor, having grown up in a "blue-state/red-state, forever-clashing political household", as she called it in an interview with Washington Flyer. She also has a younger brother, Fletcher.
Career[]
Wilson started her comedy career writing and performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in New York and later in Los Angeles. At UCB, she was a member of the Harold improv teams "Mr. and Mrs. All-Star", "Sentimental Lady", and "Hey, Uncle Gary!".
Among her best-known work at UCB was the long-running two-woman sketch show Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, written and performed alongside her comedy partner and best friend June Diane Raphael; the show ran from 2003 to 2006 in New York and Los Angeles and was an official selection at 2005's US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The two women, who first met in a clowning class during their freshman year at NYU, went on to win the ECNY Award for "Best Comedy Duo" in 2005.
Wilson and Raphael's comedic partnership has since branched out into an active writing career in film and television. They co-wrote their first screenplay for the comedy Bride Wars, in which they also played supporting roles. They landed a development deal with UPN in 2005 to create a half-hour comedy pilot. In 2007 they worked as writers and story editors on the Americanized version of Creature Comforts on CBS.
Personal Life[]
Wilson lives in Los Angeles and is married to comedy writer David Caspe. They originally met in early 2010 when she auditioned for his ABC series Happy Endings. After working together on the show for over a year, they started dating in July 2011. They got engaged over Labor Day weekend in September 2013 and were married on May 25, 2014 in Ojai, California. They have two sons, Max Red Caspe (born May 2015) and Henry Bear Caspe (born August 24, 2017). When her son Max was four years old, he was diagnosed with celiac disease, an immune disorder affecting the small intestine. Casey welcomed daughter Frances 'Frankie' Rose Caspe via surrogate in January 2023.
Wilson shares her family's interest in politics. She was a supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential election and volunteered on her campaign. She went on the road with the Clintons in the Midwest, speaking at and introducing Hillary and Bill Clinton at campaign rallies in Iowa and Indiana.
Wilson and her family maintain the charitable Kathy Wilson Foundation, established in 2005, which focuses on children with disabilities. The foundation screens three- and four-year-olds in the Alexandria community for disabilities. Her father Paul Wilson serves as president, with Wilson and her brother Fletcher serving as vice presidents. The foundation distributes donations and grants to local area preschools and childcare centers in Virginia every year.
Promotions[]
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