Maggie Carey

Carey was raised in Boise, Idaho.^[3] She attended Jackson Elementary and West Junior High and graduated from Borah High School in 1993.^[4][5][6]

Of her high school experience, Carey said, "I was in every AP class possible. I played a ton of sports. I was in student council. I was an all-American soccer player."^[4] Carey was also a lifeguard at the Borah pool, an experience that would influence her film The To-Do List.^[7]

Carey attended the University of Idaho for a year, before being recruited to the University of Montana to play Division I soccer in the team's inaugural season.^[8] She was co-captain of the team,^[3] making 26 appearances as a defender and scoring one goal.^[9] She graduated from Montana with a bachelor's degree in English literature. Carey went on to earn an MFA degree in film production from the University of Texas at Austin.^[3][4]

In 2007, Carey and Liz Cackowski created an online series called The Jeannie Tate Show.^[10]

Carey was a member of New York's Upright Citizens Brigade improvisation troupe.^[4][11] Carey performed with both the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York^[12] and Improv Olympics West in Los Angeles.^[2]

In 2011, Carey cowrote and directed sketches for four episodes of Funny or Die Presents called "Lady Refs" about female referees working youth soccer games.^[2] Carey wrote and directed the low budget sex comedy, The To Do List, which was released in 2013; the film is set in her home state of Idaho in 1993, featuring a lead character who is the same age as Carey was then.^[13][14]

Carey married actor Bill Hader in 2006.^[15][16] They had met in Los Angeles, California, through a friend of Carey's from college.^[4] They have three daughters together.^[17][18]

Hader and Carey separated in 2017.^[19] Hader filed for divorce in December of that year.^[20] They reached a divorce settlement in March 2018 and the divorce was finalized three months later.^[21][22]

• List of female film and television directors