Chelsea Vanessa Peretti (born February 20, 1978) is an American comedian, actress, television writer, singer and songwriter. She is best known for portraying Gina Linetti in the Golden Globe award winning police comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and being a guest writer on the sitcom Parks And Recreation and Saturday Night Live.
Early life and education
Peretti was born on February 20, 1978, in Oakland, California, the daughter of a schoolteacher mother and a criminal defense lawyer and painter father. Her father is of Italian and English descent, and her mother is Jewish. She was raised in Oakland, California. She has two brothers and a sister; her older brother, internet entrepreneur Jonah Peretti, co-founded BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post. Peretti attended The College Preparatory School in Oakland. She moved to New York City in 1996 to attend Barnard College, during which time she took a study year abroad in her junior year to Royal Holloway, University of London, graduating in 2000. She attended elementary school with her Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star Andy Samberg and junior high school with comedian Moshe Kasher.
Career
Writing
Peretti has written for The Village Voice, Details, Playgirl, Jest, American Theatre Magazine, as well as online publications including The Huffington Post.
Television
After moving to Los Angeles, Peretti made appearances on programs such as Kroll Show, Louie, The Sarah Silverman Program, TruTV Presents: World’s Dumbest…, and Tosh.0. She appeared as a guest correspondent on one episode of Lopez Tonight interviewing local citizens about Prop 8.
Peretti is credited as a writer on six episodes of the television show Parks and Recreation from 2011 to 2012.
From 2013 until 2019, Peretti was a series regular on NBC’s detective/police comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, playing Gina Linetti until she announced her departure from the show in October 2018. Her departure episode was “Four Movements” but, after being gone for half of the season, she appeared again in “Return of the King”, premiered May 2, 2019.
In other media
While in New York, Peretti made short films with Variety SHAC, a comedy troupe she formed in 2004 with Andrea Rosen, Heather Lawless and Shonali Bhowmik.
She has made several guest appearances on podcasts including Doug Loves Movies, How Did This Get Made?, WTF with Marc Maron, You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes, The Todd Glass Show, The Lavender Hour, The Bone Zone with Brendon Walsh and Randy Liedtke, and Comedy Bang! Bang! In October 2012, Peretti launched her own call-in podcast, Call Chelsea Peretti.
In July 2010, Peretti made Variety magazine’s “Ten Comics to Watch in 2010” list. Paste ranked her Twitter account #75 on “The 75 Best Twitter Accounts of 2014”.
On April 21, 2020, Chelsea Peretti released an EP titled Foam and Flotsam, a musical comedy concept album about coffee. She created the music in collaboration with Kool Kojak, and the songs feature guests Reggie Watts, Terry Crews, and Juliette Lewis. Comprising five songs, they contain such evocative lyrics as “How you gonna show up late but have a coffee in your hand?” and “Yeah, I wanna drink coffee with you, but I’m gonna need a soundproof bathroom”. In tandem with the EP, Peretti also released two accompanying music videos: “Late”, and “Oatmilk”. Her music style is described as “whimsical yet depressive… you into a wall and then you up that wall and you into a new galaxy.” She was also featured on Season 4 Episode 11 of chopped junior, where she judged Eli Hoffenberg, Mischa Waydo, Marty Snyder, and Jayda Paynes.
Personal life
Peretti began dating comedian and filmmaker Jordan Peele in 2013. They got engaged in November 2015. On April 26, 2016, Peretti announced that she and Peele had eloped. They have a son, Beaumont Gino, who was born in 2017.
