Allison Williams

Allison Williams is best known as Marnie on HBO's Primetime Emmy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning television series Girls. The Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow comedy is about four friends facing the ups and downs of life as 20 somethings in New York City. Williams won over critics from The New York Times to The Hollywood Reporter when she starred as Peter Pan in NBC's live-action musical event Peter Pan Live!.

In January 2013, Williams guest-starred on the television series The Mindy Project. In 2011, she starred as Kate Middleton in a four-part, self-written original miniseries for Funnyordie.com called Will & Kate: Before Happily Ever After.

In spring 2010, Williams graduated from Yale University. Afterwards, she began working on a video that was released on YouTube in October 2010 entitled "Mad Men Theme Song...With a Twist." She moved to Los Angeles just before releasing the video, which quickly became a viral sensation and garnered much attention in the blog and entertainment world. Among the video's fans were Judd Apatow and the executives at HBO, who, upon seeing the video, reached out to Williams for an audition for Girls. Ironically, within a month of moving to Los Angeles, Williams was back in New York, filming the pilot episode.

While she may have found success quickly, Williams has been honing her craft for years. She has been involved in theater since an early age and, while at Yale, she refined her improv skills as a member of the improvisational comedy group Just Add Water. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in English and is trained in acting and singing as well.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Williams declared to her parents at the age of four that she wanted to be an actress. Brian and Jane Stoddard Williams—who required their daughter graduate from college before pursuing an acting career— are both involved in the media. Jane has a weekly radio show on Bloomberg Radio called Bloomberg EDU which discusses the education issues in the U.S. Brian is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News.

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