Ellie Kemper's more than a funny face

WHATEVER rivalry exists between Penn and Princeton, it doesn't seem to apply to Ellie Kemper.

The star of Tina Fey's Netflix sitcom, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," who got her degree from that other local-ish Ivy, is speaking at Penn's Harrison Auditorium tomorrow to a sold-out crowd.

Which just shows how far an English degree - and a year at Oxford - can take someone.

In Kemper's case, it's taken her from doing improv and writing satire for the Onion to roles in "Bridesmaids" and "The Office," and now to "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," in which she stars as a woman starting over in New York City after essentially having been imprisoned underground since middle school.

"I thought they were joking," Kemper said, laughing, of her first reaction to the show's premise. " 'How is that going to be funny?' But then they weren't joking, and the show is very funny, and it does not make light of the horrible situation that has brought us here. I think instead it chooses to focus on what happens after that."

Like Kimmy, Kemper "has this kind of inherent sunniness and optimism," said Upper Darby's Fey, who, along with producing partner Robert Carlock, developed the show with the actress in mind.

Kemper, who until now was probably best known for playing another sunny, optimistic character - "Office" receptionist Erin Hannon - thinks it may partly be her face.

"I do think purely from a visual standpoint, I have a large face," she said in an interview in January.

"I have a large face that sort of has a big smile, so people think, 'Oh, she must be happy,' " she said, giggling.

"But I am, luckily, naturally an upbeat person."

Maybe I've just interviewed a few too many sad clowns, because I suggested to Kemper - who really, really didn't seem sad - that a background in improv usually reads more edgy than wholesome.

"I see what you're saying," she said. " 'What are you feeding in there?' But I do think there's a lot of me in Kimmy.

"It's not like she's always in a good mood. If some injustice has been dealt her way or if she, you know, feels if she has been wronged, I think that we see that anger or sort of defensiveness or just outrage bubble up.

"That is not how things should work, that's wrong and things need to be done in the right way," Kemper said, and caring about fairness "doesn't always result in her being relentlessly happy."

Kemper, too, cares about fairness, and, like Kimmy, in a funny way.

In announcing her appearance, the Daily Pennsylvanian called her "a strong voice for gender dynamics in the entertainment industry," alluding to a TED talk she gave in her native St. Louis titled "Women Are Funny."

Exhibit A: Kemper's 2013 satirical piece for GQ, which asked, "Can Men Be Funny?" in apparent response to the late writer Christopher Hitchens' insistence that women aren't as funny as men.

"Please don't think that I am arguing that all men are humorless," she wrote. "There are some extremely acceptable male comedians out there: Joel Osteen, Abraham Lincoln, the man who played Phil Spector in HBO's 'Phil Spector.' But even those guys, while insightful and amusing, aren't exactly funny. Hell, half of Lincoln's comedy comes from being so tall!"

Among the women who genuinely make Kemper laugh are her "Kimmy Schmidt" co-stars Jane Krakowski ("30 Rock") and Carol Kane.

"Her presence is so warm," she said of Krakowski, who plays her boss. "I always feel like such a lady when I'm around her. And she is so funny."

And Kane, who plays Kimmy's landlady, "kills me."

Both Tituss Burgess, who plays her roommate, and Krakowski "have Broadway backgrounds. And for me, it's just fun to be in scenes with them, these theater actors. I don't know, the physicality of it - it's a lot of fun to watch them work."

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