As the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards draw near, we look back at the careers of the lead acting nominees.

A Second City alum, Fey joined SNL as a writer in 1997 and two years later became the show's first-ever female head writer. In 2000, she started co-anchoring Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon before Amy Poehler joined her in 2004 to form the first all-female WU anchor team. Fey, who nabbed an Emmy for writing SNL, left in 2006 to launch 30 Rock. She returned in 2008 to parody Sarah Palin, for which she won a guest-actress Emmy.

Fey received a WGA nomination for her film debut as writer of this 2004 teen comedy. She also co-starred as calculus teacher and self-described "pusher" — but not of drugs — Ms. Norbury.

Fey has won five Emmys for writing, producing and acting on 30 Rock. In 2008, she swept the acting awards at the Golden Globes, the SAGs and the Emmys, becoming one of four actresses — the others being Gillian Anderson, America Ferrera and Edie Falco — to win the three awards in the same calendar year.

Fey reunited with Poehler for this 2008 comedy, playing Kate Holbrook, a thirtysomething businesswoman who hires Poehler's immature Angie as a surrogate.

Fey co-starred in this 2009 comedy, co-written and co-directed by Ricky Gervais, set in an alternate reality where nobody can lie.

Fey paired up with Steve Carell for this comedy about a bored married couple whose night out to reignite their romance is anything but routine.