Early comedic career Kemper continued her interest in improvisational comedy at Princeton. She participated in Quipfire!, Princeton's oldest improv comedy group, and the
Princeton Triangle Club, a touring musical comedy theater troupe. It featured her camping with an onscreen husband, and a shot where a
tarantula crawled across her face. She regularly appeared in comedy sketches on ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the late 2000s, and made guest appearances on Important Things with Demetri Martin'', which has been described as her "breakout role". Though the series was reality TV, her role was scripted. She has appeared on
Fuse TV's
The P.A. In October 2008, she appeared on
The Colbert Report in a
PSA for Teen Voter Abstinence. She has written several
sketch comedy shows, many with her comedy partner Scott Eckert, and for ''
McSweeney's. She is also a contributor to HuffPost''. in 2008 Upon moving to New York City, Kemper participated in the
People's Improv Theater In August 2008, she auditioned for a spot on the NBC sketch comedy show
Saturday Night Live, but was not cast. In July 2009, Kemper was named one of
Variety magazine's "10 Comics To Watch". Kemper gained
Internet interest in August 2007 for her part in "Blowjob Girl," a humor video on the sketch comedy site
Derrick Comedy, in which she shows her enthusiasm for her hobby with rough hands and a lot of gnashing teeth. Kemper said of the video in an April 2010 interview with
The A.V. Club: "I really don't like that video, and I wish that I hadn't done it, even though I know that it's a joke. I hate that it got sort of big, because I don't think that it's that funny and I don't want that to be the epitome of my work. It's just one video in a sea of many, but it has made me conscious of not wanting to do a video like that again." Kemper has also contributed an article to
CollegeHumor entitled "Regarding Our Decision Never to See Me Again". She also had a minor role in the 2009 film
Mystery Team. Kemper starred in a fake
iPhone commercial on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien
in January 2007, six months before the first iPhone was released. Kemper appeared in the Sofia Coppola comedy-drama Somewhere in 2010. On April 3, 2013, it was announced that Kemper would be voicing a character in an episode of the animated sitcom American Dad!'' Kemper auditioned for a role in
Parks and Recreation, an
NBC comedy series started in 2009 by
Michael Schur and
Greg Daniels, creator of the series
The Office. She was not cast in the role, but received a call back to audition for a supporting role in
The Office as
Erin Hannon, a secretary filling in for the regular secretary
Pam Beesly when she briefly left the job at the end of the
fifth season. Kemper was cast in the role, and started appearing in the show in April 2009. The character was originally written to be more sarcastic and dry, but the writers changed her to be more perky and optimistic to more closely resemble Kemper herself. Kemper described the character as "an exaggerated version of myself".
Television work in January 2012 Kemper received positive reviews for her role in
The Office. Alan Sepinwall, television columnist with
The Star-Ledger, praised the "infectious joy and sweetness" she brought to the show. Andy Shaw of
TV Fodder said she "adds some freshness to the cast" and Josh McAuliffe of
The Times-Tribune in
Scranton, Pennsylvania, said he liked Erin's "cheerful, appealingly goofy personality". Many critics have singled her out as a highlight of the show's
eighth season following
Steve Carell's departure. In October 2009, Kemper appeared in
Subtle Sexuality, a set of three
The Office webisodes about efforts by Erin and
Kelly Kapoor (
Mindy Kaling) to start a
girl group. Her performance on the show has been widely acclaimed, and she received multiple nominations for the
Screen Actors Guild Award and
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. In summer 2015, Kemper served as a temporary co-host of
Today alongside
Al Roker,
Natalie Morales,
Tamron Hall, and
Willie Geist. In 2019, Kemper appeared as a guest judge on
season 14 of ''
America's Got Talent'' where she pushed the Golden Buzzer for light-up dance group Light Balance Kids.
Other work In 2018, Kemper recorded for the audiobook
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. She also recorded the audiobook for 2019's
The Legends of Greemulax, a novel attributed to her character Kimmy Schmidt. That same year she published her first book,
My Squirrel Days. In 2023, she joined the cast of the Broadway play
Peter Pan Goes Wrong making her Broadway debut as Francis for a limited engagement. In 2025, she featured in an ad campaign by the department store
Kohl's for its Kohl's Cash program. ==Personal life==