The cast of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” hanging out on the stoop in East Dogmouth — er, in Greenpoint. (Universal Television/Getty Images)
Update, May 12, 2020: Attention Fey Fanatics! You might have caught the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” creator’s hilarious guest appearance on the “Saturday Night Live” season finale this past weekend. But did you catch her last night, May 11, as she hosted the Rise Up New York! telethon? The event raised more than $100 million funds for COVID-19 relief! A huge array of NYC-centric big-name guests made appearances, including Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Lopez, Robert De Niro, Bette Midler, Spike Lee, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah, Billy Joel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and many more. Way to go, Tina!
New York City’s most optimistic mole woman is about to return to television! I’m talking about the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” of course — the title character, played by Ellie Kemper, might be the most dedicated New Yorker on TV. She started a new life here, like so many of us do, and she loves it. (It’s so much better than her old life back in the bunker.)
The show ended its original Netflix run back in 2019, after 18 Emmy nominations. But “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is coming back on May 12 for one more Netflix adventure in its beloved NYC setting. (It’s a choose-your-own-adventure, in fact — the show’s plot is interactive!) Kemper and the show’s creator, Tina Fey, are both New Yorkers in real life, too, as are many other cast members. Let’s take a look:
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s NYC
On the show, Kimmy lives in the fictional neighborhood of East Dogmouth. This ‘hood is a bit on the sketchy side, to say the least. The show filmed in locations all over NYC, but the building used as Kimmy’s home is in a much less scary neighborhood in real life: Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
It’s at 74 Freeman Street, to be exact, a real walkup apartment building right near the waterfront. There are no listings available in the building currently. But based on past rent amounts, which have ranged from $2,699 to $3,200, we assume the homes inside are much nicer than the hovel that Kimmy shares with her roommate, Titus Andromedon!
Greenpoint Rentals Under $4,000 on StreetEasy Article continues below
Ellie Kemper and Tina Fey’s NYC
The show’s star and its co-creator/executive producer are both actual New Yorkers. (Stars — they’re just like us!) Both Ellie Kemper and Tina Fey call the Upper West Side home, in fact, and that’s not all: They’re neighbors.
(Fey: Walter McBride/Getty Images)
In real life, both women are residents of beautiful West End Avenue. Fey and family live in a fabulous duplex at 300 West End Ave., while Kemper and crew are less than a block away at 325 West End Ave. Think they hang out together in nearby Riverside Park? We like to think that they do.
Kemper and Fey are not the only Unbreakables who live in the neighborhood, as it turns out. Kimmy’s eccentric landlady on the show is played by the legendary Carol Kane, a longtime UWS resident herself. In fact, she revealed to the New York Post in an interview that she actually grew up in the Dorchester Towers complex on West 68th Street.
(Hamm: Getty Images)
And Jon Hamm — who plays the comically evil kidnapper who captured Kimmy back in Indiana — has more of a connection to NYC than just his time on “Mad Men.” He has also spent time as an Upper West Sider! He and his ex, Jennifer Westfeldt, owned a penthouse on West 67th Street, in one of the neighborhood’s glorious Rosario Candela buildings.
More Unbreakable NYC Connections
The Kimmy Crew: Jane Krakowski, Ellie Kemper, Tina Fey, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane, and co-creator Robert Carlock at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. (Mike Pont/Getty Images)
Other “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” cast members may not live on the Upper West Side, but they’re not far. Tituss Burgess, who plays Kimmy’s very fabulous roommate, is a longtime Broadway star who has appeared in “Jersey Boys,” “The Little Mermaid,” and more. Burgess lives in Harlem and sang the praises of his neighborhood to the New York Times in 2016.
Amy Sedaris, who had a seriously wacky recurring role in the series’s original run, lives in The Hampshire on West 9th Street in Greenwich Village. She’s not shy about showing off her quirky home there, which has been well documented by Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, and more.
And the show’s new episode features a very special guest star with New York ties: none other than Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. Radcliffe has appeared in numerous Broadway productions post-Potter, and he joins many other young stars who own impressive NYC real estate, in both SoHo and the West Village.
Manhattan Rentals Under $4,000 on StreetEasy Article continues below
Finally, here’s a mind-bender for you. Kimmy’s mother was played by someone who is not an actual New Yorker, but nonetheless has a very real, indelible connection to the city: Lisa Kudrow, of “Friends” fame. Could there BE a more NYC-centric show?
[This post has been updated and republished.]
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