Filmography
Films
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Twisted Fortune | Rachel | |
| 2011 | Guy Talk | Girl | |
| 2014 | Women Aren’t Funny | Herself | |
| 2016 | Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping | Brunette CMZ Reporter | |
| 2018 | Game Night | Glenda | |
| 2019 | Spinster | Gaby | |
| 2020 | The Photograph | Sara Rodgers | |
| 2020 | Friendsgiving | Claire | |
| 2021 | Sing 2 | Filming |
Television
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Comedy Lab | Eugene’s Friend | Episode: “12:21” |
| 2006 | Cheap Seats | Shonda | Episode: “Evel Kneival” |
| 2008–2013 | The Smoking Gun Presents: World’s Dumbest | Herself | 88 episodes |
| 2009 | Bobby Bottleservice | Writer Episode: “T-Shirt Ideas for Jersey Shore” |
|
| 2010 | Louie | Date | Episode: “Pilot” |
| 2010 | The Sarah Silverman Program | Becky | Writer Episode: “Smellin’ of Troy” |
| 2010 | WTF with Marc Maron | Writer TV movie |
|
| 2011 | Comedy Central Presents | Herself | Writer Episode: “Chelsea Peretti” |
| 2011–2012 | Parks and Recreation | Zelda | Episode: “Live Ammo” Writer (2 episodes) Story editor (season 4) |
| 2011–2013 | China, IL | Crystal Peppers / Kim Buckett (voices) | 14 episodes |
| 2011–2013 | Funny as Hell | Writer 2 episodes |
|
| 2012 | The Couple | Gigi | 2 episodes |
| 2012 | Hell’s Kitchen | Herself | Season 10, Episode 14 |
| 2013 | The Greatest Event in Television History | Jackie Rush | Episode: “Too Close for Comfort” |
| 2013 | High School USA! | Superintendent Andrea Kunssler (voice) | Episode: “Janitor Day” |
| 2013 | Saturday Night Live | Writer 2 episodes |
|
| 2013–2015 | Comedy Bang! Bang! | Delivery Woman / Trey Booth | 2 episodes |
| 2013–2015 | Kroll Show | Herself / Various Characters | 9 episodes Writer (8 episodes) Producer (8 episodes) |
| 2013–2019 | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Gina Linetti | Main role (seasons 1-5), Recurring role (season 6); 107 episodes |
| 2014 | Key & Peele | Art Show Presenter | Episode: “Sex Addict Wendell” |
| 2015 | Gravity Falls | Darlene (voice) | Episode: “Roadside Attraction” |
| 2015 | Drunk History | Ann Druyan | Episode: “Space” |
| 2015–2016 | The Big Fat Quiz of Everything | Herself | 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Animals | Angela (voice) | Episode: “Dogs.” |
| 2016 | New Girl | Gina Linetti | Episode: “Homecoming” |
| 2016–2018 | Future-Worm! | Ennuisha / Mean Little Girl (voices) | 3 episodes |
| 2016 | RuPaul’s Drag Race | Herself | Episode: “Ruvenge of the Queens (All Stars 2)” |
| 2016 | HarmonQuest | Deepak Chopra | Episode: “The Stone Saw Mines” |
| 2017 | Adventure Time | Queen of Ooo (voice) | Episode: “Fionna and Cake and Fionna” |
| 2017 | Girls | Chelsea | Episode: “All I Ever Wanted” |
| 2017–2019 | Big Mouth | Monica Foreman-Greenwald / Cellsea (voices) | 11 episodes |
| 2018 | Alone Together | Tamra | Episode: “Pop-Up” |
| 2018 | Another Period | Italian neighbour | Episode: “Sex Nickelodeon” |
| 2018–2019 | American Dad | Dorothy, Angie (voices) | Episode: “Mean Francine”, “Jeff and The Dank Ass Weed Factory” |
| 2018 | Inside Jokes | Herself | 4 episodes |
| 2019–2020 | The Simpsons | Piper, Lauren (voices) | 2 episodes |
| 2019–2020 | Harvey Girls Forever | Maria (voice) | 5 episodes |
| 2019 | Crank Yankers | Herself (voice) | Episode: “David Alan Grier, Will Forte & Chelsea Peretti” |
| 2020 | Search Party | Patsy Monahan | Episode: “The Whistleblower” |
| 2021 | The Great North | Lara Silverblatt (voice) | Episode: “Avocado Barter Adventure” |
Web
| Year | Title | Credit | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Chelsea Peretti’s All My Exes | Creator | Herself | 6 episodes |
| 2014 | Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats | Writer, executive producer | Herself | Netflix special |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Grand Theft Auto IV | Lori Williams-Jones | Voice |
Discography
Studio albums
- TBA (Released: Fall 2020 )
Extended plays
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Foam and Flotsam |
|
| Phosphorescent Panic |
|