Kemper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the second of four children of Dorothy "Dotty" Ann Jannarone and David Woods Kemper, a son of one of the wealthiest families in Missouri. Her father was the chairman and chief executive officer of what is today Commerce Bancshares, a bank holding company founded by the Kemper family. She is the granddaughter of Mildred Lane Kemper, namesake of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis, and great-great-granddaughter of banker, insurance man, and railroad magnate William Thornton Kemper, Sr.\n', '

She is the older sister of television writer Carrie Kemper. Kemper has Italian (from her maternal grandfather), English, French (Kemper is the Breton name of the city Quimper) and German ancestry. Kemper was raised and remains a practicing Roman Catholic.\n', '

Her family moved to St. Louis when Kemper was five years old. She attended Conway Elementary School in the affluent suburb of Ladue and high school at John Burroughs School, where she developed an interest in theater and improvisational comedy. One of her teachers was actor Jon Hamm, with whom she appeared in a school play. \n', '

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