Comedy / Film & TV
Tim Meadows
born 1961 · comedian, actor
Ten-season Saturday Night Live veteran from Highland Park and Detroit's Conant Gardens, who learned improv at the Soup Kitchen Saloon and later moved back to the city.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Tim Meadows was born in Highland Park, the son of a janitor and a nurse's assistant, and grew up in Detroit's Conant Gardens neighborhood, where he went to Mason Elementary, Farwell Junior High and Pershing High School, graduating in 1979. As a teenager he worked at a party store at McNichols and Conant. He studied radio and television broadcasting at Wayne State University and began doing improvisational comedy with a troupe at the Soup Kitchen Saloon, the old Rivertown blues bar, in what he has called Detroit's first improv group. He moved to Chicago, joined The Second City, and was hired by Saturday Night Live, where he stayed for ten seasons (1991–2000). Wayne State gave him an honorary doctorate in 2022. He later bought a home in Detroit again, holds Tigers season tickets and has talked about teaching improv to Detroit students.
Highlights
- Saturday Night Live cast member for ten seasons (1991–2000)
- Principal Duvall in Mean Girls (2004) and the 2024 musical film
- Began in improv at Detroit's Soup Kitchen Saloon
- Honorary doctorate from Wayne State University (2022)
- Pershing High School class of 1979
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1975–1979
Pershing High School
Northeast Detroit public high school from which Meadows graduated in 1979.
Studied here · 1979–1980s, 2022
Wayne State University
Meadows studied radio and TV broadcasting here before leaving for comedy; the university made him an honorary doctor in 2022.
Performed here · 1980s
Soup Kitchen Saloon
Demolished · 1999
Rivertown blues bar and former speakeasy, once called Detroit's oldest bar, where Meadows began doing improv. It closed in 1999 and was demolished in 2006.