Liz Lemon - Personal History

Personal History

Liz Lemon was born on October 14, 1970. Raised in the town of White Haven, Pennsylvania, Liz is the daughter and second child to Dick Lemon and Margaret Lemon (née Freeman). Liz's parents are outwardly very optimistic and supportive of her, but privately they actually dislike many of their daughter's attributes and life decisions, as revealed during the climax of "Ludachristmas". On Saturday, December 7, 1985, she made her one appearance as a varsity football player, having forced her high school to lift gender segregation. Her parents displayed a supportive demeanor, they were too embarrassed to attend her game despite claiming to have been present. Liz's elder brother, Mitch, was the victim of a skiing accident the following day, when he was a high school senior. Afterwards, he experienced anterograde amnesia, remaining "stuck" in the day before the accident, thinking for the next 22 years that he was still 17 and that the year was still 1985. In the episode "The Moms," her mother is said to have worked as a secretary at Sterling Cooper and to have "repeatedly lost virginity" to Ed Aldrin while the town pervert watched from the bushes.

In the season 3 finale, "Kidney Now!", it is revealed that Liz attended elementary school with musician and actress Sheryl Crow, co-starring with her as one of a pair of kidneys in a 5th grade musical (although in reality, Crow grew up in Kennett, Missouri, and is eight years older than Liz/Tina). While Liz believes that the two were great friends, Crow only vaguely remembers her, and refers to Liz as a "loser".

She first saw Jack Donaghy and Tracy Jordan, and spoke with Jack telephonically, in 1986 while watching a live telethon alone in her parents' basement on prom night. Immediately after church choir member Tracy fell and realized his talent for getting laughs as a performer, Liz placed a prank call the pledge line which was answered by Jack, then a young executive from GE's poisons division. Liz claimed to have been a nurse in the war, who was impregnated by General Electric when he was Colonel Electric. Jack's loyalty to GE and his handsomeness impressed Don Geiss, who transferred Jack to the microwave ovens division.

Liz was inspired to become a writer by Rosemary Howard, the first female head writer of Laugh-In. She mentioned that she used to teach improv to senior citizens. In high school, Liz believed that she was an unpopular "nerd" that all of her classmates picked on, only to learn two decades later at her 20-year high school reunion that she was, in fact, the universally disliked class bully. She attended the University of Maryland on a partial competitive jazz dance scholarship, studying theater tech and for which she still has an outstanding student loan. She spent her junior year abroad in Frankfurt, Germany, and seems to speak fluent German as, in her opinion, it is "the most beautiful language in the world". However, it becomes apparent in "Episode 210", that she is not fluent, as she mixes up the verbs "to sell" and "to buy" (verkaufen and kaufen), and has difficulty understanding the German TV executives. In "Larry King", she sings "99 Luftballons".

In the episodes "Believe in the Stars" and "Cooter", Liz states that she did not lose her virginity until she was 25 (this would be in 1995 or 1996).

Liz met Jenna Maroney in 1993, when Jenna was studying voice at Northwestern University. By Liz's own words, Jenna was "slutting it up" to get car dealership owners to put her in their commercials. The two shared an apartment in a Chicago neighborhood called "Little Armenia", and together they dreamed of "making it big". While in Chicago, Liz reportedly tried to be an actress, but the only job she was able to book was a phone sex line commercial. Liz and Jenna began The Girlie Show at Second City. They worked for years to turn The Girlie Show into a television series, which NBC picked up (though only to quell the outrage of women's groups over the misogynistic show Bitch Hunter), resulting in the pair moving to New York City for it. Liz became the head writer for The Girlie Show, while Jenna became the show's main star.

In the pilot, it is announced that Liz's former boss Gary has died and Jack Donaghy takes his place. Neither Jack nor Liz recognizes the other from their brief conversation twenty years earlier. Jack immediately decides to retool the show to make it appeal to a larger demographic, starting by firing Liz's trusted producer Pete Hornberger in order to make room in the budget to hire unpredictable actor Tracy Jordan as the show's new star. Liz manages to convince Jack to re-hire Pete, but Jack is insistent on making the show center around Tracy and, much to her chagrin, he renames the show TGS with Tracy Jordan.

Since 2005, Liz has lived in an apartment at 160 Riverside Drive (which is a real apartment complex in New York City); her apartment number is 3B.

Liz has also evidently won at least one Emmy Award. In addition to her responsibilities behind the camera, Liz occasionally acts in TGS sketches.

Throughout the seasons, several people have questioned Liz's gender. She always replies that she is really a girl and she "doesn't know what the heck that doctor was thinking". She serves as best man at the weddings of both her former sex partner Grizz and her mentor Jack (accidentally marrying him in the process). When Gretchen Thomas tells Jack she thinks Liz looks like Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack initially assumes she means Jason Lee. She also once demonstrates that she is easily able to grow a moustache (which she calls "Tom") in less than 48 hours.