Savage was born in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Sharon Lee (née Chrystie) and Richard Savage. She is three quarters Ashkenazi Jewish and one quarter Greek descent (her maternal grandfather was of Greek origin).[citation needed] In her senior year of high school, she played Mame in Mame. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in government and a minor in law studies. She has performed stand-up comedy at The Improv, The Comedy Store, The Ice House and other venues around Los Angeles.
Savage began her acting career playing Renata Vargas, a Brazilian exchange student on Sweet Valley High. Soon after, she joined The Groundlings theater, performing weekly in their company. Savage received starring roles in Significant Others as Chelsea and in Dog Bites Man as Tillie Sullivan. Then, she had a small role in Step Brothers opposite Will Ferrell, following that with a comedy tour with Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Demetri Martin, and Nick Swardson. She also appeared with Woody Harrelson in The Grand (2008).
After taking time off to have her child, in 2010, Savage had a small role in the film Dinner For Schmucks. She also filmed two television pilots: The Strip created by Tom Lennon and Ben Garant for NBC, and Wilfred, a dark Australian comedy being redone for FX. In addition, Savage created and starred in a series of shorts for the HBO show Funny or Die Presents about a very pregnant woman trying to engage in some casual sex, as well as a series entitled "Reenactments of Actual Conversations from the Ladies Rooms of Hollywood". She was also seen in the cult hit Party Down for Starz (Savage was originally cast as Casey Klein in the unaired pilot but because she was pregnant, Lizzy Caplan took the role when the show went into production). Soon after, she wrote television pilots for Comedy Central, Fox Studios, and NBC (produced by Jay Roach); as well as the screenplay Girls Weekend for Castle Rock Films. She also filmed opposite Hilary Swank in the film You're Not You. Her directorial debut was in 2012 when she shot her satirical PSA Republicans, Get in My Vagina, which she wrote and also starred in, alongside Kate Beckinsale and Judy Greer. This premiered on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO and is one of Funny Or Die's most successful video shorts of all time.[citation needed]

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